 |
|
|---|---|
| Title | The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy |
| Developer | Too Kyo Games, Media.Vision Inc. |
| Publisher | Aniplex Inc. |
| Release Date | April 24th, 2025 |
| Genre | Strategy, Visual Novel |
| Platform | Switch, PC Via Steam |
| Age Rating | Mature |
| Official Website | |
I’ve had a chance to spend about 50 or so hours with The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, and it’s time to share my thoughts. This one comes to us from Kazutaka Kodaka, who you might know from the Danganronpa series, and Kotaro Uchikoshi, who worked on the Zero Escape Series. This one turned out to be way more than I expected, so let’s dig in and see if I had a great time or if I should’ve just let the Academy fall!
The story here follows Takumi Sumino, who was living an ordinary life in Tokyo Residential Complex; however, his daily life is shattered when strange creatures attack the city. His own life and the life of his childhood friend, Karua Kashimiya, are very much in danger when a strange creature named Sirei appears. He gives Takumi a great power called Hemoanima so he is able to defeat these creatures with ease, but is soon teleported to another world. He finds himself in a school with nine other people where Sirei explains this is the Last Defense Academy, and if they ever want to see their loved ones again they will fend off these horrible invaders for the next 100 days, otherwise they will be wiped out with the rest of humanity! Takumi doesn’t know if Sirei is lying or what is really going on, but until then he is going to fight and try to uncover the truth of all this.
There were some wild twists and turns here, but I enjoyed each one of them. The characters are a pure joy and as you explore different ways the story can go, you will learn a lot about each one of them. There are 100 different endings for players to discover through various means and all the ones I got were well thought out and felt very different from the one before it. I certainly am not ready to put this one down, since even now I feel like there is a lot I haven’t seen yet.
Graphically, I love the character designs here. You can tell they are inspired by Danganronpa, but they fit their personalities to a tee. The world design is mostly just bleak wastelands, but you can explore some caves and there are some interesting landmarks as well. The invaders designs are all great as well, especially the generals, these are the top tier invaders. They are not only huge but they have some amazing details. I played the game on the Nintendo Switch and it ran just fine docked or in handheld mode.
I have to say, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy excels in the audio department. Not only does it have one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a long time, but the English dub is great as well. I decided I would go with the dub this time around instead of my usual Japanese with subs and I was really impressed at how well these actors brought these characters to life in English. As for the soundtrack, there are plenty of heart pumping songs for battle, and some more somber tunes for those emotional moments. These unlock in the gallery as they play so you can enjoy them anytime after you hear them play at least once.
When combat is not taking place, you will have some free time on your hands. You can choose to spend time with you comrades in order to get to know them better. Doing this will raise Takumi’s grades, which he will need to upgrade skills among other things. You can spend your time training in VR to upgrade your gear, explore the area around the school for materials, read books to raise grades, or in the Rec Room craft gifts for your comrades to raise their affection. As you can see, Takumi has a lot of ways to spend his time, but how he spends it best is up to you.
Combat take place on a grid based battle field. You will select which move you want to do and move it into range of the enemies. As you fight these evil beasts your voltage meter will go up. When it hits 100% you can either beef up one of your party members or use their special moves. These moves will clear out entire rows of enemies and turn the tide of battle quickly. Some party members will power up as they perform other actions. Some may get defense buffs for the number of squares they move, while others may get an attack bonus for slaying some of the monsters on the field. Just remember to keep an eye on your AP, as this tells you how many moves you will get before the enemy gets a turn. Slaying certain invaders will increase your AP, so you will want to keep this in mind as you plan out your next moves. Above all else, you want to be sure to keep them as far away from your shield generator as possible. If they break it and enter the school, it’s game over for you and humanity!
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is a fantastic game. The story is amazing and once you see the twists and turns, it will hook you in and not let go. I loved all of the characters, the soundtrack is just fantastic and this features one of the best English dubs I’ve heard in a long time. I had a blast with combat as well. It can be pretty tough on normal mode, but if you want easier combat so you can enjoy the Visual Novel aspects, there is a safety difficulty that is much easier. At the $59.99 price tag it’s likely gonna take at least 100 hours to see all the endings here if not more, so it’s well worth your coin. It’s very rare a game comes along that does everything right, but The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy does just that.
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Overall |  |
Game was provided by the publisher for review.
