3.5 out of 5 if possible.
The pros:
- World building is very good, cool post apocalyptic modern fantasy vibe with a good amount of horror and mystery mixed in
- Dialogue is strong
- Characters are all very interesting
- Dream sequences and exploration events are all very cool
- Some people have complained about the grind/combat. I didn't find this too bad. The stat grind you can finish in 10 mins or so if you just focus on it, the combat grind to get a good deck is harder because you rely a lot on luck, but I got my 'final' deck within the first couple hours of playtime and never needed to update it to complete the story.
The cons:
- Character design is very average. Alice is the only interestingly designed Main Girl. Main girls all have very similar body types, which may not be your thing.
- Animations are average to subpar for a modern game
- No option to remain loyal to one girl, harem is mandatory (this is only an issue because the girls don't want to be a harem and want 1-on-1 relationships and the MC has to go out of his way to guilt/convince them to be a harem, if it was written different it would be fine).
- Mina's whole storyline makes me feel kind of gross about the MC
Overall it's definitely worth your time to play, I just wouldn't go around recommending it to people as an intro to the western VN genre, especially with games like Once in a Lifetime, which occupy a very similar space but surpass Astral Lust almost across the board.