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In the demo version of The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-, you get to experience a surprisingly addictive week of slaughter, mystery, and crude humor. Clocking in at somewhere between two and three hours, it gives a good idea of what to expect in the final product, and so far, I’m really enjoying what the game has to offer.

The story of The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- follows Takumi Sumino, an ordinary high school boy living an ordinary life with his ordinary family. He lives in the Tokyo Residential Complex with them, and has a childhood friend slash potential romantic interest named Karua. One day, while he and Karua are on their way to school, a siren blares out over the TRC. However, it’s not the usual drill. Bizarre monsters appear from out of nowhere, massacring citizens left and right. When they're about to kill Karua, a strange mascot resembling a gross version of Shinigami-chan from Rain Code appears and unlocks hemoanima — a strange blood-based power — within Takumi. With this new ability, Takumi fights off the monsters, but then the mascot, Sirei, transports him away from the TRC.

After waking up in an unfamiliar school with a group of other strangers, Takumi learns that Sirei conscripted them in a war against the school invaders. Though no one really knows anything about these invaders, they do know that they’re after something inside the school — something important to the fate of the universe. To protect their loved ones from the impending apocalypse, Takumi and his new friends pick up arms to fight off the invaders. But things aren’t as simple as they seem (not that they were simple to begin with).

As you might expect from a project with Kodaka as one of the main writers, The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- features a colorful cast of characters. We’ve got a (canonically) gross siscon, a manic pixie emo girl who belongs in the world of Danganronpa, and a cute mechanic who’s ready to lose her lunch at the slightest provocation, among others. This shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’ve played previous games from him or the team, though.

Since the demo covers the first seven days, only a handful of characters receive much attention. This also has to do with the fact that the vast majority of the cast straight up aren’t interested in fighting against the school invaders due to fear, confusion, and Sirei’s caginess. Hopefully, The Hundred Line can avoid the pitfall of Super Danganronpa 2, in which some characters only exist for a gag or one-off purpose. It does feel familiar to that series, though, in that a good chunk of the first chapter features the characters refusing to participate in the story's main conceit. Between the music (which sounds like a knockoff version of Danganronpa tracks) and Darumi's existence, there are a lot of little in-jokes for Danganronpa players.

As a note, I couldn't change my voiceover language until I unlocked the main options menu. This took me about an hour to do. You also can’t change the language while you’re in the game, and I didn’t realize this until after I beat the demo, meaning I played the whole thing in English. That was a drag for me, since I was excited for a good number of the Japanese cast. Everyone’s performance was really good, though, with special props to the voice actors for Takumi and Takemaru. Eito's voice actor really sold his shtick well, and I have a new appreciation for Tsubasa's English voice actress for how much of herself she put into her "URK!"s.

Speaking of the voices, I couldn’t tell if this was a bug or a feature. But in certain scenes, only some characters will have fully-voiced lines. For example, in one conversation, Takemaru was the only one whose lines were fully voiced. Everyone else only had the little sound bites and grunts. That was kind of weird.

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- is a tower defense TRPG in which you have to clear victory conditions (usually routing all enemies or killing a specific commander) while protecting the barrier generator at the back of the map. Each turn, you have a set amount of shared AP. So long as you have AP, a character can take action as many times as you please, though you'll have to for them becoming Fatigued. You can also get AP back through kills or hemoanima boost, or let excess carry over. It's pretty satisfying to chain your AP recovery methods to let a character attack, like, five times per turn and mow down a whole crowd of invaders before they can get anywhere near the generator.

After each wave, the game revives any fallen characters, and restores everyone's HP to max. So fighting to keep them alive isn’t that big a deal. In fact, the game even gives you bonus points for how many of your units die, either to an enemy or with a special suicide attack. Of course, you still have to time when you toss your unit to the metaphorical wolves, since losing too many units can leave you defenseless against the perpetual advance of enemies. The enemies generally keep moving forward until they reach the barrier and can self-destruct near it. As protecting this barrier is your main goal, students have to stop as many as possible before they can reach it, and they can't do that if they can't move from their tile, or if they're stunned after an ultimate attack.

Since it’s still early in the game, it’s not that hard once you get the hang of the system. The revival and healing mechanic between waves really opens up a lot of options, since you can be as reckless as you want. The characters don't level up in battle, either, as you can enhance them during your free time. So there's no need to keep anyone alive just so they can get experience points. Losing Takumi near the end of a wave only warranted a shrug, whereas a good unit's death in another TRPG (especially a protagonist) would've required a restart. I’m hoping the later stages will introduce some different gimmicks and victory conditions, or amp up the difficulty, to keep it from becoming stale.

Outside of battles, you can spend time with your allies or explore the world outside of the Last Defense Academy. Exploration reminds me a bit of Ultimate Talent Development Plan from V3. You can choose how many steps you take on a Monopoly-like board, with some tiles giving you a text-only event and two options to choose between. No matter what you decide on, you’ll receive a reward, but some “wrong” choices will deplete your HP. This will carry over into battle, so you'll want to keep an eye on that. Exploration gives you resources (though I didn't get a chance to use them in the demo), and the main story requires you to do it as well.

Finally, in Danganronpa, Free Time was a way to speak to other characters and get to know them a little better. While The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- also has this, the free time events are a lot shorter, and don’t really give as many details about everyone. You can receive points to improve Takumi’s grades, which level characters up and give them more options during exploration. But it doesn’t look like there’s an affection system or deeper character interactions through Free Time. Again, though, as this is the demo, it’s hard to say for sure. I do hope that we can learn more about everyone in Free Time, though. Some of the character stories in Danganronpa gave new insight that would be out of place in the main story, as well as offered more minor characters the chance to shine.

With a simple yet intriguing storyline that’s already set up multiple questions and clues, a surprisingly addictive tower defense combat system, and some pretty likeable characters, The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- feels like a game that someone can easily sink hours upon hours into. Seeing the reminder at the end that the game is coming out in late April 2025 rather than any time soon was a bummer, as I really wanted to know more about the academy, the TRC, and the invaders. As it's only about three hours long, give or take, I recommend anyone who's interested to give it a try.

The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- will come out on the Nintendo Switch and Windows PC via Steam on April 24, 2025. Previewed on Windows PC.

The post Preview: The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- Was Hard to Put Down appeared first on Siliconera.

My first experience seeing the original PlayStation in action was when I walked into a dumpy local game shop and they had a system hooked up to some frumpy thirteen-inch tube tv on the counter. There, I saw the shop owner wandering through Midgar in Final Fantasy VII, and witnessed visuals like I could never imagine before.

If you were around at the time, you likely a similar feeling - this sense that this was impossible. Games couldn't look this good. Those backgrounds looked so real to me way back in 1997. It's a quaint thought coming a few days after the PS5 reveal, but those visuals really made me feel that the future of games was here, and that it looked amazing.

PlayStation promised incredible worlds made more realistic and vibrant than ever before, and while that swept me up in my initial encounter with the system, another game would show me that the system's true power wasn't just in its visual, but in its sound.

Wild Arms brought a little Wild West flavor to RPGs, a genre largely focused on Fantasy settings (but not without the occasional foray into horror, like in the STAGGERINGLY good Sweet Home). Offering guns and cowboy hats on top of magic and swords, it was a sharp RPG that didn't exactly bring sweeping changes to the genre, but rather offered a rock-solid take on turn-based combat, but with a few neat touches. Shooting goblins in the face with a rocket launcher should be something you can do in more games, I tells ya.

It also had a surprisingly touching story, delving into feelings of being an outsider and a desire to belong, as well as fears that maybe we are being ostracized for a good reason. This sense of internalized monstrosity made for some wonderful moments among the cast, and a reminder of how vital friendships can be in reminding us that we are worth loving and caring for, even if we don't feel that way. Especially if we don't feel that way.

Those heartwarming moments between Rudy, Cecilia, and Jack only stuck with me as much as they had because of Michiko Naruke's evocative, powerful soundtrack. If Final Fantasy VII showed me the visual power of this system, it was Wild Arms that made me feel the strength of its audio.

If you've never played it, do take a moment to watch Wild Arms' intro movie and just take in the song "To The End Of The Wilderness." Even if you have played it, go ahead and watch it again. Although you likely don't need much prompting to watch this exquisite bit of song and storytelling. I know I said before the FFVII impressed me with its visuals, but this was ANIME in a VIDEO GAME.

It's that soft, soothing guitar accompanied by a gentle whistling that set the musical tone for the game, capturing its Wild West feel and creating this resonance within me. The increasing sense of adventure and excitement simply dragged me into the game before it had even started, doing so with a sound style I'd never heard in a game before. Those were real instruments being played.

I have a deep love of chiptunes, and have many, many fond memories of the soundtracks of many an NES and SNES RPG, but this was a revelation for me at the time. This movement from the game-y sounds of Final Fantasy VI to highly realistic music had me floored with the possibilities in games at the time. This Western-themed track just promised so much emotional connection, excitement, danger, and adventure that it was impossible to look away.

Naruke's soundtrack would continually deliver heavy hits that showed this newfound musical power, stirring up many feelings in me that would make the game so memorable. "Courage" has to be one of the greatest dungeon themes of all time, capturing that Wild West feel alongside its unrelenting excitement to be out on an adventure with friends. Pairing that with its solid battle theme, "Critical Hit!" made for some thrilling times spent fighting monsters and solving puzzles with a thrown rat (although I'm not a huge fan of the battle theme, I can it it pairs well with this great dungeon music).

When you're out for a walk through Wild Arms, there's a playfulness and, again, that sense of imminent excitement as you meander the world to "Migrant Bird of the Wilderness." When you hit a town and find the calming sounds of "Marsh Where the Migrant Birds Gather," it's hard not to feel right at home with the townsfolk (even when you're rummaging through their barrels for special apples). The first few strums of the guitar on this song have stuck with me for ages, always bringing back that sense of community.

As I walked through those places, I couldn't help but the mixture of yearning and peacefulness that came with the opening town's theme, "Hope." These town and world map tracks were so rich, filled with guitars and bells and trumpets, that they seemed to wrap themselves around you, creating this comforting sensation that you'd come to these places and forgotten the real world behind you.

Wild Arms was just as capable of a sense of deep menace as well. "The Sky is Being Torn Apart" is a pounding song of continual dread as the stakes suddenly raise much higher than you'd previously imagined. If that song wasn't enough of an indication, having to save townsfolk lives to "World of Loudening Screams" would drive it home as you scrambled to bring as many people back alive as you could (also, permanently dying townsfolk was wild at the time). And you knew, deep down, that trouble was going down when "The Sharp Edge of an Assault" began to play, its erratic and rushed tones sending the heart racing with dread.

And when the boss fight inevitably started, the pealing bells and thundering drums of "Power Fighter" would just leave me quivering before whatever giant monstrosity was standing before me. This track was saved for special bosses, and it just oozes atmosphere, building a fear of whatever creature was now staring you down. It's usual boss track, "M-BOSS," was used for its regular boss battles, but it's only slightly less effective at making the bosses feel like titans towering before you.

Which was especially handy since most of them looked goofy as hell, even back in 1997. I love you Wild Arms, but your 3D visuals have never been all that great. Although they do have some neat designs in there.

Mind you, those boss tracks would pale before Boomerang Flash's boss music, though. That guy had presence right from the start. Wolf companion? Giant boomerang? Menacing whistling music? I wish he'd gotten some screen time. Could have gone toe to toe with some RPG greats if he had. The sheer presence of these songs made the colossal ninja into a boss I'd never forget.

Naruke wove so much magic into Wild Arms' soundtrack - pumping out memorable song after memorable song, each carrying an incredible emotional weight. "Alone in the World" is a deeply sorrowful tune, but there's a turn within it that hints at a glimmer of hope - the kind of hope heroes need to cling to that they can make this world right again. "A Sorrowful Separation" carries a similar feeling, with Naruke's work taking us to dark places, but always with this sense that we needed to pick ourselves up and move forward.

When you did move forward, rushing into what seemed to be the game's conclusion? "Agitation to Destruction" gave the opposing force this alien quality, their plans moving inexorably forward to the beat. And when you finally reach their base, "Knights Quarters" is an exciting dungeon track that keeps egging you on, pushing you to finally face the monstrosities that plague the world. This was just another track in a series of absolutely killer dungeon themes, with "Eulogy of Ruin" and "Holy Mother of Darkness" offering some delightfully surreal tunes as you crawled through futuristic halls and otherworldly places.

Not only was the music incredible, but its sound was like nothing I'd experienced before. The whistling tones of "Ancient Shrine" carried a lovely, haunting beauty. The castanets during "Wh What," Zed's playful boss theme? The warm guitar during the game's intro. It gave the game this incredible feeling of musical depth and a sense of place, with the opener giving you a Fantasy Wild West setting through music alone. You could imagine this space before you even saw it, purely through the work Naruke put into Wild Arms' sound.

It's difficult to write about this soundtrack without devolving into a list of every single track and why it's good and effective at creating this wondrous imagined world in the player's head. So many of its tracks resonate with me all these years later, reminding me just how important music is to an RPG, or really any game. Especially in these early days, the music is what made these games into so much more than their visuals were capable of. The music gave events a grand scale that tiny sprites and clumsy polygons shaped like tiny people just couldn't pull off. Even as the PlayStation gave us incredible visual power at the time, it's the CD-quality music it allowed for that made for so many treasured RPG memories and places.

When the final notes of "The Earth Gals Did Their Best, huh" hit, and I suddenly realized I was never going to see these characters again, I felt that strong connection to the game and the people within it. It's that feeling you get when you really connect with a work's characters - that feeling that you never want your time with them to end. Wild Arms hit me hard with it, in ways I would only feel in games like Chrono Trigger and Persona 4, doing so with a track that felt like the most tearful of goodbyes.

Naruke's work with the original Wild Arms created a monumental soundtrack that built the world of Filgaia as much, if not moreso, than any bit of text or visuals. It's what made the trying moments between characters stick with me for these years, what made Rudy's story as touching as it was, and what helped birth a new land for us to find adventure in.

This was the power of the PlayStation when it came out. Its visuals took my breath away back in 1997, but it's the musical possibilities that would let artists like Naruke continue to impress and affect my heart all the way in 2020.

Wild Arms is available on the PS3, PS Vita, and PSP through the PlayStation Store.

The post Wild Arms Creates Emotional Connection Through Unforgettable Songs appeared first on Siliconera.