eternal amateur

Back to The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy! I played as far as the game would let me on the Mystery route, and now... well, I'm not sure what route I'm on now, but I can tell you that it contains the line 'I'll just have to make some counterfeit panties!'


( Notes on The Hundred Line. )


I'd seen it said that this game's script was long enough to fill sixty novels, which seemed implausible, so I investigated.

Riona: Yeah, I think that's an exaggeration, or at least they'd have to be short novels. Six million Japanese characters is apparently... maybe two point five or three million English words? It's probably more like thirty novels, if we're looking at average novel length. Five or six times the length of The Lord of the Rings.
Tem: Oh, God, we'll be here forever. We're stuck in a time loop.
Riona: I always knew this would happen.
Tem, simultaneously: We were always going to end up here.

I can't believe The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy exists. The scale of it just does not feel like anything that would be created with commercial intent. It's a passion project; it's an Umineko, it's a Homestuck. Any sane studio would have stopped at the first route or two. But somehow here this game is, in all its sprawling, ridiculous glory.

As if the game weren't vast enough already, Kodaka has said he wants to add more routes, possibly consulting the fans on what they want to see.

I think we should all petition him to make my orgy fic canon. I think that would be right up his street.

My gaming partner Tem has been away for a few days, so I've been taking an enforced break from ludicrous child soldier simulator The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy.

I was itching for something else to play in the meantime, so I've picked up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I'm having a really good time with it!

The central concept of Clair Obscur is so interesting. This is the main reason I took an interest in this game; I looked up the central premise and went, 'Huh, that's really unusual and fascinating.' The fact that a lot of people I follow on Dreamwidth are playing and enjoying it definitely helped to recommend it! But just learning the premise was the first thing that tempted me to play this game.

I'll pop the premise behind a short cut, just in case anyone wants to go into this game knowing nothing at all. This cut only contains the basic concept of the game; there's a more spoilery cut further down the post.


( The premise of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. )


I was a little nervous about the battle system, but I'm enjoying it! It's challenging - more than once I've had my party wiped out during a regular enemy encounter - but I'm having fun. I tend not to like games that really expect you to be able to parry with precise timing, but it turns out that's a demand I'm a lot more comfortable with in a turn-based battle system; I only have to focus on parrying during the enemy's turn, rather than having to worry about it all the time.

The scenery is gorgeous. I love how weird and dreamlike the landscapes are. Incredible soundtrack, too.

Major spoilers below the cut! I've just reached the Forgotten Battlefield.


( Spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. )


As a final note: Clair Obscur is perhaps the Frenchest game I've ever played, which is saying something, given that I've played Assassin's Creed: Unity.