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!