[cyth]

Official site: http://www.ef-memo.com
Release date: Autumn 2007

Originally Posted by eggplant

Staff
Director: Ohnuma Shin
Series Composition: Takayama Katsuhiko
Character Design: Sugiyama Nobuhiko
Supervisor: Shinbou Akiyuki
Music: Tenmon
Animation Studio: Shaft

Cast
Miyamura Miyako: Taguchi Hiroko
Hirono Hiro: Shimono Hiro
Shindou Kei: Okada Junko
Shindou Chihiro: Yanase Natsumi
Hayama Mizuki: Gotou Mai
Tsutsumi Kyousuke: Tai Yuuki
Asou renji: Takagi Motoki
Amamiya Yuuko: Nakajima Yumiko
Himura Yuu: Touchika Kouichi

Basic information:

ef - a fairy tale of the two. is a Japanese interactive novel created by the software house minori (Wind ~a breath of heart~). The first part of the game, ef - the first tale. got released last Christmas (2006/12/22) for 7140 en, while the release of the second part of the game titled ef - the latter tale. is still pending and is for now set to be released sometime this year.

The anime is scheduled to be released sometime in autumn. A prologue DVD called ef - a tale of memories. ~prologue~ will go on sale 2007/08/24.


Plot:

The story revolves around the protagonist Hirono Hiro, a poor high school boy who draws shoujo manga for his living. One cold Christmas night after meeting a very strange woman in church, his bike gets stolen by another strange girl. He runs after her and finds her collapsed on the street. Her name is Miyamura Miyako and her bag got stolen by a man on a motorbike. Soon after, they start hanging out together, enjoying highschool life and whatnot. Hiro's life is also strongly dictated by Shindou Kei, his childhood friend.


Selling points of the game:

• minori tried to create a "movie-like" experience with it, using lots of moving 2D CG, taken from different angles. Visual novel fans were calling this a new standard for the visual novel/game market.
  
• Shinkai Makoto was in charge of ef - the first tale. movie feature that was also used as a promotional video for the game. TECH GIAN's magazine feature ef - Super Prelude included a "true" High-Definition video of the PV (in WMV format).
  
• Nanao Naru's character designs.

Some information Sushi-Y found before the first part of the game was released:

Originally Posted by Sushi-Y

Here are some ef information from Nitro Yusenshiki that was revealed during the minori trial version distribution/talk event tour, some of which I found to be interesting.

- Most of the profits from Wind, Haru no Ashioto, and ANGEL TYPE are being poured into ef.
- It took about 40 million yen just to press the first fan disk and the maxi single disk (of the OP/ED theme).
- They ran out of funds, so they went and made a 50 million yen (About 430,000 USD) loan.
- The game's scenario is not all that long.
- In exchange for a large number of artworks, they cut the scenario volume down. The idea is to aim for a movie-like experience.
- ef's total CG number is about 400~500.
- The length of the scenario shouldn't determine a game's quality, it's all about how much the completed product entertains you. A game that can be completed within 16~18 hours is also far friendlier for the working-class people.
- They have gotten mails such as "please sell me an instruction manual and user leaflet" or "please sell me the game box", even moronic ones like "tell me how to get the game to install from a disk image". That's when they began working with ISPs and police in Japan to stop P2P distributions.
- There has been a number of offers for an anime adaptation of ef, but they were all turned down.
- They don't dislike any soft houses in particular.
- If any, then probably TYPE-MOON for having so much money it's irritating.
- Envious of KID for being able to borrow 500 million yen.
- Mikage's (scenario writer, also director of ef) material gathering trip to Germany through Moscow costed 58,000 yen + various expenses for a total of 100 thousand yen.
- Stood helplessly at Moscow airport.
- Doesn't understand German, so he stayed at the same hotel throughout all the location shoots.
- A chicken who escapes back to the hotel as soon as he got the photos he needed.
- Slept on a bench in Moscow airport for 20 hours waiting for the return flight.
Not a lot of good memories of Moscow airport, it seems.

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I personally own the game but I haven't even continued past the prologue (I guess now I'll have to, eh). Some of the story telling seems quite fun, especially listening to Miyako's reporting of her actions expressed in 3rd person. Anyway, I'm quite sceptical about the quality, more like the selling points of the anime adaptation because angles and "movie-like" effects don't really matter when talking anime. They do in the eroge industry, however.

P.S.: The game PV was released by Froth-Bite last year. It can also be found on YouTube.