Version Differences

There are two versions of The Wind Waker on Gamecube typically used for speedrunning: the English version (both NTSC-U and PAL fall in that category) and the Japanese (NTSC-J) 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.

Also note that the PAL version supports 60Hz: hold the B button during startup to select this option. This means PAL can run at 30 fps and is usually faster than NTSC-U due to having access to the italian language.

In addition to the gamecube versions, there is also an emulated version on the Switch 2. These are pretty much the exact same games, but there are still some minor differences to comment on.

Nintendo Switch 2 differences

The Nintendo Switch 2 emulator comes with the ability to change the mapping of the controller, and also has savestates and a new menu that can be used for pause buffering. There are however 3 extra frames of visual rendering delay compared to the gamecube version, and the analog stick calibration is not as precise: the deadzone is larger and the inputs vary from their minimum to their maximum much faster than a gamecube controller did on GCN.

The Switch 2 emulator also comes with the MMU setting turned off. This leads to a Switch 2 exclusive glitch: Dungeon Chest Reload

While the games are mostly the same, some oddities have been spotted:

The gossip stone cutscene trigger in FF1 on the japanese version is identical to the international version on Switch 2, which means the game itself was tweaked. Every other japanese exclusive glitches still work with current knowledge however.
Watching the Courtyard Cutscene in Hyrule 2 without having KoRL normally crashes on GCN, but doesn't on Switch 2. However the game still softlocks so it isn't useful.
Performing the death method of the Back in Time glitch on Outset Island crashes the game. It is unknown why.
Shooting morths with a fire arrow from the bottom of the Puppet Ganon room to skip the fight sometimes crashes as well. The reasons are also unknown.
Island loading times are much faster on the Switch 2, which makes all island loading based tricks much harder if not impossible (for example Early Diamond Steppe and Hole in One Quiver).
Some users have stumbled upon a glitch in Forbidden Woods where entire rooms have not been able to load. The reasons are not currently known.

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 preferred for pretty much every speedrun category.

Data Gathered by darkeye

Comparisons of Common Text Boxes
Scene/Text Box	Time (In Seconds)			Notes & Timing Parameters
Scene/Text Box	Japanese	English	Difference	Notes & Timing Parameters
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	---
KoRL's text when you reach Windfall	11	20	9	---
Talking to Niko before the 2nd Jumping Game	30	46	16	---
Talking to Niko after the 2nd Jumping Game	9	9	0	---
Bomb Text	43	67	24	Including Tetra's text afterwards
KoRL text after bombs	6	10	4	---
KoRL text after warp	3	3	0	---
KoRL text upon reaching Outset	5	5	0	---
Healing Link's Grandmother with a Fairy	48	69	21	---
KoRL text before Jabun	2	2	0	---
Nayru's Pearl Text	112	127	15	From losing control after breaking the wall to regaining control
KoRL text after ToTG is raised	2	2	0	---
Learning the Command Melody	35	35	0	---
Hero's Bow Text	10	15	5	---
TotG text before boss fight	36	36	0	---
TotG text after boss fight	41	41	0	---
Intro to Hyrule	140	147	7	From ringing the bell to regaining control
KoRL text before you solve the puzzle	8	18	10	---
KoRL text after you solve the puzzle	5	10	5	---
Master Sword Text	101	101	0	Note that after pulling the Master Sword, the KoRL says something in the JPN version that doesn't appear in the US version. This is reflected in the JPN timing
Cyclos Text	45	57	12	From hitting him with the last arrow to regaining control
Wallet Upgrade 1 Text	32	38	6	---
Skull Hammer Text	11	16	5	---
Text before the bird comes down in FF2	172	192	20	---
Meeting with Ganondorf and Tetra	255	292	37	From hitting loading zone to regaining control
Meeting the King of Hyrule	213	290	77	---
KoRL text after talking to the King	14	33	19	---
KoRL text after leaving Hyrule 2	16	34	18	---
Fire and Ice Arrow Text	109	119	10	---
Power Bracelet Text	9	10	1	---
Iron Boots Text	10	12	2	---
Learning the Earth God's Lyric	81	105	24	---
Silver Rupee Text	4	5	1	---
Reunion with Medli	21	33	12	---
Playing the Earth God's Lyric for Medli	178	189	11	---
KoRL's speech outside of Earth Temple	39	54	15	---
Small Key Text	4.5	5	0.5	Timing for one small key
Mirror Shield Text	13	16	3	---
End of the Earth Temple	121	130	9	---
Learning the Wind God's Aria	82	98	16	---
"Reunion" with Makar	2	2	0	---
Playing the Wind God's Aria for Makar	72	76	4	---
KoRL's speech in front of Wind Temple	22	26	4	---
Makar's Text in the cell	5	5	0	---
Hookshot Text	11	15	4	---
End of Wind Temple	120	143	23	Includes the talk between KoRL and the mapfish
Pulling up a Treasure Chart (JP version)	21	---	- 21	Japanese does this 4 times in the run
Ghost Ship Chart Text	10	10	0	---
Wallet Upgrade 2 Text	32	38	6	---
Chart Deciphering	132	150	18	---
Triforce Pieces	144	144	0	The timing includes all triforce shards: six with one textbox, two with an extra textbox
KoRL's speech before Hyrule 3	52	68	16	Timed until regaining control in Hyrule
Ganon's speech before Darknut	34	39	5	From losing control to regaining control
Light Arrow Text	11	15	4	---
Before Puppet Ganon Fight	122	134	12	From opening door to regaining control
After Puppet Ganon Fight	26	28	2	From fade-in to regaining control
Before the final Ganondorf Fight	241	269	28	From loading zone to regaining control
Zelda's texts during the Ganondorf Fight	3	3	0	All textboxes summed together

Overall, english is about 18 minutes slower than japanese on text alone. But it saves several minutes back from the shorter triforce quest and better rupee farming spots.

The fastest language behind japanese is italian.

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 both the NTSC-U and PAL versions 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 or Magic Armor 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:

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.
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).
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).
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:

To Shark Island where you get Treasure Chart 28
Then to Needle Rock where you get Treasure Chart 3
Then to Eastern Fairy Island where you get Treasure Chart 40
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).

Rupee Differences

In many places, the NTSC/PAL version contains more rupees than the original JP version. Here are a few examples:

There are no rupees or drops inside the pillars in Overlook and Stonewatcher on the JP version (there are many in the ENG version)
There are no pots in the final rooms of Overlook, Stonewatcher, Islet of Steel and Bird's Peak Rock on the JP version. Pots with rupees and drops exist on the ENG version.
The secret "bottomless" pot that can be revealed with a tingle bomb on Outset Island contains 100 rupees on the ENG version, but only 20 on the JP version.
In the 30th floor of Savage Labyrinth, there are 2 rupee pots on the JP version for a total of 202 rupees. On the ENG version, there are 3 pots for a total of 303 rupees.
The reward for completing 16 slide puzzles inside the cabana is consistent on US/PAL, as you will always get one purple rupee, two red rupees, three yellow rupees, 14 blue rupees and 10 green rupees, for a grand total of 200 rupees. On JPN, each rupee is completely random, but the odds are not in your favour. Each rupee has 900/1000 chance of being green, a 80/1000 chance of being blue, a 15/1000 chance of being yellow, a 4/1000 chance of being red, and only a 1/1000 chance of being purple.

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.

This however does not happen on the japanese version on Nintendo Switch 2. That version surprisingly has the same gossip stone triggers as the gamecube international versions.

Tower Skip in FF1

On the japanese version, it is possible to trigger the cutscene of the searchlight bokoblin spotting you without climbing the ladder (see Tower Skip). This does not work on subsequent versions.

FF1 Cutscene

After beating the Forsaken Fortress 1, on the PAL and NTSC-U versions, there is a small cutscene where we see the King of Red Lions sail near an inconscious Link in the water, after being thrown away by Helmaroc and before he wakes up on Windfall Island. This cutscene was added in for these versions, as it does not exist on the Japanese version of the game.

Battleship minigame

The battleship minigame on Windfall is very different between the two versions. On the japanese version, you are hunting ships, whereas on the english version you are hunting squids. The Salvatore voice acting is also different.

Auction NPC Bids

NPCs will stop bidding when the bid reaches 990 rupees or higher on the NTSC-U and PAL versions. On the JP versions they will still bid up to 998 rupees, which can cause some glitchy behaviours since you are able to bid more than 999 rupees.

Beedle on Dragon Roost Island

On the japanese version, Beedle's ship starts by sailing around the back side of Dragon Roost Island first. On other versions, he starts by sailing around the front side.

Movable Blocks on Dragon Roost Island

On Japanese, the movable boxes near the postbox on Dragon Roost Island load in the air after playing the Song of Passing, as if the boulder below was not broken, and will only fall down when they are unculled. On US/PAL, they reload on the ground. Thus, playing the song of passing on top of the moving block on japanese will cause the block to fall on top of Link and crush him.

Forbidden Woods' Big Blue Flower

The large big blue flower in the central room of Forbidden Woods has a change to its cullbox on US specifically: it's been increased on the Y axis. On both JPN and PAL, it's possible to cull the big blue flower from the entrance door to that room very easily by moving the camera back, this is not possible anymore on US.

Kalle Demos Height

By default, Kalle Demos' height during the battle oscillates between 302 and 337 units off the ground on all versions. Everytime you cut down one of the dexivines holding him, his height drops by a couple units. On US he loses 2.5 units of height per dexivines cut. On JPN/PAL, he loses 5 units of height per dexivine. So you can make KD go much closer to the ground on JPN/PAL without cutting him down than you can on US.

Fat Pig Heart Piece

On the japanese version, there are 6 individual dig spots that give you the piece of heart from the fat pig. This was changed on English to have only one large one. The means you can get the HP from all 6 spots on JP and get it 6 times as long as you don't grab the HP which would disable all 6 spots.

Salvage Cruising

The Salvage Cruising glitch only works on the japanese version. On the other versions you come to a halt when you fish up a treasure.

Hyrule Block Puzzle

On the japanese version, it is possible to solve the puzzle with one block and reloading the area several times. This does not work in subsequent versions.

KoRL Text in the Master Sword Chamber

After pulling the Master Sword inside the Chamber, there is an extra text on the Japanese version.

Getting on Railing Behind Hyrule Castle and the Hyrule Barrier

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.

The Hyrule Barrier Breaking Cutscene is also different. On the japanese version, it is simply triggered by going near the barrier after dispatching the Hyrule 3 electrical barrier. It also starts with a fadeout. On the other versions, the barrier must be struck with Link's Fully Charged Master Sword (which adds a requirement), and there is no fadeout.

Forsaken Fortress LOD Model

An island LOD model is the low quality island model that is loaded when Link is far away from the island. On JPN, there is only a single LOD model for Forsaken Fortress, which includes the boat. On US and PAL, there are two different models that are used conditionnaly depending on if the boat has burnt after the encounter between Valoo and Ganondorf or not.

Hammer Pegs inside Forsaken Fortress 2

There is a different amount of hammer pegs in the kitchen room of Forsaken Fortress 2 between the japanese version and the international versions. Near the cauldron that contains the ting discount, there is at the bottom floor a door frame leading to a corridor. On the japanese versions, there are 4 hammer pegs blocking that hallway. On the international releases, the hammer pegs are further away from the hallway and there are 5 of them instead. The added hammer peg on the far left side also has a shared zone flag with the ting discount, meaning that obtaining the discount first will hammer this peg down, and hammering the peg down first will make the discount unobtainable until you reload the area.

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.

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 without performing Barrier Skip.

Earth Temple Chest behind Destructible Walls

On the japanese version, the chest behind destructible walls in Earth Temple is a big chest containing a joy pendant. On any other version, this is a small chest containing a joy pendant.

Earth Temple Wall to Stalfos Crypt

On every version that is not the japanese version, entering the big key chest room will set the wall to the stalfos crypt room as being broken.

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.

Spring Jumps

Springs will make Link jump barely faster on the English version compared to the Japanese. This makes Spring Jump Storages work slightly differently. This is due to an increased size of the spring cullbox on NTSC-U/PAL.

Bulb Jumps

On JPN and US, if you trigger a cutscene while you are inside a bulb (or warp pot) ready to jump, the jump will occur during the cutscene. On PAL, the game waits until the cutscene ends before making you jump.

Wind Temple Third Room

In the third room of the Wind Temple, where there is a huge gate blocking the way that must normally be flipped by blowing the leaf, there are two extra switches on the english version. These switches also flip the gate when stepping onto them. These do not exist on the japanese version.

Makar Kidnapping

On the japanese version, it is possible to pause the game between getting control of Link back and Makar getting caught by floormasters. This allows for savewarping to skip the Makar kidnapping. This does not work in other versions.

Planting Trees with Makar

On the japanese version, if Link is standing directly above or below a soil patch where Makar can normally plant a seed, then Makar will be unable to plant the tree, no matter how low or high Link is comparatively to it. This can happen casually in the main room of the dungeon. This was patched in US/PAL by adding a vertical distance check on Link.

Boomerang on Warp Pots

On JPN, you can target warp pots with the boomerang, which you cannot on any other version. This is pretty much useless.

Burning Pile of Leaves

On some islands, there are orange piles of leaves that can be removed by blowing the leaf at them for example. One way to interact with them is by burning them, with fire arrows for example. On US and PAL this works fine, but on JPN the code is different and burning a pile of leaves with fire arrows requires an extremely precise shot.

Molgera Softlock

The Molgera Softlock can only occur on the JPN or PAL versions of the game. It was patched on NTSC-U.

DYN Memory Leak

The memory leak in DYN used for the Actor Unloading glitch only works on the Japanese version.

Door Fadeouts

On the japanese version, the door fadeout has some unique properties that make Door Cancel tricks easier than on the english version: Things such as invisible chests and fire effects can be seen despite the dark (or white) screen. On the english version, nothing can be seen at all.

Picture Deletion Glitch

The Picture Deletion Glitch only occurs on the japanese and american versions of the game. It was patched on the PAL version.

Manny's paths in the Nintendo Gallery

On the Japanese and US versions, Manny's paths do not loop inside the nintendo gallery rooms. This was changed on the PAL version so that he never stops walking around.

Using Light Arrows in the refights

On US/PAL, entering a boss rematch in Ganon's Tower resets the arrow wheel to be on normal arrows. This is not the case on JP and this allows using light arrows in the ganon's tower rematches (see here).