i was pleasantly surprised when flower language came up, because my very first thought when i booted up the vn was noticing that the protagonist was named dahlia and wondering if dahlias being a scentless flower would ever come into play. it ended up going a slightly different direction, but my head was in the right place haha.
there's a very good buildup of dread in this one, for as sweet as dahlia's and ivy's relationship seemed at first, the context of the game (toxic yuri vn jam...) and the name of the secondary protagonist worked together to have me tense the whole time, wondering when it would all come crashing down.
and i still wasn't ready for when it did. my heart breaks for dahlia, she exists as a perfect juxtaposition of how cis men and cis women tend to view trans women. victimized by brad due to her proximity to womanhood and yet unable to defend herself as she wishes to (until she has no other choice) because she knows her societal status as a trans woman will make everyone read violence/anger from her as masculine despite them being universal human emotions. with ivy she finds a partner that not only stands by her side in the face of brad's aggressions but also allows her to safely explore aggression herself and yet the big reveal is that ivy herself perceives dahlia as more adjacent to manhood for having these traits. fuck man.
i love how dahlia's face blindness is used to further explore her disconnect with other people, trying to fill the gap of her sight with sound with her songwriting. the symbolism behind ivy having amusia being that she truly cannot connect with dahlia was very nicely handled.
but the biggest outstanding factor for me was how cinematic everything feels. the repetition of scenarios each drive paired with the choice of photographic backgrounds really made the prose flow more like a short film script for me than a regular visual novel, and i loved the sound design most of all. excellent use of diagetic sound and music.