Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life (智代アフター ～It's a Wonderful Life～, Tomoyo Afutā ~It's a Wonderful Life~) is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Key released on November 25, 2005 for Windows PCs. The game is a spin-off of Key's earlier all ages game Clannad. Key later released versions of Tomoyo After without the erotic content, and the game was ported to the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 under the title Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life CS Edition; CS stands for "consumer software". The story follows the lives of Tomoya Okazaki, a young man who recently graduated from high school, and his close friend Tomoyo Sakagami as they start to see more of each other in a romantic relationship.
The gameplay in Tomoyo After follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the title character Tomoyo. Being a spin-off of Clannad, where Tomoyo is one of the game's heroines, Tomoyo After provides an expansion of Tomoyo's story after the events of Clannad and is written by Jun Maeda and Leo Kashida. The art was done by Fumio, as opposed to Itaru Hinoue who had done the art in Clannad. The game ranked as the best-selling PC game sold in Japan for the time of its release, and charted in the national top 50 twice more afterwards. A manga adaptation illustrated by Yukiko Sumiyoshi, under the title Tomoyo After: Dear Shining Memories, was serialized in Fujimi Shobo's Dragon Age Pure in 2007. Unlike the game which is told from Tomoya's point of view, the manga is told from Tomoyo's perspective. A single tankōbon volume was released in Japan in December 2007.
Gameplay
Tomoyo After is a romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Tomoya Okazaki. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's narrative and dialogue. Tomoyo After follows a branching plot line with multiple endings; depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction.
Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and make different choices to bring the plot in an alternate direction. In the adult versions of the game, there are scenes with sexual CGs depicting Tomoya and Tomoyo having sex. Later, Key released versions of Tomoyo After without the erotic content. Additional gameplay in Tomoyo After is a minigame called "Dungeons & Takafumis", which gives the player chances to play in a role-playing video game setting. "Dungeons & Takafumis" becomes available to play after the game is completed once.
Plot and characters
Tomoyo After's story revolves around Tomoya Okazaki (岡崎 朋也, Okazaki Tomoya, voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura (all ages Windows, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360), Yūichi Nitta in the role-playing mode only), the male protagonist from Clannad, and Tomoyo Sakagami (坂上 智代, Sakagami Tomoyo, voiced by: Hikaru Isshiki), one of the main heroines of the same game and the title character of Tomoyo After. Tomoya has already completed his first year of being a full-fledged member of society; he works as a garbage collector and a repairman. Initially, he is living in an apartment alone, as opposed with living with his father Naoyuki Okazaki (岡崎 直幸, Okazaki Naoyuki, voiced by: Shunsuke Tani) with whom he does not get along well. Tomoya still has a close friendship with Tomoyo, who has her story expanded upon than what was seen in Clannad. She has stayed in touch with Tomoya and they are starting to see more of each other in a romantic relationship.
The story takes place a month after the events of Clannad during summer vacation after Tomoya has graduated from high school; he is still in the same town Clannad was set in. One day it is discovered that Tomoyo has a younger half-sister named Tomo Mishima (三島 とも, Mishima Tomo, voiced by: Akari Sasaki) who had been living with her mother. Tomo, a young kindergartner, is the illegitimate child of Tomoyo's father and another woman named Yūko Mishima (三島 有子, Mishima Yūko, voiced by: Soyo Asaki). Tomo moves into Tomoya's apartment due to her mother's psychological problems which greatly affected the young girl. Tomoyo loves her half-sister very much and takes care of her constantly since she has always had a weakness for children.
Tomoyo also has a younger brother named Takafumi Sakagami (坂上 鷹文, Sakagami Takafumi, voiced by: Keiko Suzuki) who is very skilled with computers. He installs a personal computer in Tomoya's room, and then comes to live in the apartment. Takafumi has an ex-girlfriend named Kanako (河南子, voiced by: Keiko Suzuki) with a foul mouth and who is excessively sarcastic, whose surname is not revealed. She is not happy that her mother remarried and thus does not like to live at home. She too comes to live in Tomoya's apartment. She has a cameo appearance roughly eighteen minutes into episode six of the Clannad anime series. A central theme in the story is the ties between families, much like in Clannad.
