Topic: The Hundred Line (Danganronpa Fully Realized)

@AJWolfTill I couldn't even hazard a guess. I've got 56 endings in about 110 hours at this point in time, but a few of the endings could be considered quite cheap. I don't think its going to take double the time already taken, but it might still take a while. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

78 hours and four endings deep into The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy now since beginning it around mid-January. This game is unbelievably narratively ambitious. It's no wonder this mammoth game almost bankrupted the developers.

The sacrifice to achieve this kind of scale is obvious: unlike the tightly-woven narratives one is used to from these creators, LDA is a lumbering mess of a game. Which doesn't take away from how much great material there is here, and this might very well be my favorite game from either of these creators, given how utterly unique it is, but it's a little wild how one can ruin late-game twists (of which there are many) for oneself when they're casually referenced in some of the game's stranger routes. LDA does try to kind of lead the player in the direction of the closest thing a game like this can have to a true ending, but if one's curiosity takes one off of it, that's tens of hours of gameplay in the wrong direction if one isn't using a guide to make sure they're staying on the narrative route they should probably take to maximize their experience with the game.

There's nothing else out there really like this in the industry, and I think it'll be a long time before we see anything like this again. And, to be honest, I don't want other games to copy this format, because it's a lot.

But I am impressed, as well as enthralled.

I could probably casually play this game for years if I wanted, but I know in my heart of hearts that I'm gonna break my back seeing every little bit of content this year, potentially to the detriment of other games I could be playing instead. Because once you're locked in, you're locked in. It's biting down into me the same way as the best Monster Hunter or Shin Megami Tensei games have.

Tend to play this game in bursts but still enjoying it. Hoping we will finish it in time for it's 1 year anniversary!

We had a couple of flatter routes in a row a few months ago which led to us shelving it for a bit but more recently had the V'exness and 2nd scenario/Reset ones which were excellent.

@Ralizah
I think it's better to view this game as having ~20 routes rather than 100 endings. Helps to give better perspective about how much you haven't seen.
I'm curious which routes you ended up seeing first as it actually took me awhile to get the ending that is coded as the second playthrough route

@AJWolfTill Yes and no. It's imperfect even then, given how variable the length of these routes are. Anywhere from being as long as the original first part of the game to something you can fully explore in a couple of hours.

A blind playthrough led me to do the Cult of Takumi and V'exhness routes first. I'm working on and am 72 or so days through the rather lengthy 2nd Scenario route path as well, which I believe still branches off to a few different routes depending on what choices I make.

Once I'm through with this, I'll just kind of enjoy exploring additional routes at my leisure between other games.

I finally reached the true ending of this game. Man, that was a crazy, hectic, unexpected, and moving ending. Not gonna lie, my eyes got a little watery, and that pretty much never happens to me, at least not in video games. I don't know if the game as a whole matches 999 for me, simply because I'm generally not a huge fan of tactical/strategy games, but this one is definitely up there.

I do have one question for people who have totally completed the game. I never looked anything up as to which choices to make or which paths to take, but this was only my ninth ending. I was kind of hoping the true ending would hit a dead end until I'd done the other stuff like in Zero Escape, but I guess not. So is there really any point in going to find the other 91 endings other than just for the heck of it and to see how goofy they might be? I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually after a bit of a break from the game, but is there any "true/canon" stuff that I've yet to see, or have I already seen it all just by taking this correct path?

@Xyphon22 Wait, I'm confused. First of all, I didn't know this forum was here, I don't think. Second, how many endings have you seen? You said true ending.

@Zeeba I reread your comment and saw that you've only seen nine endings. If you can stomach going through it, I don't regret seeing every ending. There is an ultimate style end, to spoil that wonderful detail for anyone who wants to know. I spent a year getting every ending. I think it was worth it.

@Zeeba Yeah, I assume it's what is meant to be the true ending because the chart just goes straight across with no branching paths, and the end credits is in color with pictures instead of just black and white and has a different song. It's the 2nd Scenario route where V'exhness blows up the satellite and only Nozomi survives and it ends with her sort of befriending some cloaked Futurans

What I've done is I just went through making the choices I wanted (my first ending was possibly the worst one ever, I did the Coming of Age route), and then whenever I hit an ending I would just go back to the most recent decision and make the other one. So I could have hit the true ending even earlier if I hadn't just chosen obviously bad paths simply because they were the other side of my most recent choice. I will almost certainly go back and try to do the rest of them eventually, but I think I need a break for now. Most of my routes have been really long, I think at least 5 or 6 of them have gone to day 99 or 100. Are most of them like that, or are there a lot that are just quick and easy? At least it lets you skip the battles you have already done on another route.

@Xyphon22 there's a different ending I consider to be the true ending so, no, that's not the true ending and yes, there are other worthwhile endings. The last is no slouch. But also yes, some endings are throw away. Like, you chose correctly; now see what happens if you chose wrong type *****. I loved this game so very much and I hope they add more endings like they said they would.

Also, take all the time you need. Go play other games. Come back later and do a branch. No need to rush through. I didn't rush.

@Xyphon22
Bear in mind that there are two key architects of this game Kodaka (Danganrompa) and Uchikoshi (Zero Escape) as well as a lot of other writers who handled different routes.

I've seen about half the endings and what you are describing is the Kodaka 'true ending'. It was the best ending I have seen so far and felt much more significant than most the others I have seen.

The Zero Escape style blocks are in the game and there is an Uchikoshi 'true ending' that requires you to have seen specific (but crucially not all) other endings first.
I'm still working on that gradually.

@Zeeba @AJWolfTill Gotcha, thanks for the info. So there are definitely other things to see besides just throwaway stuff. That's good to know. I knew it was made by the two different guys, but I don't know enough to just recognize the names, and even if I did, I didn't look up who was behind each ending. This was a very powerful and fitting ending, but I've got to believe that there's got to be an ending where we team up with Dahl'xia to overthrow V'exhness, put Dahl'xia back in power and all coexist peacefully right? Don't tell me if there is, but that is where I thought this was going and then BAM! Curveball after curveball.

And yeah, I have been taking my time and playing other games along with this, but I really wanted to power through when I got to about day 80-85 and knew I was nearing the end. And then the end just kept going (in a good way, I wasn't expecting so much to happen in so few days), so I'm a little worn out on it and need to take a break for now. But I will definitely come back to it later.