Welcome to the first Guest Review Wednesday of the year! As a bonus, we have a new reviewer, Paul! Paul contacted me last summer to write this review and time got away from both of us and then stuff happened…primarily, it was announced that Lovestruck will be shuttered. So here we are with a review for something that is now soon to be gone. A post-mortem, if you like. So please welcome Paul… and, take it away!

 
Hello everyone! I’m Paul, and this is my first review for Okazu.

Lovestruck by Voltage is a collection of visual novel style stories, available for Android and iOS. After I began writing this review, Voltage Entertainment USA announced on December 30, 2021, that it was shutting down. January 7, 2022, would be the last day of new content. On January 24, 2022, Lovestruck gets removed from all stores. And on March 31, 2022, all services for Lovestruck will end.

This is a loss, as I feel there were many things Lovestruck did that were supportive of LGBTQIA+ life, as well as having excellent writing.

If I had to sum Lovestruck up with two words, they would be consent and representation. It is truly a wonder to behold how important consent is to the routes. The amount of representation, especially in the newer routes, is also spectacular. While every story has at least one non-white romance option (non-human in Love & Legends [L&L]), eventually there is room for non-white MCs. There is also a lot of trans representation, though none as your romantic partner.

A third word, acceptance, is omnipresent in all but two of the oldest series, To Love and Protect (TLaP) and Speakeasy Tonight (ST). TLaP has antagonism towards same-sex relationships as a plot point in Madison’s route, while ST takes place in the 1920s, so Julius (a Black man) and Sofia (a woman)’s routes deal prominently with the societal aspects of their relationships. Otherwise, there is no angst about the romances. I think that one of the most fantastical elements of the stories is that every non-cis character gets no discussion about being non-cis. Everyone treats it as what it is: perfectly normal. Even Satan, JD’s dad in Havenfall is for Lovers (HifL), has nothing to say about JD being non-binary. It’s refreshing that it is treated as such a non-issue, although unrealistic, perhaps, in that nobody ever makes a misgendering mistake.

The Main Character (MC) is always a bisexual woman whose name you get to choose. Two recent series have added a gay male MC option. All series provide at least one woman as your romantic partner, and later series add more and more women. There are also four non-binary characters as romance options.

These stories are more like kinetic novels than visual novels. The choice of romantic partner is made by beginning the series. No choices made after that will have any affect on the state of the relationship. There are dialogue choices that you can make, but nothing will change the relationship.

And then there is what Voltage uses to make money: Heart Choices. These are special choices that cost in-game currency, Hearts. It is very difficult to get enough Hearts just through gameplay and not actual money. Without Hearts, you won’t do as many cool things, see as many cool things, or have as many sex scenes. There are also images you won’t get, though the need to spend Hearts to see images has tapered off.

The sex scenes you use Hearts to get will occasionally go beyond “vanilla” sex, such as BDSM and wax. If that’s not your thing, it’s easy to avoid. If it is your thing, you have to pay for it.

The writing is excellent overall, having lots of humor to contrast with the sometimes absolutely dire situations the MCs will get themselves into. Editing has gotten better, but I still see the occasional “woah” instead of “whoa”, and it’s absurd how long it took them to use “[Name] and me” instead of “[Name] and I” when used as an object.

Being a visual novel with content restrictions, the sex scenes never mention body parts beyond “breasts.” The writers get pretty creative though, often making it quite clear what is going on.

Since this is now a post-mortem, I will add my thoughts in why it is being abandoned.

I think early problems suppressed later enthusiasm. The first stories had choices that changed what image you got in the final chapter (Castaway! Love’s Adventure [CLA], Gangsters in Love [GiL], and Astoria: Fate’s Kiss [AFK]). There were a lot of images that only got unlocked by spending Hearts (TLaP and ST). Villainous Nights (VN) had some choices that were timed (though kudos for having the first PoC main character). A lot of the later series failed to gain popularity and had rushed endings to wrap up storylines. Which is probably an improvement over ending a Season with a cliffhanger and a “To Be Continued” final image that was never fulfilled (GiL, Sweet Enchantments [SE], TLaP, ST, and some Starship Promise [SP] stories). And ultimately, they probably over-extended themselves by having an update schedule that promised three new episodes every day. 

In conclusion, this was an overall excellent collection of stories with some fantastic elements, but that wasn’t enough to save it.

Ratings:

Art: 7+ (though some illustrations in L&L suffer from Cheeky Mouth)
Story: 7–9
Music: 6+ Even the most repetitive tracks grew on me.
Characters: I love them all.
Service: 3 going by illustrations alone, but the text can get pretty steamy, even with euphemisms.

LGBTQIA+: 10 Every heroine is explicitly bisexual, and there are very few love interests that are straight. There are also non-binary love interests. All male heroes are gay.

Overall: 9, but the gameplay drops it to a 7 (wait time to get Tickets to play more episodes, spending Hearts to get illustrations and more story).

E here: Thanks so much Paul, I appreciate the look at a different game environment!