Demo Impressions Part 26

Featuring: Anxiety Puppy, The Midnight Barber, No More Work For Ito, SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide, and Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis

So I decided to post this week’s demo impression batch earlier in the month and this one is going to be a bit more personalized than my others. Why? Well, I decided that I not only wanted to post demo impressions during Steam Next Fest, but demos that I recently played and most being a part of October’s Next Fest. Crazy right? Well, I’m excited for you guys to take a look at my demo impressions and I hope at least one of these will get your interest and get you to play the demo yourself. As always, games with demos at the time of posting will be marked with a (*), but since I played these right during Next Fest I’ll check back after the event to see which games still have their demos up.

Anxiety Puppy*

Coming November 2025

This is a game that I knew about before and hoped it would get a demo as well. I’m not sure how I came across Anxiety Puppy other than in a previous Steam Event it was supposed to have a demo, but didn’t. Well, now it does and I made sure to download it so I didn’t have to worry about not playing it in time.

Anxiety Puppy has you in the shoes of a nameless young woman with anxiety. The beginning of the game has her looking for a job and even going to interviews, with one of them being one that we are able to see. Luckily, she was able to eventually get a job, but unluckily she has to move to a new city away from her family and her boss is a hard ass. We get to see her thoughts all throughout, as well as doing some interactive segments that simulates what she’s doing like typing out her project or reorganizing her thoughts. We also see anxiety creeping in, visualized first as a cloud of black squiggles before it gets turned into a puppy, accompanied with the woman’s thoughts.

This demo goes over the first chapter, which is around 20 minutes depending on how fast you read, and so far it’s pretty good. The English translation definitely needs another pass as there were some points where it was a bit wonky, but nonetheless I did enjoy the story so far and the interactive elements. Not to mention that I really liked the art style (which you guess it, was part of the reason why I wanted to play Anxiety Puppy) and I like how it looks animated. And man, is the anxiety here pretty relatable. With the woman going to sleep at the end of Chapter 1 and the narration hinting at her dream being a long one, I’m guessing we’ll have most of the game be in the woman’s dream and then the last chapter will be in the real world where she’s doing better. It’ll be interesting to see what’s going to happen in her dream and what she’ll do when she wakes up. Will she stay at her job and deal with her boss? Or will she tell her mom her troubles, move back, and find a job back home?

The Midnight Barber*

A rhythm haircutting game? Sign me up. Not to mention the art style? Oh my gosh I needed to try out this demo. I’m so glad I decided to check out newly released demos between Next Fests as I may have never found out about this game. Especially since I saw that it’s a limited time demo.

In The Midnight Barber, you play as Clara who is a, well, barber who doesn’t open her barbershop until midnight. Why? Well, while this game does take place in *checks notes* late 70s Barcelona, there are supernatural creatures that hide among the regular citizens. They might be different from everyone else, but even they need their hair cut and Clara is the one they go to. After all, she’s open at night and she’s a supernatural creature as well. We don’t know what Clara is exactly, but we do know that she can sync up to her clients’ inner rhythm if she has the right music playing. Slowly being able to make people feel at ease so she can strike up some conversation. When we jump in, Clara is actually in the middle of cutting a woman’s, a duende named Diana, hair. Diana is a regular customer and the more Clara talks with her, the more Clara realizes something is wrong. After making some more small talk and putting Diana at ease, you find out that it’s due to what happened with a recent job. A job with someone named Blaze who is…let’s say infamous on the streets. However, before Diana could really get into detail, the next client comes in and Diane uses her invisibility to not be seen. Strange…until you get talking to the new client, a werewolf cop named Gabriel who is looking for Diana and Blaze after the job they did. However, it’s not to imprison them but to protect them after seeing what they shouldn’t have seen. What did they see? And why would it endanger their society if it gets out? Who is Clara hiding from?

In terms of gameplay, this brings in some rhythm game goodness. It’s pretty easy here, so don’t worry. After Clara picks the right song, she’ll start cutting her client’s hair and for us, the player, it’s in the form of a rhythm game. This one only has one lane and instead of the notes moving towards the receptor, you’re moving towards the notes or nodes that are laid out. After all, you want to sync up to their rhythm. Each client has their own inner rhythm, which means not only are the nodes placed differently, but also the tools. Oh, yeah, with you being a barber and all hitting a node means that you’ll be using whatever tool is tied to the button you pressed. Most nodes will require you to use a specific tool, but there are free-tool nodes that lets you use whatever tool you want. There are basically two different modes here. One is where you’re just cutting hair and this will be your way of easing your client. Correctly hitting the nodes will slowly fill up the bar. Once it’s filled, it’ll put them into the next ease level, of which there are five. This allows you to continue conversations and opens up Icebreakers, which are basically just small talk topics. This is important as while you will get some Icebreakers that are totally optional and are there to fill the world outside of the barbershop and get you to learn more about the client; there are Icebreakers that are tied to the main storyline. Increasing their ease level lets you ask questions they wouldn’t otherwise and it even will change up their inner rhythm by adding new nodes.

The next mode comes in during conversations. If you’re worried about how the rhythm gameplay would work out during dialogue, the game already thought about that. The game wants you to pay attention to the dialogue and while you still are cutting their hair, they all turn into free-tool modes. Sometimes the client will initiate conversation, but most of the time it’ll be up to you to break the ice. When you do, you’ll have a couple to bring up. You won’t be told which ones the client won’t be ready to talk about yet, but if you do pick one that you’re not at the right ease level for, there is a small penalty. Their inner rhythm will become unstable and you just have to collect the unstable nodes to stabilize it. I’d say it’s easy enough to tell which ones would require you to be at a high ease level at, but I do appreciate that the penalty isn’t harsh and that the game will then tell you whether it’ll succeed when you go back into the Icebreaker choices. Anyway, to pick an Icebreaker, you just need to hit the nodes and you’ll then be sent to the conversation. Which, during it, all you have to do is hit the free-tool nodes to the base inner rhythm. Dialogue won’t progress unless you hit those nodes, which goes along with the barber theming as these characters won’t be talking to you without you being the barber cutting their hair. As you talk more and learn more about your client, new Icebreakers will also unlock if you want to hear the conversation.

You’ll switch between both modes until you solve your lines of inquiry, which is basically like the main quest, where then the story will progress whether or not you heard all of the optional Icebreakers. There are also dialogue choices outside of choosing Icebreakers, with some of them seeming to be important ones that’ll affect the story.

The demo only goes over the first two clients and man, I love it so far. I absolutely love the art style and I was not expecting this to be fully voice acted let alone have such amazing voice acting. I also loved the implementation of the rhythm mechanics. It’s easy enough so you can pay attention to the conversation, but also just complex enough that it keeps you engaged. The music was also nice, the atmosphere was on point, and the sound effects of your various tools goes really well with the music. It gives off that feel of music that’s made from sounds gathered from regular items (fun fact this is called found sounds or Musique Concréte) despite this also having music to go along with it. The story seems pretty interesting so far and I can’t wait to see what’s going on. Not to mention that I can’t wait to see the other clients and get to know them. I’m particularly looking forward to the siren client.

No More Work For Ito*

Oh my gosh, this visual novel was way better than I thought it was going to be. I decided to try out the demo for No More Work for Ito mostly because I saw that it was going to be a horror visual novel and the specific red screenshot. No Work Work for Ito basically has you jump into the shoes of Daniel who is utterly exhausted as well as his fellow coworkers. You see, this takes place during a stormy night where Daniel and his coworkers are overworked and having to stay overnight to finish their project before their deadline…which is the next day. We come in as Wayne decides to tell a scary story to pass time, except it’s more on the true crime side…which also leans to a crime that is still ongoing and is too close to home. That is a string of office murders that seem to have some connection of the killers being stressed, exhausted, and overworked suddenly snapping and wanting to drain rotten blood from others and themselves. Wayne tells it in a way that just unnerves you. Luckily, for you and Mia (who can’t take horror stories let alone true crime), another coworker named April comes in to stop it and have you guys go back to work. However, it looks like you guys might not be alone in the office building…

This is a visual novel so there’s the usual advancing text and choosing dialogue options that pop up every so often. There are a lot of dialogue choices here, which goes over any direction that you can think of going in a conversation. Which makes sense considering the game focuses on your choices and how they affect your relationships with your coworkers and what events that you’ll get. There is also some light point and click gameplay here as after conversations, you’ll be able to look around the room you’re in, have more conversations with other characters in the room, and move to another room. These conversations can give you more insight on these characters, like I already love Mia and our shared love for anime, and I’m guessing it also increases your relationship with them. I would call these optional, but there’s a topic with Mia that will point you to what to do to progress. Looking around can be just inspecting something, but it’ll also let you pick up items or interact with objects. Like you can browse Daniel’s computer, which gives you more worldbuilding through reading through the news, checking emails, and even play a virtual pet sim game. Though, most computer features aren’t available in the demo. And moving just lets you move to the various locations in the office.

This demo goes over the beginning of the first chapter, which is less than an hour depending on how fast you read and how much you do. So far, I liked it. It honestly had me hooked, the scare that happens really did get me, I like the art and writing style, I liked the characters so far, and the story was interesting.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide*

Coming November 18, 2025

When I saw that the new Spongebob game, which surprised everyone by having David Hasselhoff in their announcement trailer, I knew I was going to play this demo. I was pretty confident Titans of the Tide would be great, after all Purple Lamb not only did a great job with the Battle for Bikini Bottom remaster, but also with their original game The Cosmic Shake. And, well, turns out I was excited enough to play the demo that I feel inspired to write a demo impression! I played this on the PS5, but the demo is available on Steam and Xbox as well.

In Titans of the Tide, the game starts with you controlling SpongeBob SquarePants and it’s right before the Krusty Krab is opening for an extra special day where Krabby Patties are *gasp* 50% off. SpongeBob gets the Krusty Krab ready for the whole mob of people waiting and, once its opened for business, everything seems to be going well despite the crowd. Well, until the Flying Dutchman comes around to get some Krabby Patties…and then King Neptune comes in to cut in line right when the Flying Dutchman just got to the register after waiting in line for a couple hours. And not only that, but King Neptune calls the Flying Dutchman an out of season Halloween prop. How dare. This enrages the Flying Dutchman so much, he literally explodes with anger after King Neptune leaves like a coward and Mr. Krabs tries to cool him down.

Honestly, I don’t even blame the Flying Dutchman for crashing out, though he could have had some better aim so innocent people wouldn’t have been hit by his ghostly power.

This causes not only the Krusty Krab to mysteriously float in the…water detached from the bottom of the sea it was attached to, numerous enemy ghosts to appear that will attack you, and some poor fish that were once alive were turned into ghosts. WIth SpongeBob being one of those that were spontaneously turned into a ghost. Luckily, Patrick wasn’t near the Krusty Krab during this time, but he does head there after hearing and feeling the explosion ripple through Bikini Bottom. Don’t worry though, as these best friends do end up reuniting where they find out that they can switch who is in their ghost form with their BFF rings. So, these two besties

For the gameplay here, I’d say Titans of the Tide feels and plays the same as the previous two Spongebob games, but of course there are some new additions here. First off, the location design. This demo only includes the first two areas: a portion of Bikini Bottom, which goes from normal to a ghostly altered area at ground zero, and Goldfish Island. You’ll be platforming your way through, collecting coins, doing light puzzles, and fighting any ghostly enemies that pop up. So far, I do think these two areas were designed well. While there is a clear, linear path for you to take to your next, there are side paths for you to go down to grab some more coins. And I personally found that the game does a good job at leading you to places by how they placed their coins; as well as having you instinctively collect all the coins that end up spawning in a chest with more coins. I did also find that the various aspects of the game, platforming, combat, and puzzles hit that balance of being easy, but just challenging enough that it keeps you engaged and on your toes. I did also like having a hub area in the form of the blimp known as the Floating Patty. SpongeBob and Patrick has their usual moveset, but Patrick has the addition of a burrow move. This gives Patrick a new traversal ability as this allows you to burrow into loose ground, like sand, and move around. This allows him to go under things he normally couldn’t like fences, dislodge coins stuck in the stand, and deal damage if there’s any enemies or tiki boxes (which hold coins) around where Patrick emerges. Patrick also has a new grappling ability, but I think the demo ends right after you use it for the first time as you open up the next area. So I can’t really speak on that other than it seems like it’ll be used to open doors.

Towards the end of the demo, you also get a ghost surf board which allows you to surf across the not-water-but-goo goo and kinda gives you a dash (with both SpongeBob and Patrick having different animations for using it). Not to mention the ability to seamlessly switch between the two as you’re traversing as the one you’re controlling is alive and the one you’re not is in their ghost form.

Titans of the Tide’s demo lets you play the first 40-ish minutes of the game and so far it’s pretty good. The game looks great, plays good, the new mechanics were interesting, and I do think the two areas you’re able to visit in this demo were well designed. Though, I will say there’s definitely a feeling of things feeling…off with some of the voice acting and just the way the dialogue is written. Despite that, Titans of the Tide seems like it’ll be another great SpongeBob game from Purple Lamp. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to play it around release, but I’ll eventually play it.

Also, I can’t be the only one wishing that Purple Lamb will be able to remaster the SpongeBob SquarePants Move game (the console version of course since I recently learned the PC version was a point and click game) after playing this demo.

Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis*

Well, this one gave me a little scare since I stepped away from my computer as the game was loading up. Yun yun Syndrome has been a rhythm game I’ve been looking forward to for at least a year and I’ve been hoping that it would get a demo. I absolutely love the visuals here and I love rhythm games, so of course I was looking forward to this one. You best believe I downloaded the demo the second I saw that it released.

In Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis, you play as a young woman that goes by the name Qtie. I’m not sure if this is her actual name or just her online handle, but that doesn’t exactly matter. What does matter is that Qtie is actually a terminally online hikikomori whose home life is…not so great from what you see. So she has turned into escapism and has specifically latched onto a character named Yunyun which is from a popular franchise. When the game starts, Yunyun actually just bought a Yunyun fan disc, but it turns out to be not just any fan disc. After Qtie’s mom finds out she played hooky, lied, and possibly beat her (it’s pretty vague but it does have that classic fighting cloud) Yunyun shows herself. Yun yun sends signals to Qtie, which ends up twisting Qtie’s heart so much she goes a bit more crazy…for Yunyun.

This game is primarily a rhythm game, but as some other aspects in here to give it a bit more. First, the rhythm game. If you’ve played a rhythm game before, you’ll know how to play it here. You have four lanes where notes will fall down the track and you just have to hit it when it reaches the judgement line at the bottom. Each song has three difficulty modes from what you can choose from. Though, this one does have a little theming to go along with the rhythm gameplay as Qtie will be typing along. With each note that you successfully press, she types. What does she type? Well, some word vomit about Yunyun, which it certainly is a bit crazy if you’re able to read it (whether you’re able to glance at it during songs or looking at someone else’s gameplay footage). Qtie has a couple, what I’m just gonna call it, posts and when she completes one, she’ll send it (well technically not in the beginning, but she does eventually). This adds to your boost bonus, instead of this being based on your combo. Which might have been a good idea as your combo streak can go pretty high. If your combo goes long enough, Qtie will be in the zone (which is accurate to how it is for me lol) which does interact with another mechanic that gets introduced at the end of the demo. If you miss a note, your combo streak will end, which will also clear your boost and cause a cute animation of Qtie getting out of the zone (which is also accurate to me lol). Of course, the majority of your gameplay is going to be the rhythm game and thankfully it’s pretty solid here.

So, how about those other aspects you teased? Well, Qtie has some stats that you’ll be gaining to progress through the story and possibly managing. Qtie has DokiDoki, YunYun, and Rizz stats, which technically are considered as scores since they’re in percentages. You get DokiDoki from doing Denpa Transmissions, which I forgot to mention is what this game calls the rhythm gameplay as Qtie is transmitting her love to Yunyun in her own unique way. The better you do, and possibly the higher the difficulty, the more DokiDoki percentage you get. You can then use this DokiDoki to progress through using so Qtie will have the motivation to look around her room and home. This allows you to not only see Qtie’s surroundings and see what she thinks about some key things, but also find new songs. You can even find an energy drink that keeps you in the zone for a whole song. This will also let you message Qtie’s mom, though it’s pretty sad. For YunYun and Rizz, I’m not entirely sure how you get these outside of it being story related or through this upcoming mechanic. I’m guessing there will also be actions that Qtie won’t be able to do until you get enough of those.

Towards the end of the demo, Yunyun more or less convinces Qtie to post what she’s writing online. I’m not sure if this will happen for every song you play or a chance for it to happen, but this introduces Shitpost cards. Every time Qtie finishes a post, Yunyun will send it out and leave a card. At the end of the song, you’ll see all that the cards you were given and asked to choose three. These will combine, and in-universe be what Qtie posted online. Each card will either be labeled DokiDoki, YunYun, or Rizz and will have a star level; both of which will determine how much those stats will increase. Then you’ll get how people reacted to that post, through a slot machine-like system splitting a sentence into three. These are conspiracies and the game actually keeps track of each possible combination. Every time you land on that specific location it’ll level up and the game teases that something will happen when it’s fully leveled.

There also seems to be a mechanic of hiding your screen from Qtie’s mom, who isn’t happy whenever she catches her daughter playing games. This only comes up once during the demo so it’ll be interesting to see how this gets used after this beginning section of the game.

Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis demo is about 40 minutes, which goes over the first couple goals. You can technically keep playing, but you can’t progress any more. I enjoyed this one so far! Do I really understand what’s going on here? I don’t think so. But am I absolutely here for it? Yep! The story is pretty interesting so far, I do really like the writing style, I absolutely love the visuals, and I really enjoyed the rhythm game itself. The songs are also pretty good and I do like how the rhythm gameplay plays into you making progress in the real world. It’ll be interesting to see where this game goes, though I have a feeling it might not have a good ending.

I think the only thing I didn’t like was that Qtie has a talk window that you can’t close when you’re on her desktop screen and it has a skibidi toilet reference.