(VN – Minori) Ef – A Fairy Tale Of The Two

Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two (stylized ef – a fairy tale of the two.) is the overall title of a two-part Japanese adult visual novel series by Minorifor the PC as a DVD. The first game in the series, Ef: The First Tale, was released on December 22, 2006, and the second game, Ef: The Latter Tale, was released on May 30, 2008. The opening video for the game was animated by Makoto Shinkai, and a majority of the music was produced by Tenmon, who has worked in the past with Shinkai and Minori. Female character design was by Naru Nanao of Da Capofame, while male character design was by 2C Galore.

The Gameplay

The gameplay requires little interaction from the player as most of the duration of the game is spent simply reading the text that appears on the screen which represents either dialoguebetween the various characters or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. The player has a chance to assume the role of four protagonists, two in each Ef: The First Tale and Ef: The Latter Tale. Each protagonist is paired with a heroine, and each scenario in the original PC versions of the visual novels includes scenes with sexual content. These scenes are removed or modified in the PlayStation 2 port.

Every so often, the player will come to a point where he or she is given the chance to choose from multiple options. The time between these points is variable and can occur anywhere from a minute too much longer. Gameplay pauses at these points and depending on which choice the player makes, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are four main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. To view all plot lines, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and make different decisions to progress the plot in an alternate direction. The game can end prematurely if the player makes the wrong decisions. When this occurs, the player must go back to a previously saved spot and choose different decisions.

For Ef, Minori attempted to create a movie-like experience, using a lot of animated two-dimensional computer graphics presented from various angles. Instead of presenting the visuals straight-on with a character’s image in the middle of the screen and the character being the main focus, the character images in the Ef series are off-center and appear closer to “event” computer graphics (CGs) in typical visual novels. These types of CGs occur at certain pivotal times in a visual novel’s story and are meant to be artistic and much more detailed than normal visuals.

Plot And Characters

Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two consists of two parts. The first part is titled Ef: The First Tale and primarily consists of the story of Hiro Hirono, Miyako Miyamura, Kyosuke Tsutsumi, Kei Shindo, and Yuko Amamiya. It consists of a prologue and two main chapters with Miyako as the focus for the first chapter, and Kei for the second. This is followed by the second part of the story, Ef: The Latter Tale, which primarily deals with the story of Renji Aso, Chihiro Shindo, Shuichi Kuze, Mizuki Hayama, and Yu Himura. The second part consists of two more main chapters and an ending chapter, with Chihiro as the focus for the third chapter, and Mizuki for the fourth. Bringing the two parts together forms the all-encompassing Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two. The story is set in the town Otowa (音羽).

Ef: The First Tale

Prologue

Yuko Amamiya (雨宮 優子 Amamiya Yūko, voiced by: Yumiko Nakajima (Japanese), Carli Mosier (English)), a mysterious girl dressed like a nun, and Yu Himura (火村 夕 Himura Yū, voiced by: Kōichi Tōchika (Japanese), David Matranga (English)), a mysterious gentleman who is somehow attached to the church where Yuko first appears, are having a reunion in a church during Christmas time. Despite her attire, Yuko is not affiliated with the church. She always appears generally out of nowhere, and disappears just as quickly in various places throughout the story to talk with Hiro or other characters and give them advice. Yuko and Yu reminisce about the past and remember events of the previous year around the same time at the beginning of the first chapter of the story. Yuko hints of events that are revealed throughout Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two. After the conclusion of the first chapter, the story cycles back to the prologue and the talk between Yuko and Yu. Yuko ends with her talk about the events in the first chapter. At the end of the second chapter, the story shifts again to the scene with Yuko and Yu. Yuko finishes her talk on the events from the second chapter and says that she misses talking to Hiro, Kyosuke, and their friends. Their talk ends with allusions to the continuation of the story, Ef: The Latter Tale.

First chapter

The first chapter’s protagonist is Hiro Hirono (広野 紘 Hirono Hiro, voiced by: Hiro Shimono (Japanese), Greg Ayres (English)), an already established manga author despite still attending high school. Due to the pressures of his work, he often skips school and puts most of his time into his job as a manga artist of shōjo manga under the moniker ”Nagi Shindo” (新堂 凪 Shindō Nagi). Writing manga causes him to lose interest in school and focuses mainly on his work in order to earn an income, as usually he does not have much money as it is. While out one Christmas night, a purse snatcher rushes past Hiro on a bike and soon the main heroine of the first chapter named Miyako Miyamura (宮村 みやこ Miyamura Miyako, voiced by: Hiroko Taguchi (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)) appears, chasing after the purse thief. Hiro has his bike with him at the time, and Miyako takes his bike without asking to pursue the culprit. She ends up destroying his bike, and later hangs out with him for the rest of the night.

Hiro later meets Miyako again at school, and learns that she is a student of the same year there, but in a different class; she too does not attend classes much because she finds them boring. Miyako has an energetic personality and enjoys doing unorthodox things. She eventually starts to become attracted to Hiro after they start spending more time together, but during this time Hiro’s childhood friend Kei Shindo (新藤 景 Shindō Kei, voiced by: Junko Okada (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)) begins to feel left out and a love triangle develops between the three students. She is attracted to Hiro, and becomes jealous when she finds out how much time he is spending with Miyako Miyamura. Hiro and Miyako eventually become a couple, despite Kei’s feelings for him.

Second chapter

The second chapter begins several months after the end of the first. It is now summer, and the story focuses on a new protagonist named Kyosuke Tsutsumi (堤 京介 Kyōsuke Tsutsumi, voiced by: Yūki Tai (Japanese), Chris Patton (English)). Kyosuke is an acquaintance of Hiro’s and happens to be in the same grade and school. He has a passion for filming, and constantly carries a digital video recorder around with him. On Christmas night, he saw Kei Shindo, who is the main heroine of the second chapter, running down the street and tried to get a shot of her, but a truck passed by, so he could not get a clean shot, plus he did not realize it was Kei at the time. After immersing himself in the thoughts of the mystery girl that Christmas night, he ends up quitting the film club and his girlfriend suggests they break up, which he agrees to as well.

One day while Kyosuke is filming near the gymnasium he by chance catches sight of Kei practicing basketball for her school’s girl’s basketball team and becomes infatuated by her image. He desires to cast Kei in an amateur film he is making for an upcoming film festival. Occupied with thoughts of Kei, he sets out determined to get closer to Kei by becoming better friends with Hiro, Kei’s childhood friend. Kei is one year younger than Hiro and she attends the same school as him too. After being asked to be cast in one of his films, Kei initially refuses Kyosuke’s offer, but agrees to watch some of his previous films. While initially put off by the films, she eventually comes to like aspects of his work. After hanging out together more, the two eventually fall in love and go out together.

Ef: The Latter Tale

Prologue

Ef: The Latter Tale begins once again with Yuko Amamiya and Yu Himura in the middle of a reunion in a church during Christmas time. Yuko tells Yu how she has influenced people in two separate stories (from Ef: The First Tale). After she is done with this, she asks him to tell her about the people he has influenced. Yu starts to tell his first story, that of Chihiro Shindo; the third chapter begins. Like Yuko, Yu also abruptly appears out of nowhere and disappears just as mysteriously. He often gives advice and warnings to Renji and others. Yu is close to Chihiro and takes care of her. After the conclusion of the third chapter, the story goes back to Yuko and Yu with Yu ending his recount of the third chapter, and goes on to talk about how he and Yuko were separated in the past. Yu starts his recount of the events from the fourth chapter. At the end of the fourth chapter, the story shifts one final time back to Yuko and Yu. Up to this point the two have been recounting individual tales to each other. The meaning of the overall title Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two is revealed to be in connection with Yuko and Yu.

Third chapter

Like the first chapter, the third chapter is also set in winter, but now the story focuses on another protagonist named Renji Aso (麻生 蓮治 Asō Renji, voiced by: Motoki Takagi(Japanese), Clint Bickham (English)) who is half German, half Japanese. One day, he goes to an abandoned train station in town he would often frequent to read at since it is so quiet there and meets a girl wearing an eyepatch over her left eye and sitting alone named Chihiro Shindo (新藤 千尋 Shindō Chihiro, voiced by: Natsumi Yanase (Japanese), Monica Rial(English)). Chihiro is the younger twin sister of Kei Shindo from Ef: The First Tale and the main heroine of the third chapter in the story. Despite them being mutually shy, Renji comes back to see her at the station every day after school and quickly becomes friends with her. Renji later learns that she has a severe case of anterograde amnesia where she cannot remember anything past thirteen hours previous, aside from the events before the accident which she can recall perfectly. When she was younger, she was involved in an accident which resulted in her condition, and now carries a diary with her which she writes in every day the events of that day so that the next day, after she had forgotten everything, she will be able to remind herself of what happened the previous day. Ironically, she has a fantastic memory of anything that happened that is less than thirteen hours old.

Renji also finds out that it is her dream to write a fantasy novel, but due to her condition has never been able to get far. Renji loves to read novels, and after discussing it with Chihiro, he collaborates with her to see if he can finally make her dream come true. Through the process of writing the novel, the two eventually become very close and they fall in love with each other. As the story progresses and more of the novel is written, Renji soon discovers that the novel is an allegory for Chihiro’s life and how she sees the world around her due to the state of her limited memory.

Fourth chapter

Shuichi Kuze (久瀬 修一 Kuze Shūichi, voiced by: Kenji Hamada (Japanese), Illich Guardiola (English)) is the main protagonist of the fourth chapter in the story. He is an older man who is a professional violinist.  He had been studying abroad in Germany for a time, and comes back to where Ef’s story takes place. Kuze is a neighbor of Renji’s and is good friends with him despite the age difference. Kuze knows Yu Himura and Chihiro as well, but she forgets Kuze due to her condition. He meets the main heroine from the fourth chapter of the story named Mizuki Hayama (羽山 ミズキ Hayama Mizuki, voiced by: Mai Goto (Japanese), Hilary Haag (English)) after being introduced by Renji’s mother. She goes to an affiliated school and admires Kei greatly as someone who is older than she is; in fact, Mizuki is also on her school’s girl’s basketball team. She greatly enjoys reading shōjo manga.  She has a straightforward attitude and likes to be frank towards others, especially to Kei.  She initially comes to Otowa to visit her older cousin Renji, and this is when she meets Kuze. Kuze keeps to himself that he is dying of a special case of neurosis, of which Mizuki is aware of, but even though she tries to get closer to him, he forcibly pushes her away and rejects her affections. Mizuki becomes depressed and obtains Chihiro’s diary. Casually reading it, she finds Yu’s name which she recognizes from her past. Mizuki goes to the church to find Yu, but the chapter ends shortly after.

Download Links

Using MF file-host approximately file size : 2,3 Gb

• Ef part 1 – dl link
• Ef part 2 – dl link
• Ef part 3 – dl link
• Ef part 4 – dl link
• Ef part 5 – dl link
• Ef part 6 – dl link
• Ef part 7 – dl link
• Ef part 8 – dl link
• Ef part 9 – dl link
• Ef part 10 – dl link
• Ef part 11 – dl link
• Ef part 12 – dl link

Screenshot

Updates March 24, 2012

Sorry if we delayed a bit from being scheduled; it’s seems work in L/C department in our company become overload and I should work overtime as well, hence I’m drop dead in my bed whenever I get back from work. Strange enough Saya-chan is face the same problem as mine as her work is near dead-line for next airing.

The dead and broken has been re-uploaded / repaired on MF filehost by our contributor; Please inform us whenever you find any dead or broken link so we will try our best to fix it. As for someone who report us as abuse of DCMA or something like that… Man, I don’t know what your problem?! but we’re voluntary sharing for free so everyone could enjoy visual novel that we’ve posted, if you’re the rightful owner or company of the visual novel that we’ve posted please send us official notice at Sprucefir_Ra@yahoo.com and we will delete the file immediately and never post it again in our web-log; for further information you can read disclaimer on our profile page.

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