At this point, I'm sure anyone who is a fan of the visual novel's genre stumbled across the title ef – a fairy tale of the two. more than once in the past. Every time I looked for any visual novels recommendations it's one of the games that always got mentioned first, yet I didn't get around to play it. However, when I saw it popping up on the Steam store I finally wanted to give it a chance, although I'm often a little bit hesitant when it comes to popular games. I mean, after all, it's tough nowadays for older games to compete with newly released ones even though I would say that this visual novel can easily keep up with a lot of newer entries.

That being said, ef – a fairy tale of the two. is actually split into two parts: ef – the first tale. and ef – the latter tale. However, they are meant to be played together as well. The reason for the split is simply that ef – the first tale. got released earlier than the latter tale in Japan. The first entry contains a prologue as well as the first two chapters whilst the other part of the game contains chapter three to five. In this review, I'm going to only talk about ef – the first tale.

Aditionally, feel free to check out my review for ef – the latter tale.


ef – the first tale. opens with Yuu visiting a church where a mysterious girl called Yuuko often hangs out, although she does not belong to the church by all means. It happens that those two already met each other in the past and are, therefore, already familiar with each other. It is also evident that they share a special bond and story with each other. Since it was a while ago when both of them last met each other, they are catching up together and Yuuko starts to tell Yuu about the different stories she experienced during his absence.

I actually expected a generic dating sim when I first got my hands on ef – the first tale. as I knew beforehand that there are a lot of cute girls appearing throughout the game. However, this visual novel is by no means a dating sim per se as the stories are about different couples for each chapter. It follows the same concept like many romance novels make use of when there are multiple parts available in the same series, yet each entry is about multiple protagonists who the reader already met through the other entries. I always found this concept very appealing as I tend to get bored quite soon when the story starts to drag on which, thankfully, didn't happen in this case as both chapters are entirely different from each other and have a different story as well.


Since I played another game, Trinoline, by the same developers before starting this one, I was constantly expecting that something extreme would happen, although I didn't even experience half of the game yet so there is still more than enough room for the sad scenes to unfold. However, as of now, the two chapters are more or less dramatic romance stories that don't seem to be tied together at all despite being about already familiar characters, although the prologue already hints that there is more to the story than it seems at first. That doesn't mean that the first two chapters are bad, in fact, I enjoyed them a lot. Each girl had their own charm and even though I found some characters a little bit off at first, they suddenly started to grow on me once I happen to experience their own story.

You see, when I was done playing through the first chapter I felt a little bit bummed as I kind of expected more of it. I'm not going to lie, I may have set my expectations quite high with this game due to its popularity, however, as soon as I started the second chapter I started to genuinely enjoy this visual novel much more. The thing I loved here was that whilst the two stories are more or less independent the reader still is able to follow future events of the previous couple, although they're only side characters in the second chapter, so I felt like their story was not over yet but continues in the shadows. As I already knew the characters quite well, it felt heartwarming when a girl who was heartbroken before slowly started to heal and give love another chance even if it's with another guy.

Whilst I wouldn't say that ef – the first tale. is a sad game per se, it has its moments and can be quite dramatic. However, during each chapter the main focus is the character development, and whilst the characters might be indecisive at times, I felt that the storytelling was splendid in this visual novel. It really takes its time to develop a proper love story and doesn't feel rushed in any way, however, I have to admit that the end made me crave for the whole story to get revealed. The special thing here is that ef – the first tale. doesn't rely on the typical over the top comedy theme dating sims usually use but builds up its own fairy tale with the help of a slow-paced development and slice-of-life events, although a few scenes were indeed quite comedic nonetheless.


As implied before, ef – the first tale. is a linear visual novel that has to be played in the right order and, therefore, works similarly to a kinetic novel. However, there are decisions available throughout the game where the player can either obtain other CGs or they determine whether the reader will get the good or bad end. If the bad end is reached in the first chapter, the game ends abruptly and has to be replayed until receiving the good end to be able to play the second chapter. I found that the forced route order actually made sense as the first chapter takes place before the second and it would have been confusing to not play them in the right order as the latter chapter is purposely designed to play after the first one.


I was already impressed when I played Trinoline before when it comes to the graphics and ef – the first tale. didn't let me down either. There is a huge number of CGs available throughout the game, although a lot of them got altered only a little bit. During playing this visual novel, I constantly got confronted with CG events and I barely remember any scenes that included the usual sprites. Even male protagonists have their own sprites and appear in the CGs a lot. On a piece of side information, animations, such as lip-sync, and effects are available here that greatly helped with the immersion when some action took place during the story. Additionally, the whole game is fully voiced except for the male protagonists who are, however, voiced outside of their chapters.


ef – the first tale. slowly but surely grew on me and whilst I had mixed feelings in the beginning I actually started to really enjoy this visual novel once I experienced more of it. The connection of the independent stories works so well here especially since I wasn't ready to let the characters go, yet they fortunately still appeared in the second chapter once again. However, I feel like there are a lot of things still left unexplained as the prologue with Yuuko and Yuu never got explained in-depth other than that they used to be lovers and got separated. Luckily, the ride with ef – a fairy tale of the two. is not over yet, so there is more than enough room for the mysteries to unfold and I'm positive any romance lover will without a doubt very likely fall in love with this game, just like I did.

At this point, I'm sure anyone who is a fan of the visual novel's genre stumbled across the title ef – a fairy tale of the two. more than once in the past. Every time I looked for any visual novels recommendations it's one of the games that always got mentioned first, yet I didn't get around to play it. However, when I saw it popping up on the Steam store I finally wanted to give it a chance, although I'm often a little bit hesitant when it comes to popular games. I mean, after all, it's tough nowadays for older games to compete with newly released ones even though I would say that this visual novel can easily keep up with a lot of newer entries. That being said, ef – a fairy tale of the two. is actually split into two parts: ef – the first tale. and ef – the latter tale. However, they are meant to be played together as well. The reason for the split is simply that ef – the first tale. got released earlier than the latter tale in Japan. The first entry contains a prologue as well as the first two chapters whilst the other part of the game contains chapter three to five. In this review, I'm going to only talk about ef – the first tale. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/xTentacleBunny/recommended/1145030/]Aditionally, feel free to check out my review for ef – the latter tale.[/url] [h2]A Fairy Tale of the Two[/h2] ef – the first tale. opens with Yuu visiting a church where a mysterious girl called Yuuko often hangs out, although she does not belong to the church by all means. It happens that those two already met each other in the past and are, therefore, already familiar with each other. It is also evident that they share a special bond and story with each other. Since it was a while ago when both of them last met each other, they are catching up together and Yuuko starts to tell Yuu about the different stories she experienced during his absence. I actually expected a generic dating sim when I first got my hands on ef – the first tale. as I knew beforehand that there are a lot of cute girls appearing throughout the game. However, this visual novel is by no means a dating sim per se as the stories are about different couples for each chapter. It follows the same concept like many romance novels make use of when there are multiple parts available in the same series, yet each entry is about multiple protagonists who the reader already met through the other entries. I always found this concept very appealing as I tend to get bored quite soon when the story starts to drag on which, thankfully, didn't happen in this case as both chapters are entirely different from each other and have a different story as well. [h2]Lightheartedness, Slice-of-Life, and Romance[/h2] Since I played another game, Trinoline, by the same developers before starting this one, I was constantly expecting that something extreme would happen, although I didn't even experience half of the game yet so there is still more than enough room for the sad scenes to unfold. However, as of now, the two chapters are more or less dramatic romance stories that don't seem to be tied together at all despite being about already familiar characters, although the prologue already hints that there is more to the story than it seems at first. That doesn't mean that the first two chapters are bad, in fact, I enjoyed them a lot. Each girl had their own charm and even though I found some characters a little bit off at first, they suddenly started to grow on me once I happen to experience their own story. You see, when I was done playing through the first chapter I felt a little bit bummed as I kind of expected more of it. I'm not going to lie, I may have set my expectations quite high with this game due to its popularity, however, as soon as I started the second chapter I started to genuinely enjoy this visual novel much more. The thing I loved here was that whilst the two stories are more or less independent the reader still is able to follow future events of the previous couple, although they're only side characters in the second chapter, so I felt like their story was not over yet but continues in the shadows. As I already knew the characters quite well, it felt heartwarming when a girl who was heartbroken before slowly started to heal and give love another chance even if it's with another guy. Whilst I wouldn't say that ef – the first tale. is a sad game per se, it has its moments and can be quite dramatic. However, during each chapter the main focus is the character development, and whilst the characters might be indecisive at times, I felt that the storytelling was splendid in this visual novel. It really takes its time to develop a proper love story and doesn't feel rushed in any way, however, I have to admit that the end made me crave for the whole story to get revealed. The special thing here is that ef – the first tale. doesn't rely on the typical over the top comedy theme dating sims usually use but builds up its own fairy tale with the help of a slow-paced development and slice-of-life events, although a few scenes were indeed quite comedic nonetheless. [h2]Choices and their Impact[/h2] As implied before, ef – the first tale. is a linear visual novel that has to be played in the right order and, therefore, works similarly to a kinetic novel. However, there are decisions available throughout the game where the player can either obtain other CGs or they determine whether the reader will get the good or bad end. If the bad end is reached in the first chapter, the game ends abruptly and has to be replayed until receiving the good end to be able to play the second chapter. I found that the forced route order actually made sense as the first chapter takes place before the second and it would have been confusing to not play them in the right order as the latter chapter is purposely designed to play after the first one. [h2]Graphics and its Immersion[/h2] I was already impressed when I played Trinoline before when it comes to the graphics and ef – the first tale. didn't let me down either. There is a huge number of CGs available throughout the game, although a lot of them got altered only a little bit. During playing this visual novel, I constantly got confronted with CG events and I barely remember any scenes that included the usual sprites. Even male protagonists have their own sprites and appear in the CGs a lot. On a piece of side information, animations, such as lip-sync, and effects are available here that greatly helped with the immersion when some action took place during the story. Additionally, the whole game is fully voiced except for the male protagonists who are, however, voiced outside of their chapters. [h2]So, what do we have in the end?[/h2] ef – the first tale. slowly but surely grew on me and whilst I had mixed feelings in the beginning I actually started to really enjoy this visual novel once I experienced more of it. The connection of the independent stories works so well here especially since I wasn't ready to let the characters go, yet they fortunately still appeared in the second chapter once again. However, I feel like there are a lot of things still left unexplained as the prologue with Yuuko and Yuu never got explained in-depth other than that they used to be lovers and got separated. Luckily, the ride with ef – a fairy tale of the two. is not over yet, so there is more than enough room for the mysteries to unfold and I'm positive any romance lover will without a doubt very likely fall in love with this game, just like I did. 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