The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-
Takumi and Karua are two ordinary teenagers living in Tokyo Residential Complex. At unpredictable moments during the day, a piercing security siren echoes through the city, prompting all citizens to seek refuge in the nearest underground shelter. The true nature of the threat, and what exactly they’re hiding from, remains a mystery to everyone.
The game begins as one of these sirens gets triggered, but as a red alert indicating increased danger. Moments later, chaos envelops the town. A monstrous horde invades the peaceful city, destroying everything in its path and mercilessly killing civilians. As Karua is caught in the middle of the attack, a mysterious entity appears before Takumi, offering him a grim choice: pierce his own heart with a magical dagger to awaken a hidden power in himself, making him capable of fighting back and save his friend, or do nothing and watch the city fall.
To save Karua, Takumi thrusts the dagger through his chest and after a brief but intense battle, Takumi is suddenly transported along with other teenagers of his age to a strange, school-like facility: the Last Defense Academy. The reason for their transfer soon becomes clear: they’re being recruited into a squad called the “Special Defense Unit” tasked with protecting a powerful artifact hidden deep within the academy. If it falls into the wrong hands, it could mean not only the destruction of their homes but possibly the end of humanity too. The Special Defense Unit stands as the last line of defense against the invaders’ persistent attacks aimed at breaking the academy’s barrier generators to steal this artifact. Their only promise: if they survive and endure the harsh conditions of the Academy for 100 days, they’ll be allowed to return home.
The game features a diverse cast of characters, each with distinct and often contrasting personality traits: one is very confident, while another struggles with low self-esteem and pessimism; one has a quick temper, while another one is shy and insecure, etc. What binds this eclectic group together is Takumi, whose warm and approachable nature allows him to connect with everyone. His modesty and kindness often come into play as he mediates conflicts and helps his teammates grow. Despite their camaraderie, their strong personalities frequently clash, leading to constant, entertaining banter. The dynamics of the relationships that they establish with each other stands out as one of the game’s strongest narrative elements, being extremely fun to witness.
Although The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- is best described as an interactive visual novel, its gameplay blends elements from multiple genres, with the narrative component occupying the majority of the player’s time. The game is the result of a high-profile collaboration between three genre-defining creators. Direction and the main scenario were led by Kazutaka Kodaka, the mind behind the Danganronpa series. The intricate branching paths and the astonishing number of 100 possible endings were crafted by Kotaro Uchikoshi, renowned for his work on the Zero Escape series. The character designs were brought to life by Rui Komatsuzaki, the lead concept artist for Danganronpa. Complemented by a compelling soundtrack composed by Masafumi Takada (Danganronpa), The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- delivers a narrative experience that is both gripping and unforgettable, with a plot that keeps you constantly on edge until the very end.
The invaders’ attacks unfold in tactical turn-based battles on a grid-based map. Each turn, you have a set amount of Attack Points (AP) at your disposal, which can freely be spent either on casting a mix of offensive or support spells of the characters available for that fight, or saved for future turns. Each character possesses a unique skill set that can be upgraded or expanded with new spells. What differentiates them is the shape of their attacks (e.g., cross, V-form, diagonal), the amount of damage they deal, and situational modifiers such as whether the enemy is isolated on the battlefield or already affected by de buffs.
You can mix and match characters freely during a turn, in any order. Casting a spell immediately affects the battlefield in real-time, and any character can be used multiple times or not at all, as long as enough AP remains during that turn. Additionally, characters’ attacks contribute to charging a shared Voltage Bar. Once filled, this bar can be used to either enhance the next attack or unleash powerful special abilities with significantly larger range and damage. However, this has the drawback of preventing that character from acting again for the remainder of the turn.
Enemy formations vary, often combining swarms of weaker units with tougher medium and large enemies. While smaller invaders are easy to defeat and deal minor damage, their numbers can become overwhelming if not properly handled, potentially resulting in destroying the Academy’s defenses. In contrast, larger enemies have high HP and are sometimes protected by shields. They are far more challenging to take down, requiring the combined effort of several heroes. However, defeating them rewards AP, allowing further attacks to be cast during that turn. One innovative mechanic is that you can also choose to sacrifice a hero to empower an enemy invader, which will then award bonus points when killed.
Two difficulty modes are available for these turn-based battles, with the only difference between them being that in Easy mode, all heroes are fully healed at the beginning of each turn, which considerably increases the survivability during these battles. Once a hero is lost though, they get revived (in both modes) only after all waves of the battle are defeated.
What made these battles so engaging for me was how they felt like intricate puzzles. The core challenge lies in employing an efficient strategy: aligning attack patterns with enemy formations to maximize damage, positioning characters to avoid wide-area attacks from larger foes, chaining spells from different heroes to clear the path for other attacks and to charge the Voltage Bar in an optimal way to enable unleashing one or more special attacks. As the game progresses, the difficulty of the battles increases with the introduction of multiple waves of enemies per fight and obviously harder to defeat foes. Additionally, during some scenarios, you’ll need to simultaneously handle multiple battlefields where the characters are locked to specific zones, sometimes even being unable to traverse between them.
The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- features a calendar-based progression system reminiscent of the Persona series, where each in-game day introduces new story events that dramatically shift the narrative’s direction. On days when you aren’t locked into the main story, Takumi is given one or two periods of “free time”. During these free time slots, you can choose from a variety of activities.
For instance, one option is to engage in preset battle scenarios that grant a large amount of BP, the in-game currency used to upgrade spells. You can also start a minigame of exploration, which takes the form of a board game. In this mode, each tile on the board triggers either a battle, or a random event: a multiple-choice situation with unknown, yet preset outcomes. Depending on what you pick, you can be rewarded with useful items and crafting resources or, alternatively, penalize one or more party members with a HP loss. Movement across the board is determined by choosing between two randomly drawn number cards, similar to rolling two dice.
During these free periods, you can also choose to spend time with a fellow student or craft a gift for them. Both have the effect of boosting Takumi’s proficiency for the stats associated with that character – essential for unlocking and upgrading combat spells tied to those attributes. Each character has a set of preferred gifts, unlocked by collecting special items from expeditions and crafted inside the academy using resources also acquired from expeditions.
The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- has an insane amount of content which is also delivered in a high-quality format despite the game being developed with a limited budget. Featuring a story with a unique punch, an eccentric and bizarre cast reminiscent of Danganrompa’s wacky characters, the game is nothing short of a masterpiece.