The Code Behind Stray's Mysterious Language Has Been Deciphered

Our very own kitty Rosetta stone.

Stray has definitely struck a chord with the audience, and it seems like everyone and their cat is playing the cute and cuddly kitty simulator. An aspect that perhaps gets slightly less focus than our furry protagonist, however, is the world in which the game takes place.


Set in Walled City 99 (inspired by the real-life Kowloon Walled City), the robotic inhabitants known as Companions have become self-aware and developed their own culture, including a mysterious written language.


Because we live in an age of wonders and people are incredible, the cryptographic code in which the language was written has already been cracked, by Josh Wirtanen of HalfGlassGaming.


Stray makes use of a substitution cypher, whereby each letter of the encrypted alphabet has an analogue in another system. In this case, each of Stray's mysterious symbols correlates with a letter of the English alphabet, as you can see below:





Wirtanen cracked the code by taking the game's chapter titles (which are accompanied by subtitles in the player's chosen language) and building from there.


Stray's language doesn't perfectly translate, and some text seems intentionally nonsensical. Wirtanen's original post contains numerous examples of translated text that you should check out if you are a fan of language, Stray, and doubly so if youre both.


In other Stray-related news, the titular stray cat's voice actor has been revealed, and our very own Assistant Editor Liam Croft isn't as enamoured as the rest of you are with the game.


What do you think of this video game version of the Rosetta Stone?

 

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