Ef A Fairy Tale Of The Two

Chihiro's arc done. My impression of the game went a bit off-track by the regular cast suddenly vanishing, but it quickly went up again. As someone who's learning how to write — particularly stories, I feel that Chihiro's arc really captured what it's like to write a story, and not just a story — a good story. The plot of Chihiro's arc was predictable, but again, the presentation simply blows me away. The layering of the plot and the clever use of meta-symbolism is amazing.

As you can see, I am absolutely blown away by this VN. I can't wait to write a review on it. Just got past the OP of the latter tale; I'll probably finish the VN by tomorrow.

I'm not sure you'll be able to finish by then. You still have two routes and the second one is twice as long as the other routes due to its format.

It's a pity we'll probably never see the fandisk.

edited 6th Apr '12 9:19:39 AM by Arha

Also, I love how every character is connected to one another, like a ring, I guess? It reminds me of Mawaru Penguindrum, although ef is not as symbolism-heavy. Every character is important, and the plot is limited to just these characters.

It amused me that Hiro had four heroines after him in one way or another. Chihiro and Kei both had a crush on him when they were young and Mizuki drools over Nagi Shindou.

Finished. Ahaha, the twist at the end was so fucking ridiculous but I don't care since the rest of was awesome. Beautiful. Too beautiful for words. I have way too much to say about this novel, so I'll save it for my review.

And what do you know, I really did finish the entire thing today.

When I completed the game the little movie that plays at the end didn't really work. I heard people speaking but the screen was all black and there was no text box or anything. So I've no idea what happened there.

I was talking about the tomato surprise twist. I realized that the hints when they revealed it, but damn, that twist was really ridiculous that it just warps back to awesome. Don't worry, the ending was just really Yuuko and Yuu talking and sorting out their regrets.

Finished writing my review. What can I say, this VN deserves a 10/10. It's a real masterpiece for me.

Hm, while it's obviously very good, I somehow don't really think of Ef much when making mental lists of top VNs by whatever criteria I'm judging by that day.

I remember that right after I finished Ef, I was going to rate it a 10. After the initial hype died down inside of me, I'd rate it a 9 out of 10. It's absolutely beautiful, stunning and fantastic. Lots of superlatives. However, it just doesn't give me the sort of chills that the best of the best give me. What G-Senjou no Maou and Umineko make me feel.

That's a good way of putting it. It doesn't catch my fascination even though I can admire the technique and story.

edited 7th Apr '12 12:39:12 PM by Arha

I have way too much attachment to a certain character's story to forget it anytime soon. That's why I said it's a different kind of 10/10 from the one I gave Umineko — a big part of the reason I'm giving it a 10/10 is because of personal attachment and not the excitement it gave me. I suppose my hype over it will eventually die down, but I can't bring myself to get over how real the characters felt for me.

But well, different strokes for different folks. An important part of any romance is how well the characters' plight affects the reader; I suppose it just affected me more.

They were very down to earth, mostly. And I rather like the resolutions because they didn't just spin perfect happy endings out of any problem.

Also, I wish Nagi appeared more. Shizuka Ito's voice is wonderful to the ears. I heard about the fandisc; I also wish it was translated but it probably never will be ;__;.

edited 7th Apr '12 8:05:48 PM by LiberatedLiberater

Yeah, sucks doesn't it? It's a little disappointing how few projects I'm really interested in are going on right now. Or maybe I just have a grudge against Period for being one of the few that's making steady progress despite on the low side of mediocre or outright bad.

Which character are you most attached to?

Yuuko, mostly because I'm currently in a relationship with a girl who's had a similar plight as Yuuko's, though to a much less severe degree. Yuuko's and Yuu's relationship reminds me of my current one, though with much less drama.

Chihiro's arc is my favorite arc though. The resolution is fantastic, and the presentation just amazes me.

edited 8th Apr '12 7:36:58 AM by LiberatedLiberater

Mangagamer has just released the demo movie for Ef: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_-kUc9LI48&feature=g-u-u&context=G2d7ac36FUAAAAAAABAA

Also, according to their site, they won't be able to fully uncensor the H-CG's.

http://blog.mangagamer.org/2012/04/19/a-word-about-the-upcoming-ef-release/

...... THAT'S THEIR REASONING!?!?!?!

...Seriously ... I have no words to describe this. I don't care about censored CGs, but it sounds like that they stalled the release because of that.

Would uncensored hentai really cause that much mass panic to the Japanese and doom Minori? Is it why JAST and Mangagamer haven't released more titles? It really makes you wonder.

edited 19th Apr '12 9:07:12 PM by encrypted12345

After reading the whole statement, I'm not bothered by that release strategy. As someone who has a vested interest in ef due to the story and characters, visual novels as a whole mustn't take another beating after the Rapelay controversy.

that reminds me when JAST wanted to release Cleavage(an eroge by the same artist as Bible black and Discipline),but the Japanese actually lost the uncensored C Gs(though the anime adaptation did get an uncensored R1 release.),so JAST decided to cancel its release.

Guess Mangagamer accepted it anyway since the VN is all about the story rather than sex.Besides,it would have been a huge middle finger to everyone who has been waiting ever since the english translation was still just a fan-project if they gave up on releasing the game just because of that when they had come this far...

edited 19th Apr '12 10:30:39 PM by johnnysasaki

I'm not particularly excited because the fan translation is there and it's pretty high quality already.

To be honest though, Minori is pretty notorious in Western VN fandom for some of the stunts they've pulled in the past. They've already blocked Western IP addresses from accessing their website and blanked pages on the TL Wiki before, why not add paranoia over reverse-importing onto that list?

I haven't played ef yet, but as far as I know it's a story-oriented game, not a sex romp. The CG's we're getting are already "superior "(if you want to put it that way) than the Japanese release, so I don't see any reason to complain. Hopefully sales won't be affected by this decision though...

And now, ef ~ the first tale is finally released officially. I've downloaded the trial version so that I can know more about Hiro, since I'll be cosplaying as him for the second time in a local convention.

^ YES

How do you get his uniform anyway?

edited 24th Aug '12 9:21:07 AM by neobowman