Firstly of 2025, I totally believed I had grown bored with tales about a number of timelines. Through the previous decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe pushed the traditional comedian e-book narrative system into the mainstream, fueling a movie conglomerate with legally accepted cameos, flashy visuals on the silver display screen, and unfastened plots that, finally, got here collectively for one remaining pay-off.
Whereas the idea of the multiverse has been explored in movie and TV even earlier than Marvel’s takeover, it rapidly grew to become the narrative basis of selection. When completed proper, the potential is undeniable–works like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Every part, In every single place, All at As soon as are heartwrenching shows of interpersonal relationships, making characters face the fact of what-if situations, reconciling with their selections and what might have been if they’d turned the opposite means as an alternative. However you may solely hear the identical tune so many instances earlier than it begins to lose its authentic influence.
It wasn’t till The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy that my curiosity was reanimated. The visible novel and strategy-RPG hybrid presents itself as deceivingly linear, solely to push you into a totally totally different story construction on the very finish. It makes for a sprawling internet of outcomes based mostly in your selections, all whereas showcasing totally different views on occasions and characters that weave absurdity and sentimentality in equal measure in a showcase of inventive prowess from the event workforce.
It began after an eShop sale in July inspired me to lastly meet up with the Danganronpa and AI: Somnium Recordsdata collection. It was the right motivation to arrange myself for this behemoth of a sport, by which the lead builders of each collection bought collectively for a joint undertaking that options 100 endings.
The idea sounded exhausting–as somebody who’s consistently enjoying video games for work, I figured I might by no means be capable to justify the time for it, particularly since I wished to not less than play essentially the most outstanding fashionable works from the builders first. To my shock, I ended up adoring the messiness of Danganronpa’s merciless killing video games. But it surely was AI: Somnium Recordsdata and its sequel, Nirvana Initiative, that led me to start to grasp The Hundred Line’s potential.
Each video games kick off from linear storylines that arrange a detective-style thriller. Finally, the plot begins to department out–depending on key choices you make, you find yourself pursuing totally different timelines, all represented in a circulation chart that you need to use to leap backwards and forwards between them, particularly when routes get locked till you’ve got made progress on a unique timeline. There is a true ending that, on paper, symbolizes the meant end result of occasions. But, the method of witnessing what might have occurred if I had made a unique choice, experiencing the ramifications on characters and their fates and getting different endings, was instantly arresting.
In a means, enjoying by means of The Hundred Line is much like the expertise of getting by means of each of those franchises as I did. You play as Takumi Sumino, one in all 15 highschool college students who’re despatched to the mysterious Last Defense Academy to guard humanity from invaders. The story is structured in 100 days, which is precisely the time frame that the scholars have been commanded to endure. Whereas none of them have as many in-game days, all mainline Danganronpa video games share this construction, splitting the visible novel side of the story with exploration and trials–in The Hundred Line, the latter takes the form of technique RPG battles, in addition to free time to extend bonds with characters.
However attending to the ultimate day doesn’t suggest reaching the tip. Whereas there’s little motive to consider that day 100 is not mainly the story’s end result, it solely signifies the tip of a prologue. When you get to the tantalizing date, the sport radically modifications and turns into much like AI: The Somnium Recordsdata (in addition to earlier video games led by lead developer Kotaro Uchikoshi, reminiscent of Zero Escape: Advantage’s Last Reward and Zero Time Dilemma). Your process, then, is to discover totally different timelines and dive into their very own what-if situations, making choices that result in the aforementioned 100 endings.
Chatting with Bloomberg, Danganronpa lead designer Kazutaka Kodaka stated that writers got the liberty to take characters in wild instructions, from a comedy route to at least one the place all of them flip into zombies. The additional you plunge into the circulation chart, the extra this turns into obvious, with characters adopting totally different personalities, or the sport itself altering drastically compared to the calendar schedule of the unique 100 days.
Usually, choice-driven tales repair you to sure paths relying on what you choose, they usually have you ever carrying these selections from that second on. Video games like this yr’s Dispatch, for instance, introduced again the Telltale Video games method into the zeitgeist, as former builders of the studio led the undertaking. There are many “this character will keep in mind that” messages on display screen, and whereas a few of your choices do carry some weight towards the tip, the primary story is structured largely the identical. Regardless of the participant’s enter, the larger outcomes have already been determined.
In The Hundred Line, experiencing totally different outcomes is akin to opening a treasure trove that may seemingly by no means run out of surprises. It embodies the curiosity of a whiteboard stuffed with concepts that the builders had, and the uncommon probability of really having the ability to see them manifested. What would have occurred if this character hadn’t died? What ramifications might a seemingly small choice have within the lives of your fellow college students? The solutions to those questions are all laid naked so that you can choose and expertise for your self. There’s a true ending that you could pursue to uncover the overarching mysteries launched in the course of the prologue. However there’s additionally the valuable alternative of witnessing utterly totally different tales.
At its core, The Hundred Line makes a singular case of how the interactive nature of video video games suits tales about a number of timelines like a glove. It is not typically that we’re in a position to witness the builders’ creativity on such an enormous scale, both. But, it was that actual show that gave me a reappreciation of this narrative system, and left me ruminating about my very own selections in life. 2025 marked the tenth anniversary of my first revealed article. It was the results of responding to a name for writers from somebody in a Fb group I barely knew who was beginning her personal weblog. Had I completed in another way, that day would have been as every other. I’d have continued learning graphic design, maybe. I’d have met utterly totally different individuals within the years that adopted, whereas video video games would have been nothing however a mere passion. It was solely a brief message that, on the time, appeared innocuous. I had no thought how a lot it’d utterly change my life.
The extra end-of-the-year discussions I get to be part of, the extra I understand I will merely not be capable to get to all the things I need to see, do, and play on this lifetime. The time dedication of a narrative with 100 endings is daunting, to place it mildly. However I do not remorse spending months making ready for it, in addition to the handfuls of ongoing hours dissecting its each route. It is a daring showcase of ambition and years of amassed information paying off, time and time once more, in a means that solely video video games can muster. And it is also a continuing showcase of how a lot our lives can change on a whim with out us realizing.