Link’s Awakening Script Comparison: Eagle’s Tower and Turtle Rock

Ulrira’s hint was changed from “weathercock” on E GB/C to “weathervane” on E Switch. Likely to make it slightly more kid-friendly.
Incidentally, the Japanese word for weathervane 風見鶏 (kazamidori) is literally “wind-viewing chicken”.

The rabbit still wonders if the flying rooster is real, even when it’s right behind you. In fact, by this point there’s hardly any new dialogue. Everyone seems to sort of freeze after you discover the island’s secret, which seems like an intentional choice.

The owl has more dialogue here in Japanese, while the English cuts it down to just the essentials. E GB is actually lengthier, reflecting more of the Japanese, though it still doesn’t squeeze in the “Everything is riding on you” bit towards the end in the J.
The full E GB line reads: “The going is much more trying from this point! You have only two more tasks to accomplish! The first is in the east part of the mountains, the second in the west. Go! The Wind Fish grows restless!”
It’s likely this was cut down on E GBC just to save room, since that version added extra features which would have reduced the overall space on the cartridge. And then E Switch decided to stick with that version perhaps for brevity’s sake.
In any case, 険しい (kewashii) in the Japanese has a double meaning of “steep/precipitous” and “grim/severe,” referring both to the steep climb and the difficulty of it.

In Japanese the henhouse keeper says that he used to own a chicken that flew, then follows up with “I swear I’m not lying.” In English he seems to just be referring to chickens in general. To be fair, it’s hard to know when things are singular or plural in Japanese because they don’t always specify. In any case, E does a nice job of keeping the onomatopoeias.

On Switch, he kicks you out of the house if you attack the chickens too much.

When you get the Bird Key, the Japanese has an extra sentence saying roughly “A victory derived from teamwork!” (This is true on GB/C as well.)

The owl hint outside the dungeon has an extra clue in Japanese saying that the key can’t be found around there.

The Japanese name of the dungeon uses オオワシ (oowashi) which is specifically a “Steller’s sea eagle” apparently (and the boss does look like one, though it’s more white than black).

On E GB/C you don’t get a hint about having to defeat all the birds, for whatever reason. The “Ha! You’re gonna have to do better than that!” line is added on E Switch (most likely to honor E GB/C), but the Japanese launches straight into the “If you leave even one alive…” speech.

After beating him, the E Switch text has been revised a bit from the E GB/C text. Maybe to avoid even vague references to killing?
The Japanese is roughly “How dare you beat my adorable underlings!”

The owl hint referring to the “chest on a table” seems oddly worded to me. Perhaps “ridge” or “platform” would have been better? This may have come about from lack of visual context, since the Japanese 台 (dai) can mean can refer to practically any kind of elevated surface, from tables, benches, and stands to podiums, pedestals, and stages.

The reference to “poles” here also confused me a little at first because I assumed it was referring to the pillars you break with the iron ball. The Japanese 柵 (saku) means “fence/railing,” making it clearer that it’s referring to the small section that isn’t large square blocks.

Before the boss, the skeleton seems to be saying in Japanese: “I’m gonna fold you in four and use you to blow my nose!” or something along those lines.

The boss is named アルバトス (arubatosu) in Japanese, which may be a play on “Albatross” which is spelled with an extra syllable in Japanese – アルバトロス (arubatorosu). It’s also close to the English name of a Super Mario 2 enemy, Albatoss. That enemy’s name in Japanese is “Tondoru” a play on “tobu” (to fly) and “condor”.

Ulrira’s hint in Japanese literally says to “breathe/blow life into it” which gives an extra clue towards using the ocarina.

Marin talks in more complete sentences in English when attempting to tell Link something. Whereas in Japanese she just says “I… I…”

In Japanese, the owl makes it extremely clear that he’s talking about Turtle Rock, referring to it by name and describing it as a turtle-shaped rock. While the English just says “in the west” and “unliving stones”. “Play your melodies so the unliving stones might hear!” is nice and poetic, though.

The E Switch text has been changed from E GB/C to remove the song reference. (In fact, most music references from E GB have slowly been removed over the years.) The Japanese remains unchanged.
For more info see: https://legendsoflocalization.com/you-got-disco-in-my-zelda/…

“Fill all the holes with the rock that rolls” is a wonderful rhyme. The Japanese is basically “Use L-stick to control the path-creating rock and fill in the entire floor.”

In Japanese Hot Head calls Link a “worm” but this is skipped over in English. The Japanese name of the boss is デグフレム (degu furemu) which would be like “big flame,” continuing the use of “degu” for “big”.

After being defeated, in Japanese the boss just generically tells Link “Don’t forget… This place is within the dream…” but in English it’s more pointed, specifically saying that Link is also part of the dream.