As someone with 1.8k hours in 100% Orange Juice... I say it has potential.

Getting the descriptor out of the way:
Astral Party is a multiplayer board game with anime styled playable characters. They are played in a board game with different panels which produce different random effects, give players coins or cards, or cause damage. There are playable cards which affect stat points, lay traps or attack enemies at a range. After reaching a certain number of coins, acquired through passive means like start of turns or panels, or more aggressive such as defeating other players, a player can go back to a Home panel and level up. After reaching level 3, they win the game.
The game contains gacha elements which are used to unlock characters, get profile, dice, and effects customization, and gifts to gain relationship with characters, which unlocks further items. Everything can be obtained by simply playing the game and claiming free rewards, but an option to pay for these items is also available.

Now, onto what's getting this game lambasted:
Having played through both demo/beta testing periods, I saw it actually being updated and what changes were done, even if small, so it makes me believe the game will get further updates where they will improve on the game. They have in fact
announced on Steam News that most of the things people are complaining here about or that I saw as lacking in the demos are getting updated, added or fixed, so that's great news for everyone.
TL;DR: they are adding x2 speed, fixes to bugs and translation, skins actually showing ingame, voices (which was a stretch goal on their funding, so not really something they could have done at launch), card history, etc.

As for the gacha mechanics, personally I don't mind them, I enjoy playing the game and passively getting currency to later unlock the characters is fine by me. But I understand this is a matter of preference, some people will prefer to directly pay upfront to unlock a character, and that's totally fine, I do buy all 100%OJ DLC so just buying the new updated character pack and getting to play it immediately is a good thing.

So, back to back comparisons:

Gameplay:
Different enough. Combat doesn't stop you in the panel you challenged, instead you keep going, which allows a different depth of mechanics, where you will likely be attacked back since you're now ahead of the person you just fought. In general, the game is more combat oriented, as the great majority of cards targeting other players usually involve lowering their HP, while self targeting ones are more about boosting your own stats. Combat will be your main source of income, as other methods of gaining currency will likely be too slow to keep up, and as a difference to 100%OJ, any ranged attacks you directly target an enemy with will actually act as if won in combat, transferring half their coins to you.
Instead of drawing your hyper, your ability is simply a button on cooldown, which means you can always have that ace under your sleeve, plus the cooldown is usually fairly low, so using it liberally is also an option.

Characters:
We have Pandaman and Padman. There are male characters. If that's not your style, there's Z3000, a literal trashbin.
If characters breastily boobiling around the stage aren't your type, that's understandable. There is a "Naive Angel Mode" in the options which alters the designs to be more conservative, so if you still want to try the game but don't want people looking at your screen think you're playing a porn game.
As for gameplay, they're all fairly unique in design and have their own stats, passive and skills. Stats come in play mostly in combat, as they dictate your minimum roll for attack and defense, and each character plays fairly different from each other, some requiring a bit more thinking to use effectively.

Boards:
In this game they're more Mario Party styled, each one featuring some kind of gimmick with more "random events" type of panels, plus even the coin draw panel works basically the same as Mario Party. They also are omnidirectional, meaning you can go in any direction you want, even switch it on the fly with the use of a card.
Creating more boards that feel nice to play which also include some sort of gimmick is difficult, so I understand the lack of content on this side.

User experience:
Probably the weakest part of the package. The options menu clashes with the rest of the style, you can't see enemy buffs/debuffs (though to be fair it took OJ a fair amount of time til they implemented this function too), translations are a bit iffy, you can get lost in menus even if they're not many, and while mentioned that it was being added in a later update, the lack of a card history function makes following the game a bit more difficult. I won't mention other details as they mentioned earlier as they are being worked on.
Also, personally, I love the emoji only chat.

Music:
A small section but still warranted. Music is good, yes. There's a limit to how good a song can be when it's played on loop for 90% of the game. More variety would be welcome.

I've been having fun with the game, despite the long match time and bugs. I would say give it some time to sort itself out and it will become a good alternative to 100% Orange Juice, at least one with huge bahonkazongkahonos.

As someone with 1.8k hours in 100% Orange Juice... I say it has potential. Getting the descriptor out of the way: Astral Party is a multiplayer board game with anime styled playable characters. They are played in a board game with different panels which produce different random effects, give players coins or cards, or cause damage. There are playable cards which affect stat points, lay traps or attack enemies at a range. After reaching a certain number of coins, acquired through passive means like start of turns or panels, or more aggressive such as defeating other players, a player can go back to a Home panel and level up. After reaching level 3, they win the game. The game contains gacha elements which are used to unlock characters, get profile, dice, and effects customization, and gifts to gain relationship with characters, which unlocks further items. Everything can be obtained by simply playing the game and claiming free rewards, but an option to pay for these items is also available. Now, onto what's getting this game lambasted: Having played through both demo/beta testing periods, I saw it actually being updated and what changes were done, even if small, so it makes me believe the game will get further updates where they will improve on the game. They have in fact [url=https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/news/app/2622000/view/4129308833405718838]announced on Steam News[/url] that most of the things people are complaining here about or that I saw as lacking in the demos are getting updated, added or fixed, so that's great news for everyone. TL;DR: they are adding x2 speed, fixes to bugs and translation, skins actually showing ingame, voices (which was a stretch goal on their funding, so not really something they could have done at launch), card history, etc. As for the gacha mechanics, personally I don't mind them, I enjoy playing the game and passively getting currency to later unlock the characters is fine by me. But I understand this is a matter of preference, some people will prefer to directly pay upfront to unlock a character, and that's totally fine, I do buy all 100%OJ DLC so just buying the new updated character pack and getting to play it immediately is a good thing. So, back to back comparisons: [b]Gameplay:[/b] Different enough. Combat doesn't stop you in the panel you challenged, instead you keep going, which allows a different depth of mechanics, where you will likely be attacked back since you're now ahead of the person you just fought. In general, the game is more combat oriented, as the great majority of cards targeting other players usually involve lowering their HP, while self targeting ones are more about boosting your own stats. Combat will be your main source of income, as other methods of gaining currency will likely be too slow to keep up, and as a difference to 100%OJ, any ranged attacks you directly target an enemy with [i]will actually act as if won in combat, transferring half their coins to you[/i]. Instead of drawing your hyper, your ability is simply a button on cooldown, which means you can always have that ace under your sleeve, plus the cooldown is usually fairly low, so using it liberally is also an option. [b]Characters:[/b] We have Pandaman and Padman. There are male characters. If that's not your style, there's Z3000, a literal trashbin. If characters breastily boobiling around the stage aren't your type, that's understandable. There is a "Naive Angel Mode" in the options which alters the designs to be more conservative, so if you still want to try the game but don't want people looking at your screen think you're playing a porn game. As for gameplay, they're all fairly unique in design and have their own stats, passive and skills. Stats come in play mostly in combat, as they dictate your minimum roll for attack and defense, and each character plays fairly different from each other, some requiring a bit more thinking to use effectively. [b]Boards:[/b] In this game they're more Mario Party styled, each one featuring some kind of gimmick with more "random events" type of panels, plus even the coin draw panel works basically the same as Mario Party. They also are omnidirectional, meaning you can go in any direction you want, even switch it on the fly with the use of a card. Creating more boards that feel nice to play which also include some sort of gimmick is difficult, so I understand the lack of content on this side. [b]User experience:[/b] Probably the weakest part of the package. The options menu clashes with the rest of the style, you can't see enemy buffs/debuffs (though to be fair it took OJ a fair amount of time til they implemented this function too), translations are a bit iffy, you can get lost in menus even if they're not many, and while mentioned that it was being added in a later update, the lack of a card history function makes following the game a bit more difficult. I won't mention other details as they mentioned earlier as they are being worked on. Also, personally, I love the emoji only chat. [b]Music:[/b] A small section but still warranted. Music is good, yes. There's a limit to how good a song can be when it's played on loop for 90% of the game. More variety would be welcome. [h2]Conclusion[/h2] I've been having fun with the game, despite the long match time and bugs. I would say give it some time to sort itself out and it will become a good alternative to 100% Orange Juice, at least one with huge bahonkazongkahonos.