The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy Explores Beloved Tropes Without Being Danganronpa 4

Earlier this month, I wrapped up a playthrough of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, completing the main storyline of this captivating multimedia franchise that has held me in its grip since it saw a revival during the COVID lockdowns of 2020. Coincidentally, this put me in a prime position to dive into the demo for The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, showcased at Steam’s latest Next Fest, with the conclusion of Kazutaka Kodaka’s most celebrated creation still fresh in my mind.

Kazutaka Kodaka, along with some former colleagues from Spike Chunsoft, launched an independent game studio called Too Kyo Games, around the time Danganronpa V3 debuted in 2017. Since then, fans have been eagerly picking up their releases, hoping for the spirit of Danganronpa 4. However, there was some disappointment with titles like World’s End Club in 2020 and Master Detective Archives: Rain Code in 2023, which shared Danganronpa’s DNA but ventured off in different directions—no killing game in the former and no school life in the latter.

Naturally, The Hundred Line is being approached with similar expectations. After playing the demo, it’s clear that it leans into the Danganronpa comparisons more than any previous endeavor by Too Kyo. The musical elements and sound cues might strike a chord of nostalgia among Danganronpa enthusiasts, with some bits feeling more like reused material. The art style and character archetypes echo the familiar, slightly surreal vibe of meeting relatives for the first time at a family reunion.

The game’s opening H-hour is especially striking. It unfolds through fully-animated, fully-voiced cutscenes, stirring a feeling of uncanny familiarity for those accustomed to Danganronpa’s visual novel format. The story follows an ordinary teenage boy and his not-quite-girlfriend as they’re thrown from their mundane routine into a misadventure, culminating with our protagonist waking up in an unfamiliar classroom among strangers, confronted by a bizarre cartoon mascot orchestrating the chaos.

Too Kyo doesn’t shy away from teasing fans; one character in the group gets particularly excited over the prospect of a deadly survival game. But, this is where paths separate—The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is a turn-based strategy game, one where characters must team up to battle against robots and strange creatures, trying to prevent apocalyptic scenarios typically lurking in Danganronpa’s backdrop.

Though relatively new to turn-based games, I’m increasingly fascinated by strategic combat, and can say The Hundred Line offers intriguing tactical dilemmas without breaking new ground. It seems geared towards visual novel fans stepping into strategy gaming rather than seasoned strategists exploring narrative-led stories.

The demo spans the first seven in-game days and culminates in a cliffhanger I won’t spoil but promises to please fans of the creators’ past work. I don’t believe The Hundred Line is secretly plotting to revive the death-match trope under a different guise, nor do I want it to. Kodaka has made his case for moving beyond Danganronpa unless he desires to revisit it, and with Too Kyo maintaining strong ties with Spike Chunsoft, any future Danganronpa might be clearly branded as such.

Approaching The Hundred Line just as another Danganronpa experience isn’t fair to the game or yourself. Instead, it’s a signal that Too Kyo knows what you enjoyed about Danganronpa—quirky characters and off-beat narratives—while planning to showcase them in fresh gameplay styles, liberating them from a possibly overused formula.

The elements I’ve seen balance both nostalgic echoes and new directions, leaving me eager for the full release. Given the current climate, a nearly-Danganronpa game emerging in 2025 that encourages unity instead of division feels timely. Rather than subverting old tropes, it seems to evolve them.

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy demo is available on Steam, with the full launch set for April 24th on Windows and Nintendo Switch. A plus for PC gamers: progress in the demo can transfer to the full game.