Emulator

Are you referring to the text in the intro video ("A long long time ago...")? I wasn't able to reproduce this issue with the USA version of the game in 4.0-3530. The text showed up normally for me.

Yes, it's this text.
So what's different in our settings ?
I enabled MMU, XFB, all the accuracy settings, even tried JITIL.
Maybe I can try with a Windows OS to see if it works.

No luck, I have the same problem on Windows 7 (same hardware).
Now, I'm out of ideas...

That's the first thing I checked:
59d99ac5058174bb5bdfaf71a0c1347b
same as redump.org.

Have you tried safe texture cache and whatnot?

Tried the safe texture cache, disabling dual core and idle skipping, rewrote the game .ini....
Here's a screenshot

I can't replicate it with my hardware and default settings. Can you backtrack and find if it ever worked for you?

When you tested the PAL version, did it display english text or a different language?

FOUND IT. Using a windows vm to test previous versions (hope it's accurate).

The bug appeared at revision 3.5-2381 commit 24e9aedc1420d1947f1a7bf5b57ddbab3c5fb2dd
Merge branch 'global-user-directory' ?

I tried the PAL version in french, english, spanish using the configuration. All texts are OK (well there's a blinking screen issue but it needs more testing).

Umm, you realize that means it's a settings bug, right? We moved the INIS around in that build.

Now I'm confused, I just renamed the GKBEAF.ini from .dolphin-emu/GameConfig directory and even in the source files. I still have the warnings at startup that UseXFB and EFB enable were overwritten by the game ini.
Where is it checking for the inis ?

That's where it should be checking I think. I don't know why it'd be broken, though.

I got it.

In the Configuration/Gamecube language selection, we have to choose English for the text to appear.
Any other language will cause this bug.

It's strange, I have a couple more PAL games that didn't care.

Can you try this build? It changes disc loading times, and fixes the wrong subtitles loaded in Starfox Adventures. (please wait about 5 mins from when I post the link to download it; it's still uploading at the moment.)

https://dl.dolphin-emu.org/prs/pr-1517-dolphin-latest-x64.7z

No luck, the problem is still here.
Also, I overlooked that the text appear when selecting English or Dutch (last choice on the list) but none of the others.

Can you try this on interpreter? I know it'll be slow, but hopefully the subtitles are very early in.

Same problem with interpreter (and JITIL).
Is it the correct behavior ? I tried the game with my modded PAL GameCube and can't reproduce the bug but I don't know about a real NTSC GameCube.

So to summarize: If you select a language other than english to display for gamecube games, then the US version of the game has problems? Is this really a valid issue? Which languages can you select on an us gamecube?

Tested with my pal version of the game, and all languages except dutch work as expected. Dutch displays english text, but i guess, the game maybe just was not translated to dutch.

There is no language selection on NTSC GameCubes.

Meaning it is english only. So do we want to restict US games to english, or do we want to keep the language selection for those games? Would that even make sense?

What about japanese gamecubes? Can you select a language there? If not, is the language bit the same as english?

NTSC-J GameCubes don't have any language selection, just like NTSC-U GameCubes. I believe both set the language to 0, but don't quote me on it. 0 is what PAL uses for English.

If there is no language selection on NTSC GameCubes then why is it beheaving differently when we switch it ? It shouldn't even read it. Must be a flaw for this game only.
I agree that the language selection should not be used then. Is it possible to force the language with the ini file ?