Ef A Fairy Tale Of The Two

Starting a discussion for this because I absolutely loved this VN. The amount of work done in the art is amazing and is on another level to every other VN I've seen. The stories were also captivating. Especially the final arcs.

In spite of everything else Ef did right, I give it props for tastefully doing justice to Chihiro's arc  ^{for those not in the know}

. Easily the one that moved me the most.

Ecstasy is Sustained Intensity

I liked Kei's arc more, but I agree that Chihiro's was probably better.

I think that they were about equal in terms of writing and such, actually.

Kei's definitely felt more realistic, I think.

Ecstasy is Sustained Intensity

Kyosuke was still the best protagonist, though. I was great to realize the next arc was his and we had someone with a brain to tell their part of the story.

I can totally agree with that.

Ecstasy is Sustained Intensity

Kyousuke was definitely the best male lead, though I liked Miyako the best out of the girls.

Miyako is hilarious. Her self-narrated scenes cracked me up.

Ecstasy is Sustained Intensity

Something about Miyako irked me a little, but I'm not sure what. She was funny though. I wonder when that fandisc with the Nagi route is coming out? She got kinda shafted. I'd have liked to know more about her. Of course, it'll probably never get translated anyway.

Edit: Also, it bugs me how the anime apparently changed what happens in regard to Kuze. One, they change what's wrong with him. Two, they added some 'risky surgery' crap to make the ending happier. That makes him seem like a whiner.

edited 24th Sep '10 1:52:22 PM by Arha

What I really liked about this VN, is the ending part.

Best. Tomato Surprise. Ever.

It's ingenious, how it uses the readers' common sense assumption that the places with the same background pictures are the same, while abusing the medium's common devices such as recycling pictures for similar locations.

I dunno, the inverted seasons was a pretty big hint. It's the kind of hint you need for it not to feel like an asspull, but it was a little obvious. Not that it was necessarily two towns, but that something big was clearly going on like that.

edited 25th Sep '10 7:45:34 AM by Arha

I first realized a hint of it when Kei sends Chihiro mail about stuff that's happening in one season when it's the opposite in Chihiro's end. I had assumed it was just an oversight but oh man the reveal was a case of Fridge Brilliance for me.

Well, hints were all over the place, from Yuu and Yuuko not meeting in the "same" church, to Chihiro's comment that snow is rare in that area, so many of the second Otawa's characters having foreign relations, but that's how a great Tomato Surprise works.

Like when astronauts land on a planet, they specifically state at the beginning that they went forward in the future, and that the robot pilot was set to guide them home if there is no other planet, and this planet is full of Earth species and a mutation of Earth culture, but in spite of all these massive hints, your Star Trek experience still stops you from pointing out the obvious, and makes you assume that it's just a planet of hats with convergent evolution.

My brother helped translate this game with a friend of mine.

I've only played Wind myself, although my brother did show me an amusing screen of this game.

Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.

So where did you guys find Ef? I cannot find a torrent of it for the life of me.

If I do find it, who's route would you recommend I play through first?

Search isohunt for "Ef Lite Data". This is only the main data file, you will also need the 5 mb installer file that was taken down, so unless you can find a more complete torrent, you will need to ask one of us for an e-mail. (ask in a PM to me if you don't want to publicly post your email adress)

The routes are in pre-determined order, with different protagonists.

edited 27th Sep '10 12:47:50 AM by EternalSeptember

I thought I could get Kei in the first route not noticing the rather obvious Miyamura Miyako posted in the title of chapter one. Oh well, I like Miyako better anyway.

Alkthash: The setup is actually pretty different than most other V Ns. It's not a harem situation, rather, each story arc has a different protagonist and a different girl. They also go in a linear order so you have to play them in the order they appear.

However, because it's set up this way, it allows one arc to drop some kind of information that makes you go "aha! cool." in the next arc.

Shine

I really like the setup that Ef does in comparison to the standard harem ones.

^ Yeah, it almost feels like a real story, and not just "This Average Guy is you. These are the girls. Now, pick one. Now, masturbate."

Guess what VN is being localized by Mangagamer?

Yeah, Ef is.

Also being localized is Minori's Eden*, which I was looking forward to.

edited 1st Oct '10 6:10:17 PM by Solstace

Ecstasy is Sustained Intensity

Eh? What do you mean? Ef is already in english. Do you mean the fandisc with Nagi and Mizuki?

And ugh, your link mentioned Wind A Breath Of Heart. It reminded me of Chaos Head in the way it wastes a cool premise.

edited 1st Oct '10 6:28:18 PM by Arha

Yes, it's being distributed by Mangagamer, however, NNL are doing the actual translation. Which means it'll be a good translation! The details are in the Sep. 27 blogpost. Overall, I am happy that I'll be able to get a legal copy I can cherish forever.

edited 1st Oct '10 8:06:59 PM by Nika-senpai

Shine

...Hrmm... I don't think my brother will be involved in this one, he's a little busy at the moment, although he did do a few scripts some time back. "No Name Losers" really takes me back, I was a part of it once.

Edit: The group really changed since back then... "He" must have some appreciation for what happened, but...

edited 1st Oct '10 8:24:52 PM by Meophist

Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.

I want that fandisc. Nagi showed up way too little.