55 hours into The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, Too Kyo Video games’ visible novel flip-primarily based technique recreation, I encountered a very touching scene. Two characters, who a couple of days earlier discovered one thing notably shocking–one of a number of moments within the recreation that recontextualizes the entire experience–get up early and find yourself watching the solar rise collectively. It’s somewhat second of tranquility, of two individuals bonding over pure magnificence amid a very tough string of days, and it landed fantastically. It felt like the sport was tapping into one thing somewhat deeper, somewhat extra melancholic, than what I might seen earlier than.
Based on on-line estimates of the sport’s complete size, on the level I noticed this scene, I had one other 90-120 hours to go till I may actually say that I might “completed” the sport, relying on my pace and endurance. The title The Hundred Line refers back to the variety of days the scholars of Last Defense Academy must defend their college for as waves of invaders periodically pressure them into tactical fight. But the title truly has one other that means that you simply uncover as soon as these 100 days move for the primary time, about 30 hours into the sport: This recreation has 100 unlockable endings, and to get the complete image, you may need to see all of them.
The promise of 100 endings feels just like the type of advertising and marketing mistruth that pops up in a press launch to play up how a lot the sport is formed by your selections. A recreation that claims to have 12 endings may truly imply 4 endings, every with a couple of minor potential variations. And sure, among the endings in The Hundred Line are type of dishonest, or are similar to every other–not each ending is created equal. But there actually are 100 of them, consisting of 21 completely different “routes” that may all finish at varied completely different factors.
On the level that these two characters took within the dawn, I had seen eight endings; I used to be nonetheless a great 5 hours from getting my ninth (though endings 10-12 have been all unlocked inside an hour after that). Searching for out these endings had revealed new details about the sport world: The paths resulting in these endings had proven characters in a brand new mild, and several other of them had poked at new corners of this recreation world or revealed new lore. They’d been foolish, unhappy, somewhat scary, and alternately humorous and tragic. Completely different characters died every time, and the feelings I felt over each have been completely different. As I wrapped up the pathway that, I imagine, is the closest factor the sport has to a “canon” ending, I knew that I might maintain going, and that understanding all the pieces I might discovered on my method to that ending would solely deepen my understanding and appreciation of the numerous paths I nonetheless needed to take.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is co-directed by Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi, greatest identified, respectively, for the Danganronpa and Zero Escape video games: two sequence identified for his or her large twists, hyperactive narratives, and penchant for killing off forged members. This new recreation has all of that too, and it throws in a fairly competent Fireplace Emblem-model fight system on high. That is to not point out the bonding stats with every particular person scholar, the board-recreation-like “exploration” mode, or the RPG-model character stats and loadouts you possibly can regularly tweak as the sport progresses.
Often, in video games that promise a narrative formed by the alternatives you’ve got made, a serious attraction is the notion of attending to the top and experiencing the conclusion of the story that you’ve got co-authored with the sport’s writers and designers, discovering the conclusion that represents the pathway you solid by means of the expertise. Perhaps you may play once more and make completely different selections to expertise some completely different scenes; extra possible you may merely take it as a provided that should you did, the story could be somewhat completely different subsequent time.
The Hundred Line takes a unique strategy: It’s a select-your-personal journey story, however as a substitute of needing to maintain one finger again on the web page the place you made your final alternative in case it does not pan out, you’ve gotten a neat timeline that permits you to revisit each single alternative within the recreation.
The most empowering factor about this recreation is that your individual selections do not actually matter, as a result of one of the best ways to play the sport is to make all of them and see each consequence. There are definitely some pathways that provide you with extra data or a deeper story, endings that really feel “good” or “unhealthy” or some shade between, however there is no sense of punishment, or of being denied sure story beats due to your selections.
There is a uncommon, thrilling feeling that I do not expertise usually with video games of this scale: the sense that the builders have been capable of pursue their precise imaginative and prescient by means of to the top. The Hundred Line is the type of recreation that no enterprise strategist or market professional would advise an organization to make and launch in 2025. A recreation this large, with no further monetization, with a pointed deal with storytelling, with a $60 price ticket and plenty of unusual and difficult themes: It may very well be a possible recipe for catastrophe, particularly when it depends on 3D fashions for its tactical fight system and quite a few cutscenes. It’s a recreation that many media and influencers are going to be somewhat scared to the touch, too, since it is so prolonged and textual content-heavy.
The Hundred Line took over 5 years to develop, and the script–which should include one thing within the ballpark of 1 million words–would have made localization terribly costly, particularly if you consider voice performing. In a pre-launch interview with Nintendo Life, Kodaka admitted that if the sport didn’t promote properly, the studio “could also be achieved” after taking out loans to fund improvement. A week after the sport got here out, in response to a fan on Bluesky, Kokoda stated that the corporate was “nonetheless on the point of going beneath.”
And but, The Hundred Line has been successful. By July, three months after launch, the sport was promoting properly sufficient that Kodaka informed Bloomberg, “I do not see chapter as a critical future.” Actual gross sales figures haven’t been launched, however evidently the chance Too Kyo Video games took in spending a lot effort and time on growing this behemoth paid off.
A part of it, I feel, is that Kodaka and Uchikoshi have constructed up good will with their earlier sequence: the Danganronpa and Zero Escape sequence amassed international fanbases over a protracted interval. The Hundred Line can be audacious in a approach that’s plain and unusual: the sheer measurement of the factor is thrilling, extra so than a recreation that provided, say, 30 completely different endings. It additionally helps that the tactical battles are fairly fulfilling, with simply sufficient depth and originality in order that going into battle by no means feels tedious.
Past all of that, although, the storytelling in The Hundred Line is–to boil down an immense amount of labor right into a simplistic sentiment–very good, with glorious character dialogue, implausible voice performing, and a terrific many “what if” situations you possibly can discover. The characters are all attention-grabbing, growing and deepening over time, and seeing how they modify and adapt to the vastly completely different tales you possibly can discover is fascinating–it’s spectacular to see the sport keep consistency throughout completely different paths.
As reviews proceed to come back in of builders tightening their belts because the business shifts in direction of extra conservative, confirmed ways to show a revenue, seeing an organization taking an enormous danger to make one thing each monumental and weird, and having it repay, is heartening. Even with out that context, although, The Hundred Line would nonetheless be my favourite recreation of 2025. It’s a wide ranging achievement in narrative design, a really wild instance of simply how a lot you are able to do with participant alternative, and one of the crucial formidable visible novels ever made.