The tactical role-playing game The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy from studio Too Kyo Games and Danganronpa series creator Kazutaka Kodaka stands out with its unconventional approach to the genre. The game's combat director, Akihiro Togawa, revealed in an interview with Automaton that the combat system was based on a concept completely opposite to the iconic Fire Emblem series.
Death Is Not the End, but a Tool
While Fire Emblem is famous for its permadeath mechanic, where the player's main goal is to keep every unit alive, The Hundred Line forces players to act differently:
- Endless Defense: Characters must defend the Last Defense Academy at all costs for 100 days.
- Resurrection Mechanic: Even after dying in battle, students are revived in the infirmary and forced back into the ranks.
- Life as a Resource: The combat system encourages treating fighters' lives as a tactical resource to accomplish the mission.
“When I realized that players would have to defend the school even at the cost of characters' deaths, it occurred to me to create the complete opposite of Fire Emblem. Using heroes as expendable material allowed us to maximize the dramatic impact of the story,” Togawa explained.
Influence of Game Boy Advance Classics
Despite the fundamentally different approach to gameplay, it was the Fire Emblem series that opened the world of tactical RPGs to the developer. Togawa noted that the Fire Emblem trilogy on the Game Boy Advance made a colossal impression on him in middle school, completely destroying his prejudice against turn-based strategies and defining his future career path.
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