Version Differences

There are two versions of The Wind Waker typically used for speedrunning: the English version and the Japanese version. Besides using two different languages, there are further differences between these two versions of the game that lend themselves to speedrunning, and determine which version of the game is preferable for different kinds of runs.

Text Speed

Of the most noticeable differences between the Japanese & English versions of the game is the difference in text speeds. Due to the use of fewer characters in most all text boxes in the Japanese version, the speed of the Japanese text is recognized as far faster than the English text (a table of comparisons between the time to "complete" common text boxes can be found below). This makes the Japanese version of the game much preferred for the majority of speedrun categories, including Any% and 100%.

Data Gathered by darkeye

Comparisons of Common Text Boxes
Scene/Text Box	Time (In Seconds)			Notes & Timing Parameters
	Japanese	English	Difference
Introduction Story	222	222	0	From hitting "Start" on file to the fade-in of Outset.
Aryll Waking Up Link	93	99	6	From fade-in of Outset Island to first gaining control.
Getting Hero's Clothes	47	70	23	From weird fade-in before the cutscene to regaining control. Note that the JPN file used for timing this used NG+ while the English did NG. It is unsure if Link's grandmother says different things depending on what clothes she hands you, so this may still need re-timing.
Getting the Telescope	26	41	15	---
Watching Helmaroc and Tetra	49	49	0	From losing control with the telescope to regaining it.
Hero's Sword Text	15	16	1	From fade-in after Orca battle to regaining control.
Tetra Falling Down + Aryll's Kidnapping + Postman Text	173	245	72	From losing control in forest to regaining it back on the beach of Outset Island.
Hero's Shield Text	38	43	5	From fade-in to regaining control.
Setting Sail on the Pirate Ship	86	90	4	From talking to Tetra with shield to regaining control.
Niko's Introduction to the Jumping Game	54	80	26	---
Niko's Text after Completing the Jumping Game	16	24	8	---
Spoils Bag Text and Tetra's Text Afterwards	13	19	6	From opening chest to regaining control.
Tetra's Speech before FF1	120	140	20	From losing control in crow's nest to regaining control in FF.
Gossip Stone Text	14	28	14	---
Text for Getting the Hero's Sword Back	3	3	0	JPN is really about a quarter-second faster here.
Intro to Ganon and the KoRL	236	296	60	From opening door in FF to regaining control in Windfall.
Text for Freeing Tingle	53	71	18	---
Sail Text	8	10	2	---
KoRL Text when you bring him the Sail	9	16	7	---
Intro to DRI + Wind Waker Training	71	94	23	---
Learning the Wind God's Requiem	49	67	18	---
Postman Text	34	43	9	---
Long Text with the Chieftan	97	133	36	Includes Delivery Bag Text
Meeting Medli and getting Father's Letter	13	19	6	---
Talking with Komali	12	12	0	---
Talking with Medli before you Throw Her	30	60	30	---
Talking with Medli after you Throw Her	24	36	12	Includes bottle text.
Talking with Medli after you free her from the Cell	28	43	15	Includes Grappling Hook text.
Din's Pearl CS	119	131	12	From entering warp to regaining control. There might be some NG vs. NG+ differences here, because Valoo in NG (used for timing JPN) speaks normally he speaks Hylian in NG+ (used for timing English).
KoRL text after Din's Pearl	5	8	3	---
Meeting the Deku Tree	121	167	46	Since Deku Tree speaks Hylian, there might be another NG vs. NG+ difference.
Deku Leaf Text	12	17	5	---
Boomerang Text	11	17	6	From opening chest to regaining control.
Fairy Text	5	10	5	---
Makar Text Before Warp	38	46	8	---
Farore's Pearl Text	124	143	19	---
Triforce Charts	87	96	9	You collect 7 in chests, 1 on ocean floor.
Greatfish Isle Text	72	113	41	From losing control to regaining it.
KoRL Text at Greatfish	8	14	6	---

Bomb Differences

Bombs behave a little bit differently between game versions. On the Japanese/NTSC-J version hitting the button you have bombs equipped to while holding a bomb will make Link place the bomb down as if you hit R. On the English/NTSC-U version (and European/PAL?) of the game the button you have bombs equipped to will cause Link to throw a bomb as if you hit A. On the Japanese version you can not equip and unequip Iron Boots while holding a bomb. On the English and European versions you can.

Item Locations

Also important to recognize in TWW is that the placement of some treasure chests is different in Japanese than in English. This commonly involves moving heart pieces to different locations and replacing the contents of the chests that contained heart pieces on the English version with rupees. Additionally, the denominations of some rupees located in pots, etc. have also been changed:

1. Heart piece 44 (located at the end of the Savage Labyrinth on U) is moved to the chest underneath Grandma's house on JPN (whereas this chest contains an orange rupee on U), thereby replacing the heart piece at the end of the Savage Labyrinth with a yellow rupee.
2. Heart piece 32 (which you get from Sam after decorating Windfall with 14 trade items on U) is replaced with a gift of 100 rupees. On JPN, this heart piece is move to one of the small islands around Forest Haven (where treasure chart 3 is on U).
3. Heart piece 39 (which is in the translucent treasure chest revealed by lighting the Windfall lighthouse on U) is moved to the center of Horseshoe Island on JPN (where treasure chart 28 is on U).
4. The pot that can be revealed by using a Tingle Bomb contains a red rupee on JPN instead of the orange rupee on U.
5. Triforce Chart 5 is no longer obtained from sinking the golden ship of the shore of Needle Rock on JPN (see below for details).

Triforce Chart 5

As mentioned above, Triforce Chart 5 is no longer obtained from the Golden Ship at Needle Rock on Japanese. Instead you pull up Treasure Chart 16, which sends you:

1. To Shark Island where you get Treasure Chart 28
2. Then to Needle Rock where you get Treasure Chart 3
3. Then to Eastern Fairy Island where you get Treasure Chart 40
4. And finally, to Headstone where you get Triforce Chart 5

This required moving the locations of these treasure charts from there locations on U, on which:

• 16 is at Seven-Star Isle on a watch tower after killing all the Wizzrobes (replaced with chests containing a red rupee, golden feather, and a deku baba seed on JPN).
• 28 is at the center of Horseshoe Island.
• 3 is at one of the small islands around Forest Haven.
• 40 is at Southern Fairy Island on a watch tower after destroying all the cannons on the platforms (replaced by a gold feather on JPN).

Gossip Stone Text Skip in FF1

In the Japanese version, the trigger for the Gossip Stone cutscene in Forsaken Fortress 1 is much smaller, allowing you to simply sidehop over it. A different skip must be performed in order to skip the Gossip Stone on the English version. For more information, go here.

Getting on Railing Behind Hyrule Castle

The invisible walls above the railing are much shorter on the Japanese version, allowing you to simply sidehop and leaf in order to get on the railing. This allows you to Skip the Barrier Breaking cutscene. It is still possible to get on the railing on the English version; however, it is much more difficult and would not save time in a speedrun.

Fire Mountain and Ice Ring

In NTSC and PAL, entering Fire Mountain or Ice Ring without shooting a fire or ice arrow to the island will cause you to immediately void-out. This is not the case in the japanese version, which means skipping the Fire and Ice Arrows is Japanese only. See the bow skip page for more information.

Outset Pirate Ship

In the Japanese Version, the collision for the pirate ship always exists during the Prologue, the pirate ship is invisible before making it appear by watching the cutscene of the pirates coming to Outset or saving Tetra in the forest, but can still be interacted with. In NTSC or PAL, the door to the invisible pirate ship exists for a single frame after loading Outset and then disappears, and the pirate ship can not be interacted with at all when it's invisible.

This has important consequences in 100% speedruns that perform Outset Escape, since this means the requirements to enter the Pirate Ship on Outset are not the same. That pirate ship is usually used to get the Spoils Bag quickly (although there are other ways to get the Spoils Bag).

Flight Control Platform

In Japanese version, the Flight Control Platform minigame puts you in layer 1 after playing it. This can be useful in order to obtain the Skull Hammer after performing the Early Master Sword Sequence Break and leaving Hyrule via the Tower of Gods portal. This layer glitch was patched in both NTSC and PAL, resulting in obtaining the Hammer after doing EMS being impossible with current knowledge (Barrier Skip would change this if discovered).

Earth Temple Boss Door

The collision for the Earth Temple Boss Door is different in JP compared to NTSC/PAL, and as such the boss key skip with chest storage works differently.