Tricolour Lovestory is a romantic visual novel set in a high school in China. You guide your character through a branching narrative, determining the ultimate outcome with every choice you make. Like most visual novel games, this is an unfolding story with some cumulative changing effects rather than a game where split-second decision making counts.

A romantic fable

Tricolour Lovestory features voice performances in Mandarin Chinese, but the text has been translated into English. The translation is shaky in places, however, so some of the impact of the game's dialogue and narration is lost. If you can get over that hurdle, however, you'll find yourself in the city of Wuhan in 2005, among students in a high school art class. Reserved transfer student Violet and outgoing local girl Daisy are both possible love interests for a troubled young man. But which of them will win his heart? And what is going on in these characters' inner emotional lives? This game features appealing anime-inspired art, with detailed environments that reinforce the game's central mood of peaceful, wistful innocence -- at least to begin with.

A good story brokenly told

Like most visual novel games, Tricolour Lovestory relies less on innovative or exciting gameplay than on its characters and story. It's a shame, then, that the poor English translation makes enjoying that story hard.