Danganronpa and Zero Escape creators' new tactical RPG was "extremely difficult" to fund: "We […] ended up with a lot of debt"

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is only days away from its April 24 release date, which might still feel like a lifetime to the games' co-directors Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi, who say the tactical RPG was a significant financial burden.

Kodaka, who also created the Danganronpa murder mystery games, suggests in a new, translated interview that "raising the funds" for Hundred Line "was extremely difficult" since it was his and Uchikoshi's studio Too Kyo Games first original IP. Uchikoshi is perhaps previously best known for the Zero Escape series.

Though "we split the costs fifty-fifty with [publisher] Aniplex," Kodaka says, "every time new specifications were added [to production], I kept thinking, 'Ah, this is going to cost more money.' But we still pushed through and completed everything."

So close to its release date, The Hundred Line looks like the perfect investment from a distance – the fashionable high school drama apparently features 100 complex endings, and early reviews are praising the game for its high energy, visual novel feelings, and humor.

But you know what they say: greatness requires sacrifice, uh, I mean money. Kodaka continues to say in the interview that, while Too Kyo decided to commit to developing The Hundred Line, the studio has "ended up with a lot of debt."

There is sunlight through the trees. Brightening Kodaka's summary of The Hundred Line's development process a bit, Uchikoshi adds that "when we first started the project, Kodaka said, 'I want to try making a game with 100 endings.'"

"That crazy, confident smile he had at that moment – I'll never forget it," Uchikoshi says, sharing a detail more valuable than cash.

Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai only has a "vague idea" what Danganronpa creator's new tactical RPG is all about as he has such "high expectations" he's been avoiding all information.