I am pleased to announce that Kipp the guest expert cat has now been rehomed!

Something I noticed is that at the end when the cat walks up the stairs, he stops and blinks slowly at the camera. This is a sign of affection and trust so it’s like he’s bonded with the player.

This woman has CLEARLY found her calling in life. She's very informative.

For a small studio, they hit it out of the park. Kudos to them.

Fun fact: main kitty in stray is based of the creators cat, he's also called the boss by his creators.

My first cat used to meow at me while she was "sleeping" without opening her eyes (usually telling me to get lost). Making the kitty in Stray do that reminds me of her. 🥰

I once had a cat and two human roommates. The cat was quite fond of me, but not so much the roommates. So if we had a collective group of decorations on a cabinet or shelf, the cat would regularly knock everything that wasn’t mine off of it. How she identified my stuff is a puzzle. That being said, I do think many cats knock things off of high places just because it’s fun. Done it myself, a few times.

The meowing during the nap is actually a manual input done by the player there, so yeah, that's not how it'll behave normally. I'd actually forgotten why the cat scratches its ear after that chase scene, so thanks for the information!

Fun fact: Most players first discover the bag feature on accident. On top of looking funny, it reverses your controls, which is why the player in that footage seemed so clumsy all of a sudden.

BlueTwelve Studios, they deserve so much respect for making one of the best Higher quality non AAA games I’ve seen in a long time. With Strays success hopefully they give us more of this. Fun fact: the character B-12 in game is a reference to their studio ‘BlueTwelve’

4:07 I didn't actually know the "ear scratch" is a de-stressing behavior, but now that I think about it, it makes sense in situations where my cats are doing it. 7:10 I think my cats are just curious as to what's so fascinating to humans about that strange plastic box they keep tapping on. And the laptop is obviously a warm surface so... Although Trixie seems to have made the connection that 1) the exciting red dot comes out of the laser pointer 2) she can't activate the laser pointer on her own and 3) if she annoys a human enough by biting on cables, walking in front of the screen etc. they will eventually resort to distracting her with the laser. 10:29 I suppose cats expect humans (or robots) to be as nimble and alert at all times as they are...

Now we want a literal cat to react on stray.

I agree with the intentional knocking off things, But would like to add, I live with a cat that has a crooked leg so whenever he sits, the leg slips out, and has knocked over things without his intention. But, yes. Other than those special cases, it's on purpose.

Can confirm cats can sleep talk. We have an old lady who used to startle herself awake by meowing in her sleep before she went deaf. It's her food alarm meow though so every time all the other cats come running 💀 Never seen it happen in false sleep mode though.

3:43 The stray I found in my garage "Froze" and wouldn't even move or look at food that I put directly in his face. I fed him for a few months and he became very friendly and started to let me pet him. Now he's all fixed up, had his shots, and is the best inside cat ever.

My cat died two weeks before i got to play stray.. sat there playing and thinking of my Alice

When I saw the ads for this game, I didn't think much of the behavior. But after watching this, I realized how much effort they actually made to make the cats authentic. Wow!

This game looks absolutely adorable, I love how it even has a kneading mechanic 🤣

She's very informative. A very obvious theme in the game is evolution. The robots left behind, many of them have evolved to sentience, and there are other signs of entities evolving *which I don't want to elaborate on due to revealing spoilers). So no doubt the cats in the game have evolved a great deal too.

I'd have loved to see her reaction to the ending, that broke my heart 💔

So we've had firearms experts reacts, sword master reacts and now cat behaviour expert. This is one colab I would love to see happen.

Robot: "puts backpack on cat" Cat: I am ded.

My favorite interaction in the game is the one where there's a robot in a cowboy hat pulled over his face napping/relaxing on a couch. You can hop up and lay on his chest and, while he gets startled at first, he relaxes pretty quick and just goes back to vibing. The game's really interesting with how these entities just kinda accept your existence and let you hang out after the initial scare in the power levels.

Hearing a person with her accent just casually say “chap” caught me off guard 😂

I can't help but notice her accent. It's real interesting to listen to. She seems to be an American who is slowly gaining a British accent. A lot of her speech is gradually changing in cadence to accomodate a British sound.

I've watched SO MANY reaction to videos of Stray. Keep them coming, as a cat owner it's very humbling watching people enjoying their experience trying or reacting to the footage. This is probably my favourite as it's also informative too.

wait, it was my understanding that cats don't "sharpen" their claws when they scratch they are actually encouraging their old claw to fall off and the new fresh claw growing underneath is already sharp and waiting to be used.

The thing with the cat and the bag might be a reference to Maru, he's a celebrity of sorts, a Scottish Fold cat living in Japan who's famous for absolutely loving boxes, bags and other containers and going to great lengths to get inside them. He often ends up with objects like bags on his head.

I Would like to apply for the cat behaviour expert position!

this game is brilliant and the developers are geniuses, who knew the internet and the gaming community needed a cat game in 2022?

A lot of the things she said definitely do not apply to my 2 cats -- both of them often get their heads stuck in paperbags (they do it pretty intentionally) and if your indoor cats want to walk outdoors, definitely put them in a harness.

It's kinda interesting cause during the little moment when he gets a bag stuck on his head it messes up your controls until the bag is off

4:08 Would this be the feline equivalent to a Pacifying Gesture in human body language? Like scratching your neck, repositioning yourself in a chair, and so on.

When I had my first cat, I lived in an apartment but still wanted her to get some time outside in the fresh air. So I got a little harness and leash for her. She liked being outside, but getting that harness on her was somewhere between wrestling an eel and trying to get a snow suit on a toddler.

8:53 Gamespot: THAT is a caracal. AN african wild cat, but not the one housecats are descended from. The species they are descended from is confusingly named "African wildcat". It looks like a skinny, slightly pale tabby and looks so similar it can be mistaken for a domestic cat.

If anyone is curious. A zoologist named Desmond Morris wrote a book called Catlore. A extremely extensive book about cat behaviour.

The cat vocalizing during sleep is a thing controlled by the player. The player can make the cat meow whenever he wants.

This was great to watch! I've lived with cats almost all my life and was very familiar with these behaviors. How enriching to be able to put a name to things I knew well and mostly understood!

This is wonderful, thanks JoAnna!

Great video, GameSpot! Thank You!

I tried the paper boxes and newspapers trick. The cats love it!! Thanks for the tip!

Well, it's a game after all where the protagonist is a cat. You have to add some things here and there for entertainment purposes. The cat _chooses_ to do all these challenges willingly. Never force a cat to do things that have no health benefits.

Playing through this game gave me joy I haven't felt in a very long time.

I’m going to disagree about harnesses on cats. It takes work to get them to accept a harness, and they often need to “get something out of it” themselves. But while needing to travel crosscountry with my cat and have her have access to a litterbox several hours later it was quite honestly a lifesaver to have an extra point of contact. And if someone needs to fly with their cats TSA will often remove the cats from their carriers to clear the carrier-which is…nearly disasterous. Especially since it’s generally done on the checkpoint, not in a more controlled area. Anyway. Harness train your cats. Get them accustomed to needing to wear those things, and look for ones that fit securely around their necks and waist but don’t catch on their shoulders. (Which is…tricky. Especially for more petite adult cats verses large cats or kittens.) You never know when you’ll need that extra security for your cat’s safety. Take the training slowly because they will need to adjust to it without increasing their anxiety “all at once” and the first few times will be stressful for the cat. But…it’s just so much safer in the longrun if they’re already tolerant of a harness

Now get a “murderer” react to murders in video games.

Finally an expert react where the expert actually applies their expertise into their commentary where you actually learn something very interesting and recognize how accurate a game depicts real life things. Usually expert reacts just consist of stuff like casual commentary that anybody would really have for example cops reacting to gta 5, I love seeing these types of expert reacts cuz they actually provide a perspective and in depth commentary that you wouldn't create yourself

This is both entertaining and informative. Just makes me love the game even more. 😁

I'm surprised she didn't touch on behavior mimicking. I heard a reason cats walk on keyboards especially is to mimic their owner's behavior.

Just one nitpick ^^; That “African wild cat” photo you just showed us is actually a Caracal ( known to the media as the floppa ).

One thing I do disagree with her about is the part where she said that cats don't vocalize when they sleep. She may have been specifically referring to the "Fake sleep" part around 6:50 but I have two cats that both make little mumbles or yips when they are asleep. Makes it seem like they are dreaming. I have friends and family that have also observed similar behavior. Very strange thing but it is in fact super cute. They also have sleep "twitches". Their paws will shake or their foot will spaz for a moment while asleep.

"Bonded social group" Alr stray needs a dlc or sequal where the cat finds it family, if not, i.will.cry

I NEED A PART 2, this was amazing

Is it normal for a cat to have identity crisis? I had a cat, he grew up with my dog, he didn't meow for a year so I thought he's mute or something, more like he does make small noises like he's trying to bark. He eventually meows.

Cats being comfortable walking in rain and near a thunder storm !!!! Never seen that with my cats. 😵‍💫

JoAnna: all house cats are descendants of the African wild cat Gamespot: shows a picture of a caracal 😆

I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD TRIP THE ROBOTS IN THIS GAME! I think I tried but it didn't work for me.

I can relate on a personal level on the laptop sleeping and tripping me I guess my cats love me too much for my own good I guess

When the cat faced the Zurks the first time, I noticed that he licks his upper lips, wich is a sign of stress and/or fear.

I'm playing it the mo, 3 hours in great game. 8/10 so far.

Cheers to Kipp, he looks like a handsome fella 🐱 Hope he finds a good home soon!

When the bag goes over his head, the controls get super chaotic and you can't control it properly anymore. Like forward is no longer forward, left is no longer left etc. I thought it was pretty clever.

quality video, I learned something.

I wish I knew this much about cats! I'm gonna start playing Stray today and I'm very excited :)

Please keep up these experts react, stuff is super entertaining.

7:32 my cat does that... well not on the head but the whole body.

Knee-deep in 3 seperate LPs of this game, and now this! This game definitely stormed the world like Untitled Goose Game had! You do a wonderful explanation of things. Thank you!

I've learned so much thank you!

My first cat was a feral long hair born on the side of my house during a spring winter. The game cat reminds me so much of him

When the cat gets the bag over it’s head the game freaks you out by inverting your controls. It’s extremely frustrating and hard to get it off even if you realize what happened right away. I think it’s a really clever way of getting a human into the cat’s headspace in that moment.

The first time you put the paper bag on the cat's head you get an achievement called 'curiosity killed the cat' and while you have it on the controls are reversed so it's very hard to control where you're going, so it's definitely not something the cat is just doing for fun lol

Loved her analysis of the cat behaviour and of the game as well. Pretty cool lady :)

This just made me want to pet my cat some more, but she wasn't interested at the time so I'll have to wait for her to tell me it's petting time

There was this house I passed on way to school that a cat lived at.. super friendly.. one time it started walking with me and kept tripping me up because it kept getting in between my legs 🤣 probably, if not definitely, crossed the rainbow road by now (no idea how old it was, but not too young)

That's a caracal at 08:52, not an African wildcat... The African wildcat is a small brown tabby cat that look similar to the modern house cat. Caracals are cool looking cats though!

Sometimes I feel like I am a cat behaviour expert due to my furry friends seems like I have a lot to learn

what may not be clear from just watching is when he gets his head stuck in the bag, it reverses all the controls so it's like when a cat goes backwards to try and get unstuck from the situation

I needed this

In the game when the cat gets the bag on his head, the controls reverse which makes it difficult to control. The devs wanted us to know it’s a bad thing

About the colony thing, I have a colony of cats living in my neighborhood, about 20, all fed by this kind older woman. They all have a similar appearance, black and white bicolored, there’s also a little white one and black one. Their very friendly, if you feed them they’ll let you pet them. Idk kinda cool

4:09 THANK YOU! I keep telling everyone that and they don't believe me

I think the main reason the paper bag interaction exists is cause it’s common in those cute/funny cat videos that a cat would attempt to get inside something like a paper bag, and only get their head in, causing them to have a reaction of trying to get it off. Even from this, I with there was a bit more cat interaction, like the cat perhaps freaking out the first time it gets on the piano persay. I do wonder what a good replacement for a harness would be, because there is a cat i want to bring out with me, but I don’t want her to run off and get hurt, but if a harness would make her uncomfortable I don’t know what i should do.

The part where it vocalized in its sleep was not intentionally put into the game. It was the player pressing the meow button while sleeping.

Yes! When I saw the Zurks I thought of [mutated] fleas as well!!! ...As for the rest of the comments she made... I already knew that stuff. XD 'Always nice to have a small refresher, though.

Note that when the bag is on the head the controls are actually reversed, indicating the distress

My kittens are quite fond of sticking their heads in paper bags. Probably because they know they'd be safe inside the house. They love the way that it crackles when they move inside one.

Fun Facts! A group of cats is called a Clowder! 🐈

Stray: GOTY 2022

Fantastic - such a good game

This is amazing!!@@

The true cat experts are the cats themselves who watch their owners play this game. I'm truly amazed at my ten cats whom interact with the cats on screen. Well done.

This game was amazing ❤ I recommend!

Love this game's realistic graphics !!!!❤

I learned a lot!

Never thought of a cat as a pray animal. For their size I kinda seen them as an ultimate life form.

Fun fact: B12 Studio & Annapurna Interactive hired a bunch of cat actors to do motion capture for the cats in this game

my cat loves her harness cuz it means she gets to go outside. though i was harnessing her as practice at 4 weeks.

This was a good video but I wish I could have seen her reactions from a playthrough perspective. Some of the context was lost. Thanks for the good video, and all of the cat facts!

Nice!

8:50 FLOPPA

I would have liked some commentary on the cat's reaction to B12's death.