The crew of the Andromeda Six normally spends its time navigating political conflict, personal grudges, and the consequences of travelling with a protagonist who cannot remember their past. Star Crossed Lovers temporarily sets those concerns aside. Its crisis begins with something considerably less serious: the crew’s uniforms have been dyed pink during the Festival of Valen.
Released by Wanderlust Games on February 16, 2020, Star Crossed Lovers is a paid side story for the science-fiction visual novel Andromeda Six. It takes place during the events surrounding Episodes 2 and 3 of the main game and is not required to continue its central story. The side story is currently sold separately through itch.io for Windows and macOS.
The Festival of Valen is an annual celebration of love described by the developers as resembling an ancient human tradition. While the crew is staying in Teranium, two troublemakers create a problem aboard the ship. The Traveler must choose one of six crew members and accompany them on an urgent trip to the nearby city of Nos Vega. The mission has a deadline, but the festival repeatedly distracts the Traveler and their chosen companion from completing it.
That simple premise gives Star Crossed Lovers permission to spend time on interactions that the main story’s larger conflict cannot always accommodate. Rather than moving between political revelations or dangerous confrontations, each route follows the Traveler and one companion as they walk through the festival and spend time together away from the rest of the crew.
The six available routes belong to Calderon, Damon, Juniper, Sebastian, Ayame, and Ryona. Wanderlust describes Calderon as the ship’s stoic former military commander, Damon as its sharp-tongued second-in-command, Juniper as a calm gunman, Sebastian as an easygoing engineer, Ayame as its energetic pilot, and Ryona as its nurturing medic. Vexx is not included among the side story’s selectable companions.
The Traveler retains the main game’s character options. Players can identify the protagonist as male, female, or non-binary and choose between a human, Tilaari, or Kitalphan Traveler. Each companion receives a separate route, and the official page confirms that every route contains two unique illustrations. Character and CG artwork is credited to Kristine Stum, background art to Rebecca Hu, and interface and design art to Adriana Queiroz. Nadine Cotton directed, wrote, and programmed the side story, with additional writing by Steph Leyendecker.
The pink uniforms are more than a passing line in the script. New versions of the character sprites show the crew wearing the altered outfits throughout the story. Their importance is confirmed by Wanderlust’s patch history: update 2.1 specifically corrected a scene in which Sebastian’s sprite accidentally returned to its normal colours. That update also added a background, changed several music tracks, and corrected minor spelling and grammatical errors.
I found that the individual routes maintained noticeably different moods because each companion responded to the festival according to their established personality. More guarded characters approached the outing cautiously, while the more openly playful crew members allowed the romantic possibilities to surface sooner. That difference made completing multiple routes feel more substantial than simply repeating an identical sequence with another sprite.
The side story’s placement between Episodes 2 and 3 also defines what its romances can accomplish. At this stage, the Traveler has met the crew and begun forming individual relationships, but much of the main story’s later development has not yet occurred. The developers frame the outing as an opportunity either to maintain some emotional distance or to take another step toward the chosen companion, rather than as the conclusion of a complete romance.
That limitation was noticeable to me in routes where the dialogue approached a significant romantic moment and then stopped short of treating the relationship as fully established. I did not see this as a factual flaw or a mistake by the writers; it was my response to the side story’s early chronological placement. Moving the same festival farther into the main narrative might have allowed more developed romantic payoffs, but it would also have changed the relationships and circumstances the DLC was designed to portray.
The smaller scale ultimately suits the material. Star Crossed Lovers is not presented as an essential chapter or a substitute for the main routes. Wanderlust explicitly labels it an optional side story, and its focus remains on giving six members of the crew a private festival outing with the Traveler. It offers no route for Vexx and does not attempt to resolve the larger conflicts surrounding the Andromeda Six.
The release also had a practical role in supporting development. Wanderlust explained in response to players that the main game was free at the time while revenue from paid DLC helped finance the team’s continued work. The studio later released Andromeda Six commercially on Steam in September 2025, although the official itch.io pages still list the main game as being in development as of July 2026.
Verdict
Star Crossed Lovers works as a brief romantic diversion rather than a major extension of Andromeda Six. Its six routes give Calderon, Damon, Juniper, Sebastian, Ayame, and Ryona individual time with the Traveler, while the Festival of Valen and the crew’s pink uniforms distinguish the story visually from the main game. Two unique illustrations per route provide a meaningful amount of new artwork for a small side release.
Its position between Episodes 2 and 3 limits how far some relationships can progress, and I found a few romantic moments more tentative than they might have been later in the timeline. That is a consequence of the story’s placement rather than an unsupported claim about the developers’ intentions. As an optional festival episode focused on relaxed character interaction, however, it delivers exactly the smaller and more personal experience its premise promises.
