It seems Voltage Inc has made another questionable decision concerning their line of mobile otome games and let’s just say the fandom (myself included) is not pleased… It’s a shame because this news has almost completely overshadowed the release of their newest Voltage USA app Love & Legend…
Yesterday (March 1st) Voltage Inc announced that they would be moving their AmeMix line of mobile games to a new combined portal app, called Lovestruck! All current and future AmeMix titles and stories will be released through the new app, and after a few month (Voltage has yet to make an official announcement) all of their individual AmeMix titles will be removed from the Google Play Store and App Store. This only effects Voltage USA’s AmeMix titles (Astoria Fates Kiss, Gangster in Love, and Castaway: Love’s Adventure) and NOT their Japanese based Visual Novel titles!
What is Lovestruck?
“Lovestruck combines Voltage USA’s original romance titles in one convenient app! Access all the great stories from Astoria: Fate’s Kiss, Gangsters in Love, Castaway! Love’s Adventure, and Love & Legends within a single app and get immediate notification whenever a new episode is released. “
Lovestruck is a free ticket based portal app and the new home of all of the former AmeMix titles. However, instead of purchasing routes as you would with their other paid apps players can use in app currency (Tickets and Hearts) to read through stories in short episodes, rather than in the previous route based format. Essentially, Voltage is doing away with their pay per route apps in favor of the ticket based freemium format.
In order to progress through each route, players will have to use tickets. One ticket unlocks one episode/chapter from each story (most stories are 19 episodes long). Of course Voltage does offer a set amount of free tickets, that refresh every four hours so that players can progress through the stories at a certain rate each day. However, if you don’t wish to wait for free tickets to reload, you can always just purchase them in bulk through in app purchases. There is a secondary in app currency, Hearts, which can be used to unlock special/sub stories. These can also be purchased in bulk through in app purchases.
What if I already Purchased stories from the Paid Apps?
Since the current AmeMix apps will be phased out over the next few months, Voltage is strongly urging players to register their current apps with a Facebook account in order to retain access to their past purchases in the new app. Players will no longer be able to make purchases in the individual AmeMix apps after the launch of the new Lovestruck app!
Note: Once you transfer data from the paid apps to Lovestruck, you will not be able to play routes in the paid apps at all!
What if I don’t have a Facebook account?
You can still transfer data from the individual AmeMix apps using Transfer IDs, which can be obtained from Settings in any of the affected apps. The Transfer ID system works just the same as the Facebook transfer system and once completed, players will have access to their purchased stories in the new app free of charge!
Will I be able to play Transferred Stories for free?
All transferred stories will be available without needing to use Tickets or Hearts! However, all of the other stories not purchased and transferred from the previous AmeMix apps will require Tickets and Hearts to unlock and read.
First, I should say that while I’m not thrilled with the new Lovestruck app, I’m more upset with the fact that once again, Voltage did not properly prepare us for the reveal. Instead of telling us about the change in advance they just kind of sprung it on us last night on Tumblr without any information about what was going on. As of right now, Voltage hasn’t even attempted to make an official announcement about the change other than instructions on how to transfer data from the paid apps to Lovestruck. In fact, Voltage only started releasing info about the app after people started flooding their Tumblr account with Asks and negative comments.
Not only is this frustrating for folks genuinely interested in learning about the new interface, but, it’s a huge slap in the face to the all fans who have supported the company over the years! I might have been more receptive to the change if Voltage had at least made an announcement about Lovestruck prior to the launch, but no, they decided to alienate their target audience yet again! 
Then there’s the fact that they are essentially cancelling their Voltage USA paid apps in favor of the ticket based freemium app style. I HATE TICKET BASED FREE MOBILE OTOGE!! One of the main reasons I stuck with Voltage for so long was because I prefer paid apps, I’d rather pay up front and play at my leisure than wait for tickets to reload or deal with checkpoints! And don’t get me started on the additional “premium content” purchases! Apparently the only way to achieve the best endings in each story is by purchasing additional story options… WTF! I suspect that this has something to do with their sales or maybe it’s all the folks who spam the App Store and Google Play with, “Why isn’t this free” comments and messages… But, who the fuck knows, because Voltage refuses to actually tell us anything concrete unless we flood their Ask box with hate mail!
Seriously, Voltage, I love you guys, but ya’ll need to get your shit together and actually address fan concerns. Don’t just spring this crap on us like this and expect folks not to be upset! I actually quite enjoyed the AmeMix line of games and I can’t for the life of me understand why Voltage decided to change things! For now, I’m just going to finish playing through the Voltage USA games that I have, because I spent money on them and I ain’t about that wasting money life. But, I refuse to buy anymore of the Voltage USA games until they address the situation properly! Nah bruh…
So what do you think about the recent backlash? If you have any more information to share on the recent Lovestruck situation please feel free to drop a line on this post! As always THANK YOU FOR READING!! If you like what you see, like this post or follow Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!
Oh no! This doesn’t sound good at all! I’d rather just pay upfront for the routes! Gah, and I hate having to register my FB account with apps. It’s annoying-but it looks like I should do it just in case.
Thanks for sharing this news Naja!
Same gurl, same! I’m just disappointed with the way Voltage is handling this whole situation…
Yeah this is why I’m not even going to deal with it. I hate ticket based games. Especially when you think about it to get the premium ending of one route most the time you have to spend what one game is worth on Steam.
I gave it a try with Castaway, since I’d only bought one route in that game, so if it ended badly I wouldn’t have lost too much…. and it’s not terrible. The interface is not the most user friendly, I def liked the individual route format better. I wish they would have at least incorporated the pay per route format into this new app, but nope they went straight for the freemium route… I’m not going to spend any more money on their AmeMix (Lovestruck) titles… I’ll just finish up what I already bought and keep it moving…
Hmm… i also think it’s a bad choice. i understand if its a manga platform or something like that, but multiple otome games in one app??? it makes no sense. it’ll be hard to keep track which game you’re playing. an otome game exists in an app for a reason.
Yeah, all we can do is shake our heads and write Voltage about it.
I know Cybird recently created a platform app for some of their free games so that folks could buy whole routes at once instead of going the ticket route with the individual apps. It’s almost like Voltage saw that and tried to adopt the format, but in reverse.
I’m of the, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset with this whole thing…
Voltage is my favorite. I didn’t realize the effect this was going to have. Now I’m angry. I spend hundreds of dollars on voltage. If you want the story bad enough you get the money for them. Any time someone wants to get me a gift, I tell them to get me a google card (birthday, x-mas, mothers day, valentines day. All those who want all freebies are not true fans.
Same, same! Voltage is constantly fiddling with things that don’t need to be fixed, which is a shame since I really loved the AmeMix titles! At least they’ve restored previously purchased stories back to the original apps, I just wish they would allow player to make purchases from the individual apps again tho… sigh
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! It’s good to know that I’m not alone in my frustration!
I’m pretty damn mad about all this. I just tried Speakeasy Tonight and played Cliff’s route. I reset it since I wanted to play through it again and it doesn’t save your ticket purchases! It saves your heart choices, but if you ever want to play through a route again you have to buy it all over again. That’s totally ludicrous.
I can get over the stupid heart/ticket thing even though it’s overpriced and I preferred getting the individual games and just buying the content in seasons, but having to pay for something again you already bought is NOT acceptable. It’s a damn shame too since I was really looking forward to buying several routes in Speakeasy, Love & Legends, and Castaway, but I won’t give them a cent more for such ridiculous practices. I’m just gonna use my remaining hearts/tickets on finishing Clyde’s route and be done with Voltage.
I know how you feel, believe me! I loved the Amemix titles since they had much stronger stories than some of the Japanese Voltage games… but this is a tragedy., I gave the Lovestruck app a try just to show good faith and I was not pleased with my experience. I’m just gonna play through the apps that I have and call it a day with that… it was fun while it lasted.
I knew nothing about them doing away with their paid apps!!! I didn’t transfer as I didn’t think I needed to I’ve lost tons of money and all my previously paid routed since this piece if shit app has already launched what the fucking hell is wrong with them? Did they seriously listen to all those whiny ass kids on Google begging to free shit? Apparently so, my gosh how stupid
Same as you I didn’t transfer either and I have lost so much money on all the paid routes before. Does anyone know if there is any way to get it back at all or is it just gone for good?
Unfortunately, your purchases are most likely gone. Voltage gave us a few months to prepare for the transition, but even I waited until the last minute to transfer my stories.
You can try contacting Voltage thru the help option in the Lovestruck app and see what they say
I read about the Astoria Fate’s Kiss app on another blog, then found that it was now in the Lovestruck app. So far I’ve not managed to get that app to download properly.
I’ve only been a Voltage fan for about a month and I’m already annoyed with the twerps that give apps a low rating because there’s a charge for stories. Unlike certain other otome apps, Voltage has great art and special effects. You can’t have that without paying people to create it.
I’m not giving up on Voltage yet. I will be thinking about making my feelings heard, about the daft Lovestruck idea AND the way that app rating and reviews are clogged up with brats wanting everything for nothing.