It has been one week since Cat Carried Butterfly launched. Thank you so much for playing, sharing feedback, and supporting us during this time. Today, we’d also like to take this opportunity to talk about something many players have mentioned: why does Cat Carried Butterfly use Shanghainese voice acting?
To be honest, we hesitated about this early in development. We worried that some players might feel distant from the story because they were not used to hearing a regional dialect in the voice acting. After launch, we did see some discussion around the use of Shanghainese. Some players liked it, while others found it harder to get used to. We understand both reactions.
When we were in school, we often heard that Mandarin should be promoted. Dialects seemed to belong only at home, in the casual conversations of uncles and aunties, in alleyways, markets, dinner tables, and childhood memories. As we grew up, the chances to truly speak in dialect became fewer and fewer. Shanghai itself has many different versions of “local speech” depending on the area. Some words we clearly knew as children have slowly become blurry over time, and sometimes we need to ask older family members before we can remember them again. When we try to say them now, our tongues may even stumble.
Shanghai has developed so quickly. At times, it feels as if we can no longer keep up with the rhythm of the city. Many street scenes and ways of speaking that once felt completely natural in childhood have quietly drifted away. Dialect and “memories of Shanghai” are like faint pencil marks left on an old handwriting notebook, slowly fading bit by bit.
That is why, in the end, we chose to fully voice the game in Shanghainese.
A story set in old Shanghai should carry these voices.
During recording, whenever we encountered unfamiliar local expressions, we would look them up in a Shanghainese dictionary on the spot. We also learned many words that we had either never known or had already forgotten how to say. It was a wonderful process. It felt less like simply making a game, and more like picking up pieces of memory that were about to scatter.
We also truly want to thank Feichuandan. During development, he gave us a great deal of support. Many times during recording, we found ourselves quietly amazed by his knowledge and professionalism when it came to Shanghainese.
Cat Carried Butterfly is not a perfect work, and Shanghainese voice acting will certainly not be to everyone’s taste. But to us, it is an important part of the game.
If a single line of Shanghainese in the game reminds you of your childhood home, of an older neighbor or family member, or of a voice you have not heard in a long time, then it has already found its meaning.
You are also very welcome to continue sending us reports and feedback. Whether it is about the story, voice acting, gameplay experience, bugs, or your own feelings about Shanghainese and memories of Shanghai, we will read them carefully.
Thank you for stepping into that apartment building in Cat Carried Butterfly.
And thank you for hearing its voice.
The detailed patch notes are listed below for your reference. If you encounter any issues while playing, please don’t worry. You can join our player group (Group No. 830807333) to discuss them with us, and we will do our best to address reported issues as soon as possible.
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v1.12 PATCH NOTES
[Adjustments]
- Adjusted the hint text for the Mahjong puzzle in Chapter 2.
- Added more save slots. The total number of save slots has been expanded to 10.
- Added bubble text hints to certain gameplay sequences.
- Added a second confirmation prompt when starting a new game to reduce accidental inputs.
[Fixes]
- Fixed typos, missing text, and other text-related issues.
- Fixed an issue in Chapter 4 where the cat-riding mini-game could sometimes fail to jump properly near the edge of the scene.
Changed files in this update