[Game Review] Tricolour Lovestory (Rough Episodes)

"A story of a boy who doesn't know how to draw out the true love, and two girls who want to do so."

Tricolour Lovestory

Tricolour Lovestory is a Visual Novel developed in china... When I picked up this game due to its low price, I never knew how much I'd enjoy it... But despite its bad translation I really loved it more than many VNs I played before.

Here's The Steam Link

Tricolour follows a boy (Ashley) who finally got his freedom joined the art class to get most out of his freedom... Will he help the fellow transfer student (Violet)? will he make up with his friend (Daisy) who he wanted to protect by keeping her away? and will he learn about his true talent?

The game deals with a lot of themes like Freedom, Family, Friendship... Lies, Loneliness and Love... Every chapter is at least 4 hours long. It's also the first game I play with Chinese voice acting... it took me a long while to get used to. But now I love the voice of these characters.

While it's not a game for kids, it doesn't have much fanservice... and all most scenes that are close to that.. are there to enhance the story.

The final Episode isn't out yet... This review will only deal with the Rough Episodes (Ep1-3)... I haven't started Colored Episodes (Ep4-5) but I'll do when the finale gets released.

Story and Characters

Ashely who started to live along, wanted to live free and do everything he wanted... He joins the art class because he's interested in drawing and its something his parent won't allow him to do. But in his first day a girl who transferred to the school.

From his first day, Ashley had a lot of challenges... Being forced by the class rep to draw the pictures for the spot meeting... making up with his childhood friend. and being friend with this girl that drew his attention for some reason. He later had to improve his art so he can stay in the art class.

But the more challenges he overcomes... The more hardships he face. Can he prevent his parents from knowing how hard he disobeyed them? will he ever get the freedom he wanted?

The English version of the game obviously uses different first names for the characters... I don't know if it's a good or bad move... But I got used to the English names.

Orange x Purple

Both of the main girls in the game are code colored... and according to chapter select page the final episode will contain two versions. A Different final for each girl...

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Daisy is Ashley's childhood friend... they broke up before the game and most of their attempts to make up failed... But one incident they returned together and she became a friend to Violet... She longs for the time she spent together with Ashley in childhood and she's obviously in love with him.

Daisy is the typical tsundere character, she's short-tempered and prone to bad mouth people... But inside she's very considerate. She's also a gamer and good at using computer but not that good academically.

Violet is a girl who transferred to Ashley school's art class at the same time he did.. She's always the top in art but she's interested in Ashley's drawings as she can't draw from imagination like him... Her art is better but lacks the "freedom" his has.

Violent is an introverted girl who don't speak much but she's bold when she needs to... She's always the first one to understand Ashley's thoughts and suffering telling him that they're similar... She's my second favorite character.

Other Characters

There's Green, a friend of both Ashley and Daisy whose relationship with them is a plot point more than once, he's also a student council member, a friend to Lucien.

Lucien who's the class rep for art class, he's known as the omnipotent and there's nothing he can't do... he also has too many connections and appear friendly but manipulative... he has a side that won't appear at first and he's doing everything just for the one person he cares about.

There are other recurring characters like the bullies, the art teacher and Daisy's dad. all of whom are interesting on their own... except the bullies... but their leader is and it seems he'll play a big role later.

The Chinese Culture

This game is my first time I see Chinese culture up close, I know the reality and media are different... But I could make a cleaner image about china through the characters dialog.

Surprisingly, something stroke me in this game... the feel of the society pitched in it is quite similar to the one I live in. Not exactly but gave me a feeling that I didn't feel when watching American or Japanese works. Feeling of beloginess that contracts the feeling of longing I feel for the Japanese culture.

Or it may be just the characters, that I feel related to somehow...

The Rough Episodes

The rough episodes play just like a kinetic novel... there are no choices in them.

The first three chapters which were released together, deal with Ashley's life and troubles with the new class... Love is only implied but the main characters had more immediate problems to face... Each chapter has him deal with a problem with each one of the girls and by the chapter's end he chooses to draw one of them (It's the only time the player actually gets a choice in the these chapters).

The more you play the more you know about each character... and the more Ashley learn about himself and his talents. The theme of family problems is so prevalent... There are at least three characters with bad parenting. Makes me wonder about China actually.....

Terrible Translation

The most ugly downside of this game is the bad localization... I don't know or care if the English text follow the Chinese voices.. But it definitely don't follow itself... There are parts that are obviously lazily translated... other parts that appear blindly translated... many time the text would refer a man with "she" or a girl with with male pronouns.

"He is" should be "You are" here.

It's hard to not judge an official game harshly when its English is this bad... But I wouldn't have played it if it was only in Chinese, it's also too cheap and I could understand the story despite everything so... NO!! even that doesn't justify it... Since there's no gameplay this is game about words Just... JUST Patch it already!!

A Bittersweet Story

It nearly made me cry in few occasions, but the way the characters overcome challenges is so heartwarming and inspiring.

I'd recommend it for people who want a heartwarming story but with a lot of conflict, people who are interested in art and drwaing, and people who feel they're not free to do what they want as they'd relate to the character... If you read my review about Narcissu and liked it then I recommend this game for you too.

But I don't recommend for those who don't like setting hours reading. I know I spent more than 20 hours on the first three chapters (steam play time shows 40 hours but sometimes I left the game open alone...)

Chapter 3 ends in a cliffhanger, and I don't know what the ending will hold for these characters... But I know it's a story that deserves following to the end. What do you think?

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all images are screenshots of the game.