What Comes After Critic Reviews

The visuals and audio in combination with the meaningful and positive narrative come together to construct the complete package for a short ride into What Comes After.

What What Comes After lacks in length, it more than makes up for with engaging character dialogue and a willingness to discuss lofty themes in a balanced and emotional way. This is a visual novel worth flicking through.

Overall, your mileage is going to vary in What Comes After. It is a very short experience, clocking in at just around an hour long, so even if you find the gameplay to be a tad tedious, the game at the very least does not overstay its welcome. If you're more interested in narrative as opposed to gameplay, you will likely find some enjoyment here, but those who are more interested in gameplay should probably steer clear. What Comes After has a lot to say, and even if a shoddy translation takes the impact down a bit, it's still worth a look if its premise has caught your eye.

What Comes After doesn’t go much further than “Remember happy memories” and “It’ll get better with time.” I just don’t feel that’s enough to really examine this topic. However, the presentation is charming enough, and the entire experience can be completed in less than an hour, to which it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Perhaps more time would have allowed them to explore the themes they introduced further.

If What Comes After can help those dealing with mental health struggles, then that’s a wonderful thing. But it doesn’t cover these topics delicately; its messages aren’t hidden anywhere, they’re in-your-face, front and centre. However, it’s all the other issues What Comes After tries to deal with – deforestation, animal abuse and more – that ruin the experience. As important as all of those issues are, What Comes After doesn’t give enough time for them to have any real purpose or meaning. Had it been more focused, it could have had much more impact.