di/aphragm para/digHm, an nauseating ambition & a prelude to unveil.
It’s been quite an absurd amount of time I’ve allowed myself before finally blogging again, to that, my most illustrious flowers, I apologize for my absence, but I have finally come to be able to articulate my tongue a smidge more ever since my most unfortunate disappearance, but I have risen, my mind has been cleared and set concise, ever as I have perceived that an acquaintance of mine finished the production of their visual novel and has set it to the wide public, I immediately thought it was the time for me to satisfy my evermore hunger of artistic experiences, and hopefully improve certain aspects of me on this odyssey of critical analysis that I bring you, my cherished flowers.
I will attempt to have the most unswayed perspective on this work, which I personally found myself to resist with great fervour to the virgin, yet detestable tides of "acquaintance bias”.
As always, my review posts will always be devoid of spoilers to possibly impede your own personal journey on this work, let’s dig in with our bare hands, shall we? Alea jacta est.
OVERVIEW OF |||| WORK
di/aphragm para/digHm is the first ADV mystery sci-fi work and the beginning of many other works that will arrive as time pursues its track, an undoubtedly intriguing first act, especially for the limited time it has been given for its rendering & creation, as it has been after all submitted for the Toxic Yuri VN Jam of 2025, thus I must compliment the devs for their fast & efficient work, building a very solid ADV game in just a month is a feat that is pretty difficult to accomplish, let alone have such an interesting visual presentation for this sand grain of time is outright supernatural as an eldritch overseer whose been spectating Toxic Yuri Jam VNs for the past years, it isn’t just supernatural, it’s bewildering.
||| DISCOVERIES
We are introduced underneath the lens of Cyparisse, a photographer who has found so much distaste and disgust in everything, including herself as she drowns herself in this sea of distrust, alienation, self-loathe & isolation, which we’re told very bluntly throughout the beginning, the visual novel’s prose although while simple, has shown to have a very unique way to deliver itself to the reader throughout its strong and powerful verbose, which interestingly enough balances itself surprisingly decent with the overarching curiosity that the visual novel slowly unfolds its curtains showing glimpses of its many questions that the author wants to have the reader look forward for and engage with.
Throughout the perspective we’re given of Cyparisse, we’re almost instantly introduced to the secondary character of the work, taking photographs of her pristine corpulence as this degenerate environment evolves, this lady with this pristine corpulence is the doll, non-human Silvania, which seemingly cooperates with Cyparisse for the sake of using her as pornographic material to discover platitudes which is unknown to her, such sessions have seemingly been going on for a while, along with Silvania always being obedient and cooperative with Cyparisse’s demands. The world of Cyparisse is one in which she censors unwanted information, and deforms reality to filter information she desires and the information she doesn’t desire is blocked out.
The third character of this work we are after introduced to is Kallista, a childhood friend of hers which is the only other person that we see in this work which Cyparisse doesn’t block out of her own will, Kallista has an absurd amount of hobbies and even throughout her optimistic outside façade, lies a secret underneath her as for the rest of the cast…
There’s a fourth character presented in this work, which communicates in almost riddle-like behaviour and ominously presents themselves during the most intriguing times of question.
A story which progressively transforms and shifts itself into the exposure of many secrets which weren’t yearning to expose themselves in the slightest, a narrative which de-zooms into something bigger, more crude, and more nauseating, a quest for the search of what it means to be human, and a quest for love.
|| MANY STATEMENTS
Due to the short amount of time this visual novel is, it is quite hard to exactly go over anything without it being a statement which tells the rest of the story, so I shall skip over to the intricate amateur, yet fervent passion which this work has been written, first of all, I’ll go over this again, the visual presentation of this work is absolutely splendid and the lineart is used in such a way which can truly resonate with the reader, and the prose’s bluntness is used in such an interesting excellency which you can’t help but be surprisingly pleased by the delivery especially halfway through the work, which takes its personal epitome of great forthrightness.
The character cast is unexpectedly very likeable, even if it rather could take some time to “grow its wings” for certain characters in my eyes, although my personal favourite character in this visual novel has always been Kallista, growing a personal strong attachment from debut to terminus.
The narrative was able to surpass itself, and the home-stretch of the work was overall pretty delightful, while the story might bang itself against walls, it never falls or trips on its own, which makes me excited to see more of Azalinworks.
However, if you may have or may not noticed, I was particularly applauding the visual presentation of the work, while leaving out the textual presentation, well, to commence on that, the textual presentation of the beginning and the end is rather lacking in its flow, while the writing may have a strong conviction towards its clear-cut dialogue, it inevitably left me awkward when I just started reading it, bringing a certain unsatisfying texture to my lecture, and not in the good way, unfortunately, the visual novel woefully fails at its opening & closure, and where the narrative becomes truly captivating is midway where it uses its candidness for the best, truly adjusting the cameras of the work to its limelight.
Certainly, in this regard, certain subversions were rather… Too hard to disregard, to the point where I was rather stunned and unsure how to think on that matter, being far too confusing, and while I do understand that this narrative only showed so little, a lot of my exact regards lie in wait for a further part, leaving me empty-handed with not as much to grasp as I thought I could have. While I don’t doubt that a lot of these twists will come and be delivered and answered, certain ones such as the Longino left me rather puzzled.
||| CONSENSUS
Overall, despite the mixed feelings I felt towards the finale struggling to wrap itself properly, there is certainly a lot of good and I enjoyed it more than I disliked it, such creative ambition is truly commendable, and this is a project that I am fully certain that wishes to evolve and become more grand and even more thrilling, the amount of potential this work has shown me has made me plenty joyous with its construction, I am incredibly excited to see this future-series’s creative mutations that will eventually come to light, and see how it will adapt throughout its most perilous challenges, I am certain that Azalinworks will make these works bloom some of the most magnificent and praise-worthy wings.