Game Impressions: The New Flesh; My Confounding Cat is Criminally Cute!; A Tiny Sticker Tale

[mysterytoast]

The New Flesh

Began: 6/26/25
Completed: (Original) 7/6/25; (Expansion) 8/3/2025
Playtime (100% achievements, post-expansion): 2.4 hours
Free on Steam.
A walking sim/”interactive music video” based on Red Vox.
I enjoyed it! It basically provides visuals for a lot of the Red Vox songs and sends you on a fetch quest that lets you explore and collect various songs across their discography. However, it is something where you need to be at least somewhat tuned into Red Vox, if not the Vinesauce community injokes, to get the full experience.
I had two frustrations. The first was replaying the game to complete the collection - most things were fine, but the ability to progress maps is inexplicably based on waiting out songs. There’s also a time limited album for some reason - you have to access the area after the sand dunes spawn, but before that entrance turns into another map, which I found an utterly perplexing choice and cost me several minutes and a look at someone’s playthrough of the game. The second was trying to figure out how to find the Gameboy camera filter’s final room - I struggled to find it even with a video guide, because the area doesn’t have landmarks and getting up to the potential areas (multiple) is more tedious than an easter egg should be. Other than that, really neat experience with a good looking pixellated art style. I sat in some areas to just enjoy the ambiance.
The free expansion was also neat, and I thought it was cool that they have an exclusive song. Nothing related to the expansion was in the main game, either, which I also appreciated. I’m not a horror person and am extremely not a fan of “collect items and outrun the horror” type games, but the silliness of the bonus minigame actually made it not scary. “Run or he will knock your ass out” and then when he catches you he does in fact punch you in the face and knock your ass out.

My Confounding Cat is Criminally Cute!

Began: 7/6/25
Completed: 7/18/25
Playtime (100%/Completed Story): 3.5 hours
Bought during the 2025 Steam Summer Sale.
A short BL visual novel about a potion-making wizard and a guy cursed to be a cat. It’s really, really short — the 3.5 hours I have in my playtime is actually overshooting it, because I accidentally left the game open a couple times.
It was pretty decent. I do see why people criticize how “light” it feels on the BL, though — pretty much the entire story is about their developing relationship and them getting together, and the other challenge they’re facing is resolved by them getting together. In the post-script notes, ebi-hime discussed how this was one of their lighter works both in tone and in worldbuilding, and I absolutely see that, even when this is the first visual novel I’ve read from them.
However, even though I generally look for more substantial stories, I don’t fault this one for its flaws. It’s honestly kind of what I needed right now - I’ve been going between so much academic and work reading and writing and also sort of in a rut creatively, so this was a good touchstone for something I’m familiar with… because it reminds me heavily of fanfic. Specifically the “getting together” subgenre, with a moderate slow burn. There’s just a narrative flow, scene setting, and general tone of writing and POV detail that feels so incredibly fanfic-y.
The one big complaint I do have is that Blaise (the guy cursed into being a cat) doesn’t keep his cat ears or tail once the curse is lifted. Boo, keep the catboy features.
I played this on my Deck and it was a good experience. Default keybinds hit the necessary buttons and I had plenty of options to progress text.

A Tiny Sticker Tale

Began: 8/1/2025
Completed: 8/2/2025
Playtime (100% achievements): 2.8 hours
Bought in a recent (still live when I played the game, actually) Fanatical build-a-bundle focused on “cozy” games.
I played the demo for this game during a Next Fest however long ago and really enjoyed the gameplay concept, but I felt $10 was a bit too much money and was waiting for it to show up in a Humble Bundle or other bundle with other games I found interesting. Fanatical holding that cozy games build-a-bundle was perfect (they had several games I was interested in grabbing), and the amount I ultimately paid was more than worth it.
I can appreciate a game that lands on a solid concept, explores the depth of that concept, and then doesn’t waste your time further playing with other gimmicks. It’s definitely a short game at under 3 hours for a 100%, but I didn’t feel like it was setting out to waste my time, and I appreciate that more than a game with a longer playtime but lots of filler. I found the puzzles light but neat, the way some stickers interact with the world really interesting, and the way it absolutely indulges the hoarder in me very satisfying. If messy. This poor tent has like 50 stickers stuck in the borders forever because outfits and seasonal/non-carpenter decoration items don’t count towards achievements.
I would’ve liked to have a shortcut to the shopkeeper, and the map could’ve come during the first “region.” I also wish the game would provide a few more hints for stickers you haven’t collected, especially in post-game — I spent more time than I should have collecting them, because I wasn’t consistent about collecting the NPCs. Even a little sparkle icon for uncollected objects while in sticker mode after finishing the story would’ve been nice. It’s also really easy to accidentally interact with NPCs and story scrolls multiple times, though at least you can skip cutscenes.