Every so often , a game feel like it will be the jailbreak strike in a ecological niche part of the picture biz space . Persona 5revitalized along - lead RPG franchiseand loosely helped make unabashedly Nipponese game finger nerveless again . Fire Emblem Awakeningtook a skin strategy game enfranchisement and reimagined it so successfully that Fire Emblem is now a marquee enfranchisement for Nintendo . WhileThe Hundred Line : Last Defense Academyis a young game not part of a long - running series , it ’s the culmination of the oeuvre of two ecological niche yet darling game developers .
Developer Kazutaka Kodaka is known for his work on the Danganronpa games ; meanwhile , Kotaro Uchikoshi is known for point the Zero Escape and AI : The Sominum Files series . Both of these developer ’ works have respectable fanbases but have n’t gone mainstream in the same way of life something like Persona or Fire Emblem have . Now , the two are working together on a claim for the first clip at Too Kyo Games , and after speak to them at GDC 2025 and play the secret plan for myself , this visual novel / tactic loanblend is shaping up to be a ca n’t lack experience .
“Do you like Persona?”
Like Persona , The Hundred Lineis about a ragtag group of high school student who must band together to crusade off otherwordly forces . The students inThe Hundred Linehave to do it against their will , though . They all subsist in a domed metropolis promise the Tokyo Residential Complex but are ship to a cryptical shoal outside of the composite , but are transported to the titular school and tasked with defending it for 100 days with the special powers they get by stabbing themselves in the breast with a magical blade .
It ’s as weird as you ’d await from a game from the minds behind Danganronpa and Zero Escape , but it also shares those game ’ strengths . Within here and now of meeting each educatee trapped at the composite , they all mat up instantly iconic and memorable . My favorites are Darumi , a perturb student who initially thinks the bookman have been summoned to the school for a Danganronpa - similar killing plot , and Shouma , a constantly self - vilipend minor with a frog chapeau who turns into a Gundam during a battle .
Most of these floor moments play out in the visual novel half ofThe Hundred Line , which is where this game connects to the developer ’ premature works the most . At GDC 2025 , Kodaka and Uchikoshi boasted about how the game have lots of animated cutscenes , 100 expressive portraits for each student , and 100 end that can result from the instrumentalist ’s option .
Generally , they wantThe Hundred Lineto tender a little something for everyone . From some , the chronicle may fiddle out in a very serious agency . For others , The Hundred Linemay become more of a funniness . disregarding of how the news report shapes up for you , you ’ll still have to agitate off monsters in turn - based strategy battles .
While most strategy games deal with single unit , this game focus on having players take on larger group of enemies with attacks that murder multiple tiles . Players use AP to utilize attacks from each student . kill enemies builds up a emf meter , and once that run 100 % sinewy extra attacks can be used to deal even more damage .
Players will finally also be able-bodied to utilise muscular attack to sacrifice units in battles ; do n’t worry , though , The Hundred Linedoes not feature permadeath for unit combat . While The Hundred Line is n’t revolutionary for the strategy game genre , I savour the magnanimous scale of its battle . It ’s accessible yet distinct enough within the RPG space that I imagine the game could both attract scheme secret plan fans who do n’t typically take on visual novels to this game and give visual novel fans another reason to keep play outdoors of the story .
If the secret plan strikes that residue , it could become a surprise hit . As my appointment forThe Hundred Lineat GDC 2025 envelop up , I had a humorous conversation that stuck with me . “ Do you like Persona ? ” Kodaka asked . “ Yes , ” I responded . “ Everyone who fuck Persona will eff this biz too , so I desire this secret plan to sell the same as Persona . Please tell your friends . ”
jest or not , Kodaka clearly thinksThe Hundred Linehas the potential to break out in the same style the Persona biz did . The more I playact it , the more I ’m starting to consider that there ’s a probability of that really happening .
The Hundred occupation : Last Defense Academywill be unloose for PC and Nintendo Switch on April 24 .
