100 DAYS. 100 ENDINGS. 100 MG OF CRACK SNORTED BY UCHIKOSHI & KODAKA IN ITS MAKING.
The Hundred Line : Last Defense Academy, oh where could I perhaps start with this visual novel? This is possibly one of the most kusoge VNs that I had my eyes to witness and experience, at the time I’m making the review I’ve only completed 6 endings out of the 100 endings that this game has to offer.
As expected out of Kodaka, he uses his pen in such an inane method, and the link-up with Uchikoshi certainly did not help with this product- But it… Works?
In fact, this visual novel is very much of a kusoge, the characters are ridiculously one-note and to say the story isn’t predictable if you’ve witnessed Kodaka’s games beforehand would ABSOLUTELY be a falsehood, but to be rather frank this visual novel as much as it is oblivious is also completely honest, which as I kept clicking away the text I couldn’t help but at all but cackle and be absurdly invested into this visual novel, the characters are one-note and ridiculously easy to summarise, yes, but they are ridiculously amusing. This whole visual novel is in fact one of the most amusing experiences I’ve had this year, if not the most amusing.
I find myself VERY fond of Uchikoshi and Kodaka as a person but less as actual writers. I find a lot of their works rather weak, and while I have a ridiculous disdain for the usage of that word as I do not find it appealing to my own vocabulary, their works are incredibly “flawed”, often leaving lots of gaping plot holes in their storylines which do nothing but confuse me as I reminiscence back on them, especially for works in the mystery genre whose goals are (often) to lie intricate mysteries for you to solve using hints scattered throughout the story and deducing and solving the case. Of course, unless you're trying to imitate a certain style or influenced by a certain style in writing there is not a proper set of guidelines on “how to make a good mystery 101”, but that does not change the fact that a lot of the mysteries in their previous works (especially Kodaka’s) are impressively unsatisfying to resolve and end up on either borderline unpredictable or are unable to be guessed till the very last second OR if you’re used to their habits in their stylistic choices & presentation of their mysteries.
But aside from my past behind the writers, this game follows very much of the same formula, but this time they came violently opening the doors, shouting on top of it’s lungs and announcing with unbelievable confidence that Uchikoshi & Kodaka are producing a new IP with the ambitious premises that they were going to deliver a game with not one, not two, not ten, not twenty, not fifty, but 100 endings. Obviously, if you’re not incredibly gullible you probably severely doubted it and assumed that it was going to be like, 3 actual endings and the rest are just filler bad endings but that was not that at all- and easily the one thing I’ll give its most supreme and deserved praise. It’s ambitious, and I have never seen this much ambition in the JP industry be realised in a very long time, not since Rance X -Kessen- and NonStories: Eien No Hanikawa. All of the endings (that I’ve experienced) are fully written out, and serve greatly into forming the all-around canvas of this visual novel, and goodness! They are truly grand, and there was no lie about that, sure, while I found the contents of the canva itself… Rather rubbish and laughable, I cannot deny that they had expectations they wanted to deliver and fully delivered on them, and that is easily a huge up for me, seeing such a ridiculous plan actually bear it’s fruits is certainly one more advance on how far we can bring out ludonarrative dissonance to its zenith, so if there is one thing the game promises is that the 100 endings are in fact, very much real. And that this 30~hrs prologue is just the beginning of what it has to uncover.
Now, enough praise for this without a doubt, splendid achievement in its premises. Let’s talk about where it falls all apart, or atleast, where it should- But this game got me way too invested for me to find it a particular problem.
The characters, oh goodness. You could entirely summarise the characters in very few words, as I once said beforehand and the gags that the characters have are repeated throughout the entirety of the visual novel, I’ll dodge spoilers as much as I can as well but it’s so funny how the characters literally work as if they had only one function, and often a lot of the group dialogue in The Hundred Line ends up like this :
[LITERALLY ANYTHING HAPPENS IN THE HUNDRED LINE]
Darumi : Kyohoho. Can we get on the killing game already? Bunch of NORMIES, dibs on Shouma!
Shouma : O-oh… I understand why you would want to kill me, anyways I’m worse than trash- I’m like an insect below insects, even killing me is a waste of time so I completely understand… I’ll go back to my room now like the little miserable pillbug I am.
Yugamu : For the love of murder! You shouldn’t put yourself down like this, Shouma. I’m sure your insides would look magnificent.
Kako : Brother Dearest, this tempura fish is exquisite with strawberry jello and condensed milk poured over it, it really brings out its flavours!
Tsubasa : All this tension is really going to make me… HURK-…
And honestly, expect the whole game to be written just like this, the same gags will repeat on and on till the closure of the visual novel. It sounds like I’ve gone mad but the characters feel as if they’re unchanging objects, and it’s very much in Kodaka’s style to design their characters this way, and you know what? It’s so corny, the entirety of Hundred Line is absolutely corny, but it’s… Fun? As I write this review, I am reading this visual novel with a friend of mine, and we’re on completely different routes and we’ve been just been having so much fucking fun from it, sending each other dumb tweets about Hundred Line and honestly? It’s what I needed. It’s a visual novel that’s ridiculously stupid, fun and corny- A negative, plus a negative makes a positive. It has earned it’s well-deserved spot into one of the best kusoge VNs I’ve read.
I’ll probably add on further in this review as I have not finished this visual novel yet, and it’d take quite a while for me to finish it, but I truly thank Uchikoshi and Kodaka for being such incredibly oblivious writers in their own technique as that is a genuine trait on what makes this game so insanely charming.