2/10: (Weighed against the discounted price.) A trashy visual novel in which the trashiness is counter-intuitive. The idea of two different MC's and a slightly different story for the two MC's was an okay idea, but the developer writes like the only way they know how to have drama in a story, is to make all of the characters utterly despicable. If that's not enough, each character has only one unique graphic, and the end screen is nothing but a picture of a blue sky. This VN is only useful for your completionist friends who only buy games for the achievements. (Just make sure that they don't actually read the stories.)


A main character from New York (gender detriment) getting a chance to study abroad in London while working a part time job and getting to live in a hostel full of hormonal young adults. What could possibly go wrong? In England Exchange all of these other characters have utterly despicable personalities, the good parts are effectively glossed-over with almost no details of what happened, and the only thing that's changed after 2018, is that the other characters can be seen in the buff. (But only in stock scenes.) Work, study, hostel drama which ends with money being stolen out of the cash register. Maybe the player finds love, maybe they don't... But seriously, why would anyone wanna be in a relationship with anyone in this VN besides Ashley? (Ashley goes down as the least-worst because while the best thing about her was her looks, she didn't come as close to being as annoying or as evil as the rest of the characters in this VN.)


The graphics were decent enough for the most part, but were ultimately ruined by the fact that the VN is almost entirely stock footage. Players can unlock a unique scene if they make the correct choices. But regardless if the player is playing as either Flynn or Malia, the scene is the same with the only difference being which MC is also in the scene.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=920486495

(Above screenshot used with permission.)

The between-scenes were pleasing enough, which feature either MC studying and working their job while an exact date is featured on the screen.

The music was also decent enough. None of the tunes stood out as likable, but the music was enough of a proper fit for the story for the most part.


The idea of allowing for the player to choose to play as a MMC or an FMC was a unique idea, and this helped for giving each character one romantic partner not available to the the other. Flynn has enough contact to romance Aasi, but not enough contact to find out how horrible Aasi happens to be. Malia can romance Angelo who's never almost never encountered during Flynn's story, but Malia works closely with Angelo at a hotel job. (Flynn works in a pub instead.)

England Exchange has a walkthrough posted in the guides on Steam, so the player can sweep all of the achievements without having to play too much attention to the story... Nobody should read this story. It's trashy, and even if the player is someone like ol' Il Pallino who enjoys a trashy VN, then the player is going to be let down by the lack of sex and nudity. (While sex and nudity were mostly banned on Steam until Negligee: Love Stories was released in 2018, apparently the developer didn't know how to upload a patch outside of Steam for the players to play like with all of those other VN's full of "good parts"!)


Why does everyone else in England Exchange have to be so horrible?!! I suppose that everyone looks alright, and it was appreciated that one of the women has some flab on her. But other than that, someone who's buying England Exchange for it's story (LOL!) is best advised to romance Ashley and then never play again. All in all, the characters would be like the WWE only having bad guy wrestlers, and the least-worst character doesn't stand out enough to be a good guy.... Errrrrrrrrr... Gal!

Completionists may by bothered that there's gay walls/straight walls to overcome in order to unlock all of the unique CG's in order to earn one of the achievements. Certainly no woman is going to be complaining about wanting to romance Aasi as Malia, but there have been some complaints from gay(?) people that Angelo can't be romanced by Flynn. (Even then, there likely weren't many women that would want to romance Angelo on account of his despicable personality.)


This VN sucks... Maybe England Exchange didn't suck as bad as a BCH Waves Studio VN, but at least BCH Waves Studio was kind enough as to compensate players with thousands of achievements for having the gall to read their VN's. (Before anyone looking for lots of achievements for their profiles get excited, BCH Waves Studio was kicked off of Steam, and their achievements no longer count on a player's profile.) Apparently it didn't occur to Hanabira that trashy VN's are effectively worthless without lots of sex scenes and nudity. The lack of a proper end screen leaves for an unsatisfying feeling, and regardless if the ending was good, neutral, or bad. Only buy if you're looking to have some more achievements and a completed game on your profile, but try not to actually read what is on screen.