The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-

A true masterpiece. You can tell Kotaro Uchikoshi & Kazutaka Kodaka made this game together. You can feel the spoils of war from all their previous titles ( Danganronpa, Raincode, AI somnium files & the zero escape trilogy) it is just another piece of greatness that once again enters the You are the not same person you were when you started this title camp. That is provided you do play the entire game. Nothing is without sin though and this game suffers from some major issues. The first one being the lack of a true fast forward option/poor pacing. Once you complete the very first run of the game it changes fundamentally from just a [spoiler]regular turned based strategy Visual novel to now a hunt the ending/timelines down. Now your actively trying to get all the paths/routes done.[/spoiler] Some people will be smart about it others won't. Thats not where the issue comes from. It derives from the fact that you [spoiler]have to run the cycle so many times with no real blitz/skip. You can fast forward normally but if nothing happens for 40 days except free time let me skip that especially on a different route. In a way its intended. Its the same issue KH 358/2 days had. Both games require you to do a mindless everlasting grind intentionally from a story standpoint. It allows you to bond and get close to these people. They want you to form the tight bonds. And they also want the fatigue that comes from doing this. In both cases it allows the story to hit harder and be emotional. John Doe is gonna be upset when he spends entire timelines with them over someone who read or saw a video about what happened. 358 becoming a movie is why it doesn't hit the same anymore[/spoiler] and I get they were going for that here but it kinda leads to such a low player retention for end game. Most people don't finish this game. Let alone get close. Which is sad they'll never see that one ending we all wanted to see. But that is sort of the other major problem. After beating the game/100% the game its basically the same in this case. Theres no extra anything. No epilogue or extra answers. It leaves you feeling even more empty then normal. Hopefully danganronpa 2x2 can give us further answers. I still recommend the game but I know the average person is not going to stick it through for all of it. I barley was able to myself. It was so worth it and very cathartic but the next best thing is playing as much as you can then looking into the rest of the information yourself through videos or reading. Imo the best way to run the events of the game is after the [spoiler]og run. Go upwards on the flowchart and focus on all the "♥♥♥♥♥♥ up" routes. Before going south on the funnier/♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fluff & way more Slice of life. It breaks it up nicely since you will returned to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ and you don't get obliterated by the comedy route early.[/spoiler] Also Ill give them props on that bait & switch for the romance. Most of the entire game [spoiler](Save for certain routes where other girls are the focus) its all about Nozomi and it always goes back to her. But the final route the one to be the "last" one totally 180s it into best girl Hiruko which if you didn't think she was the goat before. You will think so inevitably.[/spoiler]