Tomoyo After is pretty good imo. I have a few problems with it, but it was enjoyable.
The biggest issue was definitely Tomoya. He didn’t really feel like the same character as the one from Clannad. He felt a lot more generic and much less “angsty” generally speaking. I guess that’s to be expected since he’s no longer in high school, but he held on to his angst for quite a bit of time in After Story, so I’d say it’s still very much out of character. He’s generally a lot more competent at just about everything in Tomoyo After, which I would argue is to its detriment. This especially killed the sort of feeling of chemistry that I felt Tomoyo had with Tomoya in Clannad, since this Tomoya just doesn’t feel like the same character.
Takafumi was definitely a highlight. Just an all-around enjoyable character, nothing to complain about there. Kanako wasn’t quite as interesting, deep, or amusing as Takafumi, but she was cute and still generally a good character She definitely started pulling some weight in the latter half. Tomo was a plot device, and the parts of her that weren’t just felt like Ushio 2.0 to me. Obviously Tomoyo After was quite a bit shorter than the original Clannad visual novel, but I was kinda disappointed in how poorly spread out the good characterization was, considering how excellently characterized the entire cast was in the original vn.
The ending just kinda sidewinds you out of nowhere. I like the idea of it, and the monologue Tomoyo gives is pretty hard hitting, but the implementation felt off to me. It’s not like Planetarian where the super depressing ending was just a logical consequence with substantial tie ins to the threads of the plot. Tomoyo After just flips the “time for bad shit to happen” switch, with basically no way for the reader to expect the sudden increase in drama. In other words, it feels forced, rather than natural.
Bad h-scenes are bad. Not much to say here.
On the other hand, holy shit that soundtrack tho.