When the first prototypes of The Legend of Zelda arrived in the United States, Minoru Arakawa was not sure how people would respond to a complex game with text windows in it. He worries that perhaps the game was too complicated for American audiences. To test this out, he had several employees try the game. In order to give the game a fair chance, Arakawa arranged for Japanese-speaking workers to sit with American employees and translate any Kanji that appeared in the text boxes.



"It was all in Japanese, which made it really hard to play, but it was just so compelling that we kept playing it and playing it. The way the game mechanics worked, the fact that it did this great thing with that sword... It had great mechanics. Typical of Miyamoto, it had puzzles. You would come across things that would be on the island or behind a door or whatever, and you could see them, but you couldn't have them." - Howard Phillips



As he tested The Legend of Zelda on his employees, Arakawa noticed a disturbing trend. Most American workers who played the game did not warm up to it instantly. They all ended up giving the game high marks, but Arakawa noticed that some people needed as much as ten hours before they understood the game and enjoyed it.

Former Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa was hesitant about releasing The Legend of Zelda in The United States, as he wasn't sure Americans would have enough patience to understand the game.The following is an excerpt from "The Ultimate History of Video Games" by Steven Kent: