At first of 2025, I totally believed I had grown uninterested in tales about a number of timelines. In the course of the previous decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe pushed the basic comedian ebook narrative system into the mainstream, fueling a movie conglomerate with legally accredited cameos, flashy visuals on the silver display, and free plots that, finally, got here collectively for one last pay-off.
Whereas the idea of the multiverse has been explored in movie and TV even earlier than Marvel’s takeover, it rapidly grew to become the narrative basis of selection. When carried out proper, the potential is undeniable–works like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Every thing, In all places, All at As soon as are heartwrenching shows of interpersonal relationships, making characters face the fact of what-if situations, reconciling with their decisions and what may have been if that they had turned the opposite manner as a substitute. However you’ll be able to solely hear the identical tune so many instances earlier than it begins to lose its unique impression.
It wasn’t till The Hundred Line: Final Protection Academy that my curiosity was reanimated. The visible novel and strategy-RPG hybrid presents itself as deceivingly linear, solely to push you into a very totally different story construction on the very finish. It makes for a sprawling internet of outcomes based mostly in your decisions, all whereas showcasing totally different views on occasions and characters that weave absurdity and sentimentality in equal measure in a showcase of artistic prowess from the event group.
It began after an eShop sale in July inspired me to lastly meet up with the Danganronpa and AI: Somnium Recordsdata collection. It was the right motivation to organize myself for this behemoth of a recreation, through which the lead builders of each collection bought collectively for a joint mission that options 100 endings.
The idea sounded exhausting–as somebody who’s consistently enjoying video games for work, I figured I would by no means be capable to justify the time for it, particularly since I needed to at the very least play essentially the most distinguished fashionable works from the builders first. To my shock, I ended up adoring the messiness of Danganronpa’s merciless killing video games. Nevertheless it was AI: Somnium Recordsdata and its sequel, Nirvana Initiative, that led me to start to know The Hundred Line’s potential.
Each video games kick off from linear storylines that arrange a detective-style thriller. Ultimately, the plot begins to department out–depending on key choices you make, you find yourself pursuing totally different timelines, all represented in a move chart that you need to use to leap forwards and backwards between them, particularly when routes get locked till you have made progress on a distinct timeline. There is a true ending that, on paper, symbolizes the meant end result of occasions. But, the method of witnessing what may have occurred if I had made a distinct resolution, experiencing the ramifications on characters and their fates and getting different endings, was instantly arresting.
In a manner, enjoying by way of The Hundred Line is much like the expertise of getting by way of each of those franchises as I did. You play as Takumi Sumino, one in all 15 highschool college students who’re despatched to the mysterious Final Protection Academy to guard humanity from invaders. The story is structured in 100 days, which is precisely the time period that the scholars have been commanded to endure. Whereas none of them have as many in-game days, all mainline Danganronpa video games share this construction, splitting the visible novel side of the story with exploration and trials–in The Hundred Line, the latter takes the form of technique RPG battles, in addition to free time to extend bonds with characters.
However attending to the ultimate day does not imply reaching the tip. Whereas there’s little motive to consider that day 100 is not principally the story’s end result, it solely signifies the tip of a prologue. When you get to the tantalizing date, the sport radically adjustments and turns into much like AI: The Somnium Recordsdata (in addition to earlier video games led by lead developer Kotaro Uchikoshi, comparable to Zero Escape: Advantage’s Final Reward and Zero Time Dilemma). Your job, then, is to discover totally different timelines and dive into their very own what-if situations, making choices that result in the aforementioned 100 endings.
Chatting with Bloomberg, Danganronpa lead designer Kazutaka Kodaka stated that writers got the liberty to take characters in wild instructions, from a comedy route to at least one the place all of them flip into zombies. The additional you plunge into the move chart, the extra this turns into obvious, with characters adopting totally different personalities, or the sport itself altering drastically compared to the calendar schedule of the unique 100 days.
Usually, choice-driven tales repair you to sure paths relying on what you choose, they usually have you ever carrying these decisions from that second on. Video games like this yr’s Dispatch, for instance, introduced again the Telltale Video games formulation into the zeitgeist, as former builders of the studio led the mission. There are many “this character will do not forget that” messages on display, and whereas a few of your choices do carry some weight towards the tip, the principle story is structured largely the identical. Regardless of the participant’s enter, the larger outcomes have already been determined.
In The Hundred Line, experiencing totally different outcomes is akin to opening a treasure trove that may seemingly by no means run out of surprises. It embodies the curiosity of a whiteboard crammed with concepts that the builders had, and the uncommon probability of really with the ability to see them manifested. What would have occurred if this character hadn’t died? What ramifications may a seemingly small resolution have within the lives of your fellow college students? The solutions to those questions are all laid naked so that you can choose and expertise for your self. There’s a true ending that you could pursue to uncover the overarching mysteries launched in the course of the prologue. However there’s additionally the valuable alternative of witnessing fully totally different tales.
At its core, The Hundred Line makes a singular case of how the interactive nature of video video games suits tales about a number of timelines like a glove. It is not typically that we’re in a position to witness the builders’ creativity on such a giant scale, both. But, it was that precise show that gave me a reappreciation of this narrative system, and left me ruminating about my very own decisions in life. 2025 marked the tenth anniversary of my first revealed article. It was the results of responding to a name for writers from somebody in a Fb group I barely knew who was beginning her personal weblog. Had I carried out in a different way, that day would have been as some other. I might have continued finding out graphic design, maybe. I might have met fully totally different folks within the years that adopted, whereas video video games would have been nothing however a mere pastime. It was solely a brief message that, on the time, appeared innocuous. I had no thought how a lot it’d fully change my life.
The extra end-of-the-year discussions I get to be part of, the extra I understand I am going to merely not be capable to get to every little thing I need to see, do, and play on this lifetime. The time dedication of a narrative with 100 endings is daunting, to place it mildly. However I do not remorse spending months making ready for it, in addition to the handfuls of ongoing hours dissecting its each route. It is a daring showcase of ambition and years of collected information paying off, time and time once more, in a manner that solely video video games can muster. And it is also a relentless showcase of how a lot our lives can change on a whim with out us realizing.
