I don’t know if a recreation has ever been fairly as designed for me as The Hundred Line – Final Protection Academy. It takes two creators of cult traditional visible novels and brings them collectively, with the legendary Kazutaka Kodaka of Danganronpa fame and Kotaro Uchikoshi from the Zero Escape sequence each engaged on this one title. Then it took that writing group and added on a techniques RPG, one among my favourite genres. I feel due to this, I used to be a bit nervous – would this recreation reside as much as being what is basically a dream recreation for me? Fortunately, it did reside as much as that after which some, making a compelling narrative blended with among the most enjoyable techniques gameplay I’ve seen shortly.
The Hundred Line – Final Protection Academy takes place in an alternate world the place the protagonists reside in a peaceable place referred to as the Tokyo Residential Advanced, a completely coated metropolis with shelters. The protagonist, Takumi, lives a standard life till the Tokyo Residential Advanced is attacked by surreal, inhuman creatures. Takumi then good points powers and joins different college students on the Final Protection Academy, who’ve to guard the varsity for 100 days as a part of preventing off these foes. In fact, contemplating this was directed and written by Kodaka and Uchikoshi, there are a lot extra twists and turns that complicate issues.
The Hundred Line is way more outwardly a Danganronpa-inspired recreation than a Zero Escape one. The characters have been created by Kodaka, and the character designs have been achieved by Rui Komatsuzaki, who did the long-lasting designs for Danganronpa. Nonetheless, the additional you get into the sport, the extra you begin to see Uchikoshi’s affect. One of many issues I loved most about this was attending to get pleasure from a big group of Kodaka’s characters over the course of the sport. An enormous a part of the enchantment of Danganronpa is its giant ensemble forged, however, as a result of plot being a demise recreation, these characters get weeded out fairly rapidly. The Hundred Line, in the meantime, doesn’t have that demise recreation plot looming over the conditions, so I felt like I bought to get pleasure from seeing these characters longer. There’s loads of different hazard and threats at hand however the construction of this recreation gave me much more time to spend with this large, eccentric forged. A few of my favorites are Kurara, a wealthy elitist woman who wears a tomato masks always; Nozomi, a candy woman who occurs to look precisely like Takumi’s childhood buddy; and Takemaru, a thug who additionally occurs to have the kindest coronary heart on the group. In the event you don’t vibe with Kodaka’s model of writing these extremely exaggerated characters, I’m unsure The Hundred Line will change your thoughts. Nonetheless, when you have loved the massive casts of a Danganronpa recreation, then know that The Hundred Line has presumably my favourite group of characters, which is saying lots. On the floor a lot of them could be excessive, however beneath they’re a well-written and developed forged that it’s a pleasure to spend time with.
Probably the greatest methods this forged is used is within the fight, the place every character is a singular unit in its techniques, primarily based on the character’s traits and persona. Fight is grid and turn-based, often on sides surrounding the varsity, with a sure variety of actions per flip. Nonetheless, defeating sure stronger enemies may give you extra turns, resulting in enjoyable challenges of linking collectively assaults to get as a lot achieved in a single flip as attainable. Attacking additionally builds up a voltage meter, which can be utilized for a particular, stronger assault. Moreover, this assault might be achieved any time a personality has low sufficient well being, although that results in the character being incapacitated by to the following wave. All of this comes collectively to make for a really addicting gameplay expertise that takes inspiration from different techniques video games however nonetheless appears like a recent tackle the style.
The remainder of the gameplay is extra alongside the traces of a visible novel, very harking back to Danganronpa. On days the place there isn’t a battle or different plot developments, you are able to do quite a lot of free time actions, together with mock battles, which earn you a forex you should utilize to improve characters, talking to characters or making/giving them items, or exploring outdoors the varsity. All of those contribute to 1 one other: speaking to characters improves your stats, which influences how one can improve these characters whereas additionally enhancing exploration abilities, and exploring can get you extra supplies to make use of for items. It makes each day really feel impactful, even in case you spend it simply hanging out. I appreciated studying about and spending time with these characters regardless, however the way in which these programs affect one another offers them their very own weight.
I additionally discovered the overarching story and pacing to be compelling as properly. It was uncommon for me to have a time the place there wasn’t a thriller or two that I used to be interested by, and that result in an actual “simply 20 extra minutes” factor the place I stayed up means too late a number of nights as a result of I simply needed to know what would occur, one thing I don’t do as a lot now as I did after I was a child. Enjoying the sport earlier than launch was nearly irritating as a result of I simply needed to speak to folks about reveals and plot factors that I gained’t spoil however have been extremely satisfying. Not all characters or plot factors appealed to me in the very same means, however the total bundle has been a pleasure to find.
It’s all the time a delight to find what is going to find yourself being one among my favourite video video games in actual time, however The Hundred Line did it. With the storytelling prowess of two cult icons blended with some recent and thrilling tactical gameplay, The Hundred Line manages to deliver again issues I really like from each of its creators whereas feeling like a recent new recreation. In the event you get pleasure from an excellent visible novel or in case you get pleasure from techniques RPGs you owe it to your self to play The Hundred Line – Final Protection Academy. It might not be for everybody, but it surely struck a significant chord for me and rapidly turned one among my favourite video games on Change.