Danganronpa creator says his latest game ‘might truly become the last grand, 200-hour game story in human history written entirely without AI’

Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka reckons his latest game might be the last one with a 100% human-created story.

Listen, I know you’re probably sick of reading about AI by now—I’m sick of reading about it, hearing about it, writing about it. Unfortunately it seems that it’s very much here to stay, at least for the time being, as numerous industry figures have become far less subtle about taking advantage of it.

That increased candor hasn’t gone unnoticed, as Kodaka notes. “Many game companies and creators have started openly talking about their use of AI,” he mused in a post over on X, The Everything App.

He reckons his latest game, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy might indeed be the last defense against the rising tide of machine-based creations. “At this rate, Hundred Line might truly become the last grand, 200-hour game story in human history written entirely without AI.”

As someone who is a bit of a self-professed gen AI doomer, even that feels like a little bit of an out-there statement, however serious Kodaka is actually being. More than that, it alerted me to the fact that The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is ridiculously freaking long.

A visual novel with 100 endings, and with what Dominic Tarason describes as a 30-hour prologue (seriously, what the hell Kodaka?) sets The Hundred Line even beyond the likes of Persona games with a hefty triple-digit playtime. It’s a game so ambitious it seems to have put Kodaka and studio Too Kyo in a fair bit of financial strife: He said earlier this year that the developer was “still on the brink of going under.” So, uh, when I really think about it, a 200-hour story kinda sounds like… a nightmare?

So maybe Kodaka is right and The Hundred Line is, in fact, the last 200-hour game story in human history crafted without input from AI. Hell, it might even be the first.

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