It is a rare luxury that I am able to play as much as I want of a video game as opposed to the necessary amount as required by my job. But with The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, I've been able to play my fill, put it down, and pick it back up when the spirit wills me, lackadaisical like, from the start. It's fundamentally altered my opinion on the game, and made me generally rethink how I consume media. And, more specifically, I've come to appreciate my Steam Deck all the more.
If you're not familiar, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is an adventure game that's part visual novel, part strategy role-playing game. It's not quite accurate to call it "Persona XCOM," but that's not all that far off either. Notably, the game is the brainchild of Danganronpa's Kazutaka Kodaka and Zero Escape's Kotaro Uchikoshi as part of the larger team at developer Too Kyo Games. If you know Danganronpa or Zero Escape, you'll have some idea of the existential and emotional hope-and-despair cycle you're getting into with Hundred Line. It's high energy, all the time, but the type of energy is always changing.
