At its heart, Life After Magic is a proper magical girl story that examines common themes like friendship during struggles, staying true to yourself and finding hope to overcome fear but with a focus on common struggles of adulthood.
This game does a very interesting thing the way it uses the magical girl theme to examine some very common real-life struggles. I like how compassionate it is in regards to how lost people feel once they reach adulthood, and how that feeling of being lost can linger around for a very long time. It uses its theme to look at a lot of different angles to the same struggle that is shared between all the main characters of this VN, which makes it feel like a very thorough examination of adulthood.
The epilogue ties up everything nicely and in a satisfying way too. I definitely recommend checking that one out once you finish the main game.

This was an absolute joy to play through and actually the first VN I've played through other than DDLC (which honestly could fit into its own genre lol). Hands down, some of the best writing I've ever seen in a video game, not necessarily in terms of grandiose stories, but in terms of dialogue. Each character felt completely unique, and 100% real. Ironic, given the premise of magical girls, I know, but the "jaded, young adult" part mentioned in the game's description is astonishingly accurate. And even the magical girl aspect could be seen as a metaphor for those who excelled early in life and possibly feel as though they peaked in high school. Everyone was so down-to-earth and relatable. Even for any character who I maybe personally didn't relate with, I absolutely could point out someone in my life who would.

My favorite aspect is probably that the "romancing" options for each character focuses more on building a true friendship, rather than immediately jumping to actual romance. You start to genuinely care for each one of them and want to help out the relationships between each of them. You want to actually be friends with all them. And the only downside is now that I've 100%ed the game, I'm gonna miss them all.

100%ing the game wasn't too tough either. I got many achievements naturally, choosing whichever options I wanted throughout my playthrough, and like most VN's you can skip text you've already read to help speed through subsequent playthroughs when you're working on getting each of the different endings. The DLC storyline was also very cute. I haven't quite reached that point in my life yet where the girls are at in the DLC, but it was very entertaining nevertheless.

Taking all of that, and then adding LGBTQIA+ themes into the mix was just a delight. I can't explain how often I felt like I was blushing after spending time with any of them. I love women 😊❤ (and NB's!!!)