Thank you Aniplex Inc. for providing us with a review code!

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- is the product of two talented game developers Kazutaka Kodaka (Danganronpa series) and Kotaro Uchikoshi (Infinity and Zero Escape series) working together for the first time. The result of this collaboration is a combination of a visual novel and turn-based battler that features one hundred different endings!

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- takes place in the future where people live in a dome called the Tokyo Residential Complex. The main character is a high school age boy, Takumi, who is tired of his mundane life where nothing ever happens to him. Things are peaceful and boring, but occasionally there are emergency drills where the residents are told to take cover until the threat is gone. One day, the residents never got the all clear and instead a bunch in strange creatures appear and wreak havoc throughout the complex.

While Takumi and his girlfriend, Karua, are fleeing from danger, they get separated and Takumi heads into an abandoned school to find her. Instead of locating Karua, Takumi meets a strange egg-shaped robot who knows his name and is trying to recruit him to save all of mankind. The only catch? He has to stab himself in the heart with an infuser knife to unlock his powerful abilities.

After the first battle, Takumi awakens inside of a classroom with nine other students, but Karua isn’t one of them. None of the students know how they got there, but they quickly learn that the fate of humanity depends on them. It’s their job to defend this school called the Last Defense Academy for one hundred days.

Most days give you free time to roam around the school and you’ll have time to chat with classmates to level up your academics and bond with them. You’ll get better results if you make them a gift that they’ll appreciate. The academic level is crucial for upgrading the weapons and abilities of your fellow classmates. These upgrades are done in the weapons lab. As you progress through the days, different sections of the school will unlock. You’ll want to check out the library to increase your academic grades. Potions and armaments can be created in the bio lab.

While grades are important, you’ll also need resources. To gather resources for upgrades and gifts you’ll need to gather resources outside of the school grounds. The danger here is that if you die outside of the school grounds you won’t be able to be revived. Thankfully, there are checkpoints you can load from if need be.

The outside area is designed like a board game with blank and label spaces. Some spaces have items to collect and others have enemies waiting for you. With each turn you’ll get to choose between two movement cards to determine how many spaces you’ll move. Many spaces will give you a selection of choices to choose from. Depending on your actions you may cause damage to your party, heal the party, gain an item, or trigger a battle.

The battles are turn based and as long as you have enough action points, your party can make a move. Each student has a unique weapon and fighting style. They typically have different attack types with different areas of effect. After each move and attack, voltage is earned and when it reaches 100% or more, powerful special attacks are unlocked. After a special move is executed the character will be unavailable until the next turn. However, there is a character that can remove this side effect. When more powerful enemies are defeated an attack point is added back. After all of the attack points are spent, or enemies defeated the turn is over. You can opt to end your turn early if desired.

There are typically multiple waves per battle and in the final wave or two the commander (boss) will reveal themselves. The bosses are powerful and sometimes need a story-specific item to break their defenses. One defeated, you’ll typically get to select a party member who will get to absorb the commander’s blood/power to increase their stats.

As you may have guessed, The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- is a VERY bloody game. While much of the violence is in self-defense there is plenty of cold blooded murdering going on as well. Gore and dismemberment is plentiful. Language is very strong, especially with one character who uses every word in the book and takes the Lord’s name in vain. Other characters mildly curse here and there. There are lots of sexual references and dialogue. There’s a female samurai character who is very “close” with the sword she carries with her at all times. There is some obscured nudity, but nothing is directly shown. Religion plays a little bit into the story as the leader of the enemy army wishes to become a goddess.

The animated cutscenes look great (albeit bloody!) and the commanders are intimidating. There isn’t much variety in enemy units. I like how the characters' expressions and personalities come through. Naturally, some characters are more likable than others. There’s a female goth girl who keeps making Danganronpa references and often asks when the killing game will start.

I found the audio to be a mixed bag. When there’s voice acting it’s great. Most of the game is not voice acted and consists of awkward grunts and groans which may have bystanders within audible range wondering what you’re doing.

The first run of one hundred days doesn’t have many choices or opportunities to change the story. That is rectified in subsequent playthroughs as there are one hundred endings to experience. Many of the endings are depressing, but there are some relatively happy ones too. I like that battles can be skipped, but some still need to be replayed regardless and this will make replays a bit longer as a result. If you don’t mind the moral concerns, there is a lot to do and enjoy in The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-.