55 hours into The Hundred Line: Final Protection Academy, Too Kyo Video games’ visible novel turn-based technique recreation, I encountered a very touching scene. Two characters, who a number of days earlier realized 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 is a little bit second of tranquility, of two folks 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 a little bit deeper, a little bit extra melancholic, than what I would seen earlier than.
Based on on-line estimates of the sport’s whole size, on the level I noticed this scene, I had one other 90-120 hours to go till I may actually say that I would “completed” the sport, relying on my velocity and endurance. The title The Hundred Line refers back to the variety of days the scholars of Final Protection Academy should defend their college for as waves of invaders periodically drive them into tactical fight. However the title truly has one other which means that you simply uncover as soon as these 100 days cross for the primary time, about 30 hours into the sport: This recreation has 100 unlockable endings, and to get the complete image, you will wish to see all of them.
The promise of 100 endings feels just like the form of advertising mistruth that pops up in a press launch to play up how a lot the sport is formed by your decisions. A recreation that claims to have 12 endings would possibly truly imply 4 endings, every with a number of minor potential variations. And sure, a number of the endings in The Hundred Line are form of dishonest, or are similar to every other–not each ending is created equal. However there actually are 100 of them, consisting of 21 totally different “routes” that may all finish at varied totally different factors.
On the level that these two characters took within the dawn, I had seen eight endings; I used to be nonetheless a very good 5 hours from getting my ninth (though endings 10-12 had 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 gentle, and several other of them had poked at new corners of this recreation world or revealed new lore. They’d been foolish, unhappy, a little bit scary, and alternately humorous and tragic. Completely different characters died every time, and the feelings I felt over each had been totally 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 would hold going, and that figuring out the whole lot I would realized on my solution to that ending would solely deepen my understanding and appreciation of the numerous paths I nonetheless needed to take.
The Hundred Line: Final Protection Academy is co-directed by Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi, finest identified, respectively, for the Danganronpa and Zero Escape video games: two sequence identified for his or her enormous twists, hyperactive narratives, and penchant for killing off solid members. This new recreation has all of that too, and it throws in a fairly competent Hearth Emblem-style fight system on high. That is to not point out the bonding stats with every particular person scholar, the board-game-like “exploration” mode, or the RPG-style character stats and loadouts you possibly can step by step tweak as the sport progresses.
Often, in video games that promise a narrative formed by the alternatives you’ve got made, a significant enchantment is the notion of attending to the tip 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 way of the expertise. Possibly you will play once more and make totally different decisions to expertise some totally different scenes; extra seemingly you will merely take it as a on condition that should you did, the story can be a little bit totally different subsequent time.
The Hundred Line takes a special method: It is a choose-your-own journey story, however as an alternative of needing to maintain one finger again on the web page the place you made your final selection in case it does not pan out, you’ve a neat timeline that allows you to revisit each single selection within the recreation.
Probably the most empowering factor about this recreation is that your individual decisions do not actually matter, as a result of one of the simplest 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 info 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 decisions.
There is a uncommon, thrilling feeling that I do not expertise typically with video games of this scale: the sense that the builders had been in a position to pursue their precise imaginative and prescient by way of to the tip. The Hundred Line is the form of recreation that no enterprise strategist or market skilled would advise an organization to make and launch in 2025. A recreation this enormous, with no extra monetization, with a pointed concentrate on storytelling, with a $60 price ticket and a variety 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 is a recreation that many media and influencers are going to be a little bit scared to the touch, too, since it is so prolonged and text-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 whenever you think about voice appearing. In a pre-release interview with Nintendo Life, Kodaka admitted that if the sport didn’t promote properly, the studio “could also be carried out” after taking out loans to fund growth. Every week after the sport got here out, in response to a fan on Bluesky, Kokoda acknowledged that the corporate was “nonetheless on the point of going below.”
And but, The Hundred Line has been a hit. 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.” Precise gross sales figures haven’t been launched, however plainly the chance Too Kyo Video games took in spending a lot effort and time on creating 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 world fanbases over a protracted interval. The Hundred Line can also be audacious in a means that’s simple and unusual: the sheer measurement of the factor is thrilling, extra so than a recreation that provided, say, 30 totally different endings. It additionally helps that the tactical battles are fairly satisfying, 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 wonderful character dialogue, incredible voice appearing, and an excellent many “what if” situations you possibly can discover. The characters are all fascinating, creating and deepening over time, and seeing how they modify and adapt to the vastly totally different tales you possibly can discover is fascinating–it’s spectacular to see the sport preserve consistency throughout totally different paths.
As experiences proceed to return in of builders tightening their belts because the business shifts in the direction of extra conservative, confirmed techniques to show a revenue, seeing an organization taking an enormous threat to make one thing each huge and strange, and having it repay, is heartening. Even with out that context, although, The Hundred Line would nonetheless be my favourite recreation of 2025. It is a breathtaking achievement in narrative design, a really wild instance of simply how a lot you are able to do with participant selection, and one of the formidable visible novels ever made.
