In this feature I give the English textual changes between two versions of Majora's Mask: the American version, and the PAL (European) version. The changes are pretty minor, but interesting and puzzling nonetheless.

One might wonder how I found these textual changes. Obviously, I didn't obtain all these versions and play through the entire game, memorizing all the quotes. I used a much easier method. Obviously, my method involved hacking ROMs. In all technicality, ROMs are illegal and I have no business poking into their insides. However, I have faith that Nintendo will take my curiosity in stride, since I'm doing this merely to satisfy curiosity, not to hurt their business. With that said, here's how I did it. I found the text in each version of the ROM, and saved it to a new file. I then used a script I wrote previously to generate a .txt file with readable quotes (text dumps). Then, using a powerful text editor called Editpad Pro, I opened up two versions of the text dump and used the compare feature. Editpad Pro outputted a file telling me exactly how the two files differed.

• "Mama's House" changed to "Ranch House." (In other languages it is named Romani's House.)

• A sign on the beach warning about Leevers is labeled "Great Bay Temple." This was changed to a more accurate "Great Bay Coast."

• At night, if you try to leave Clock Town through the southern entrance, the soldier will ask you if you have some errand in the mountains. This is incorrect, and was changed to "ocean."

• I don't know why the initial utterance has been changed from "tsk" to "heigh-ho" here. Every translation has its own version. Japanese: "SSYO." French: "Pfff, humff!" Spanish: "¡Uff!" Why the English translation has one phrase for the U.S. and one for Europe is a mystery to me. According to my British friend Martin Anderson, "heigh-ho" isn't remotely British either.

  U.S.

  Tsk! Is Brac working t'night? I wonder if that'll get finished.

  PAL

  Heigh-ho, heigh-ho! It looks like another all-nighter. I wonder if that'll get finished.

• Same thing here.

  U.S.

  Tsk, tsk, Brac... I wonder if this'll make it?

  PAL

  Heigh-ho, heigh-ho! It's gonna be another all-nighter like I figured. I wonder if it'll get finished on time.

• As far as I can tell, the following quote was changed because it was just wrong. In the Japanese version, Koume was picking mushrooms. She is picking mushrooms in the German, French, and Spanish translations (although in the Spanish translation reads "medicinal mushrooms").

  Have you seen an old hag named Koume who looks just like me? She hasn't come back from
  U.S.: gathering medicinal herbs...	PAL: Picking mushrooms...