Thank you, Widdershins! I appreciate you checking out my game!
I'm glad you brought up the effects issue. What I think is happening: for some reason, the effects don't work from the inventory, you have to go into equipment and put them on. It's a pain and I'm going to add it to the things I need to fix for next update. I hope that fixes the problem, but please let me know if the issue persists.
Currently, the cat effect and the face mask effect are mostly cosmetic with some minor changes to certain events. Face mask will allow you to pass into the city. If you eat the cat food, you get a text box that's like "bleh!!" but if you are wearing the cat effect and eat the cat food... You get a text box that says it still doesn't taste very good.
The Ghost effect will make you invisible to non-supernatural entities, allow you to pass through the city gate, and allow you to pass through some doors.
I really need to make a walkthrough guide or something, because the game is very rough and unintuitive right now! But I hope this helps a bit.