#school council

The final online School Council session was held as a “graduation ceremony” for the members. While there are some spoilers in this content, there was a clear notice at the beginning that direct spoilers about the ending would be avoided.

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On how they felt after the game’s release

Miyokawa: How has the response been since The Hundred Line launched?

Kodaka: I’ve been constantly checking reactions on social media—so much so that I feel kind of burnt out from SNS. I’m active not just on X but also on Weibo for our Chinese audience.

Uchikoshi: Thanks to the School Council members, it feels like a big commercial success. I’m really grateful to everyone who supported us.

Kodaka: The Hundred Line is like a child we’ve brought into the world. Since it’s our own original IP, I’d really like to continue raising it and developing it further as a game. It’s something I want to cherish.

Inou: We plan to keep updating the game and also expand on merchandise. Right now, I’m promoting it internally, starting with colleagues in other departments. Sales have been so good that we’ve had some items go out of stock. I was just talking to the merch person today, and they said ‘Aotsuki and Omokage are really trending.’ For some reason, those two are especially popular.

(When this comment about Aotsuki and Omokage’s merch being popular came up, the council members playfully joked in the chat: I wonder why~~)

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Miyokawa: We collected advance survey responses from the student council for today, and the feedback we received was… very passionate and long! (laughs)

We also received many questions, so we’d like to go through them as we talk.

On why the first 100 days were made linear

Miyokawa: The fact that the first 100 days were entirely linear and only branched afterward was kept a secret until release. Even the switch to the title The Hundred Line 2 was a complete surprise.

Kodaka: I wanted players to form a deep emotional connection with the characters before the branching began. I wanted players to make decisions together with Takumi after forming that attachment. That’s why it was necessary to go through the same part at least twice. After that, it splits into completely different parallel worlds—like Spider-Verse.

I deliberately made it unclear where the branching occurs, to give the impression that there may be branching that is not based on choices. For example, you might wonder, "Does it branch depending on the commander execution events?"

This was a special surprise reserved for players who started playing right after the game was released.

Uchikoshi: Actually, there was a plan to sell them separately as 1 and 2. We also considered a style like Marvel's The Avengers, where sequels are released one after another. But Kodaka opposed that, and we released them together. He said, ‘It’s crazier to bundle Part 1 and 2 from the start.’

Miyokawa: Wow, so The Hundred Line was actually a bundled 1–2 pack!

Survey results on the first ending players reached

Miyokawa: We conducted a survey asking which ending people reached first. Let’s take a look at the results.

L*** D****** A****** 2** Scenario: 001 (1 person)

E** Route: 007 (1 person)

C***** Route: 023 (1 person)

C*** o* T***** Route: 041 (3 people)

V******** Route: 043 (1 person)

C*****-o*-A** Route: 045 (2 people) / 047 (1 person)

R****** Route: 062 (1 person) / 065 (1 person)

S****** Route: 072 (2 people) / 074 (1 person)

Kodaka: Truth Uncovered Route is… oh, I said it. Well, we already mentioned beforehand that the Truth Uncovered Route exists, so it’s fine. Anyway, those who are familiar with branching in games like this may have been able to reach the end.

(Regarding the fact that many people went to the C*** o* T***** Route first) Well, when choosing among three options, it seems that quite a few people thought it would be cruel to choose the remaining two. As the writer, I tried to give hints that “this is the route to uncovering the truth,” though.

On the game’s volume

Miyokawa: We received a comment saying, ‘My entire Golden Week disappeared because of this game.’ (Golden Week is a series of holidays in Japan from late April to early May.)

Kodaka: ...Yeah, no way it could be finished during Golden Week. We never designed it to be that short. I made it with the idea that players would spend half a year playing it.

On branching paths

Kodaka: Speaking of branching... the Comedy Route—oh, I said it again. Anyway, I think that particular branch should have been a bit easier to understand.

Uchikoshi: I wish you had told me that earlier...

Kodaka: Um, what was it, like a high kick or a low kick... and one of them leads to a pretty serious route. I think we should’ve made the options leading to the Comedy Route more over-the-top and silly.

Uchikoshi: I wish I’d heard that sooner... It would’ve been easy to tweak. I made that scene a major turning point because I wanted it to be memorable. That's why I split the route there into two completely different ones.

Sanba: We received a question from the student council: ‘Did anything stand out or surprise you while observing user reactions on social media or Let’s Plays?’

Kodaka: What surprised me was how few people backed out midway. I watched all 100 endings myself, but when I got to the kiss-or-not choice with Shizuhara, I immediately turned back. I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m not really in the mood for this right now.’

Inou: I hear that once you turn back once, you lose the resistance to turn back.

Kodaka: The branching scenario was originally given to Uchikoshi and the team to write, based on the scenario for the truth-unraveling arc. The “truth-uncovering” part is the core scenario, if you think of it as a continuation of the first 100 days. I try not to mention this too much, but there are actually quite a few self-parody elements. I also included homages to past works. For example, the way it starts is similar to Danganronpa, but there are also parts that are quoted from Akudama Drive. I thought that structuring it like a “compilation” of my own works would allow me to fully realize the scenario. In that sense, it's a “culmination” of my work. As for when to play this route, I recommend clearing it during the first half of the game and then exploring other routes from there.

Uchikoshi: I read the Truth Uncovered route first, and I found the plot interesting from the start. It's a little different from the product version, isn't it? Actually, during development, there was a discussion about making it easier to find the Truth Uncovered route, but Kodaka's intention was “no, that's not it.” He said that all endings should be treated equally, and that's how it ended up.

Kodaka: In any case, I hope people enjoy the labyrinthine scenario.

Development Struggles

Sanba: We’ve received a question: ‘The development period for this game seems to have been quite long—how did you manage to stay motivated?’

Uchikoshi: Honestly, it wasn’t even about motivation anymore! I was just thinking things like, ‘I wish aliens will invade in the middle of the night and put an end to all this.’

Kodaka: Or like, ‘Just let the world end already!’ (laughs)

Uchikoshi: If I had to say something, it was more like... I didn’t want people to get mad at me. I didn’t want to put out something half-baked and get scolded for it.

Inou: It was really driven by fear. Normally, when you’re running out of time, you cut corners somewhere. But with this game, there was nothing we could cut. (And also, given the title,) we couldn’t reduce it to fewer than 100 routes. From ANIPLEX’s side, we were constantly trying to figure out how we could help them realize everything they wanted to do. But budget and scheduling constraints... that part was always a struggle.

Inou (continued): Actually, there was a period when we weren’t getting anything from Kodaka-san or Uchikoshi-san, so I thought, ‘Maybe we just need to make a hard decision,’ and we went ahead and locked in the voice recording schedule first. Like, ‘If you don’t make it by this date, we won’t be able to record.’ And then, from the end of the year into the new year, Uchikoshi-san came down with tendonitis. (laughs) Which I only found out about afterward.

Uchikoshi: We had already decided on a 100-day story. There are some parts where we skip a few days in some routes, but that was really a last-ditch effort. If we did that without giving a reason, Kodaka would get angry! He said we had to give a reason even if we were skipping days. I think we struggled quite a bit with the idea that we couldn't make things just because of development constraints.

Kodaka: If we made it, like, 50 days, it would feel surprisingly short. It’d be like, ‘Oh, that’s it?’ 80 days feels okay, but... yeah.

On the Challenge of "Madness"

Kodaka: Since this was a brand-new IP, I felt we had to create something completely one-of-a-kind. That’s why I chose to go with this massive volume of content—I knew there was no turning back after that.

Uchikoshi: Well, I mean, this guy (Kodaka) was born mad to begin with. But that’s actually what drew me to him. I decided I wanted to start a company with him after we were talking at an izakaya and the stuff he was saying was just completely insane. He was going on about unethical things and stuff. I was like, ‘This guy is basically Junko Enoshima in real life.’ I think the core that holds Tookyo Games together is that sense of madness. It’s something we all have, in a way.

Kodaka: That said, after making a game this crazy, I’m kind of feeling like I want to release something more normal. Like, suddenly just drop a traditional table mahjong game or something.

Questions From the developers to the Student Council

Miyokawa: Since we have this opportunity, do any of the developers have questions for the student council?

Uchikoshi: How many people here have actually seen all 100 endings?

Kodaka: Didn’t someone say earlier that it was like three people?

(Someone from the student council adds that it’s probably four.)

Uchikoshi: I wonder how long it took those people... Oh, 210 hours?

Inou: That’s about how long it takes to earn a fairly tough professional certification! (laughs)

Kodaka: I wonder whether most people here chose Hundred Line Mode or Safety Mode? I’ve seen Safety Mode come up occasionally in playthroughs… Ah, seems like most people went with Hundred Line Mode. I wonder if there are people who actually want an even harder mode?

(Multiple comments appear saying things like I wish it were even harder.)

Kodaka: Ah, adding something like that to the VR Machine sounds doable.

Miyokawa: Like a shogi puzzle mode?

Inou: Might be fun to release an impossible-difficulty challenge as DLC or something.

On the topic of DLCs

Miyokawa: We’re getting comments like ‘Please release DLCs! I’m willing to pay for it!’

Kodaka: DLCs... How much are you willing to pay?

Maybe we should just treat it like an auction and let people name their price. Like a DLC limited to five people. (laughs)

Since the worldbuilding is all over the place and it’s not like Detroit: Become Human, I think it’d actually be pretty easy to add a completely different storyline.

With a DLC, we could even turn it into a full-on death game, like Danganronpa, where people start dying one by one—it’s totally doable.

Or, for example, we could flash back to peaceful days in the Tokyo Residential Complex depending on which route you take. There’s really no limit. That’s one of the features of this game.

It’s like an illegal building that just keeps getting additions built onto it—I kind of like the idea of just endlessly piling stuff on.

It’s like cramming in a bunch of elements and raising your own kid. (laughs)

In response to a comment: “Is it true there will be a prequel for every character?”

Kodaka: We’ve started writing the prequels, but... the preparation is... (tough).

Questions from the Student Council members to the developers

Miyokawa: Do the Student Council members have any questions?

Kodaka: A question that’s getting a lot of responses is ‘Which character do the cast members like best?’ Hmm... Uchikoshi-san, what about you?

Uchikoshi: Hmm... I like them all to be honest, but since I got more attached to the parts I wrote myself, I’d have to say Shizuhara. She’s the one I spent the most time with.

Kodaka: What about you all out there? Who’s your favorite character?

(Various comments roll in)

Inou: Doesn’t seem like there are many people who like Ginzaki.

(Comments saying I like Ginzaki! appear)

Inou: Maybe not many fans of Yakushizhi either?

(Some comments like “I love all of them appear)

Kodaka: Well, honestly, it makes us happiest when people say they love all the characters. It's nice to have everyone together. Rather than just one person.

On whether there are plans for a Switch 2 edition

Kodaka: Hmm... (wry smile). It’s more like, ‘The act of making it is the point.’ (There were no further details on this.)

In addition, there was a response that the request to add a feature to hide the UI to make event CG easier to view is currently under consideration.

Kodaka: Collaboration cafés are getting a lot of buzz, too.

Inou: Oh yeah, collaboration cafés are a great idea. Like a 100-day-long collab café or something. (laughs)

Kodaka: It seems like a lot of people want to eat the Tsukumo twins' dishes.

Uchikoshi: Might actually taste surprisingly good?

Kodaka: Nah... I think it’d be straight-up bad.

Final messages

Miyokawa: If you have any final messages for the Student Council members, please share them.

Uchikoshi: Before the game was released, when nobody really knew whether it would be any good, you all chose to believe in us and support us. I’m incredibly grateful for that.

Earlier, someone commented that they were proud to be part of the Student Council. That’s something I take pride in, too.

Inou: From our perspective, you Student Council members had such high energy and enthusiasm that we genuinely viewed your opinions as ‘reliable.’

Honestly, I think your overall... let’s say netiquette... was way better than expected. (laughs)

Your spoiler precautions were amazing. Even after the demo dropped, everyone was really considerate. And the analysis—some of you really went deep! (laughs)

It was such a relaxed, warm community the whole time. I’m really glad there wasn’t anyone we had to boot out.

Kodaka: Well, I suppose this marks your graduation for now, but I think you’ve learned how to blend in with others.

So from here on, I want you all to go out into the world as terrorists—sneak into communities, and secretly promote The Hundred Line (*gestures as if handing something out).

Miyokawa: Terrorists? (laughs) Should we come up with a password or something?

Kodaka: Hmm... How about the remnants... you know, the remnants of Handora?

I want you to go out into the world as the remnants of Handora. And then, if you bump into someone somewhere and go, ‘Huh!? You too!?’—

At the next autograph session or whatever, if you come up to me and say, ‘I’m one of the Handora remnants,’ I’ll give you something extra. (laughs)

Like, I’ll slip you a thousand yen or something. (makes sneaky hand gesture)

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End of the transcript! Special thanks to the following Student Council members for their help in creating this article:

ちゃちゃ_イルさん

YellowTu_lipさん

ヨレさん