The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players have been sharing their disappointment with other video games on social media, as the convenience of Link’s Ascend ability is making those other open worlds feel like more of a hassle than they should be. Tears of the Kingdom gives Link lots of tools for exploring its overworld, yet Ascend is the one that has stuck in the minds of fans, as it allows quick vertical traversal through solid objects.
The QoL features in video games allow players to get to the exciting parts faster, and anyone who travels a lot in real life would kill to have them. Those who’ve spent twelve hours or more on a plane would want to be able to fast travel or the ability to skip time ahead so that hours feel like seconds. Tears of the Kingdom not only has both of these features, but it lets Link create vehicles using magic so that he can zoom across Hyrule with nothing but a battery, a few slabs of metal, and some wheels.
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Link’s Ascend Ability In TOTK Makes Other Games Seem Less Intuitive
Tears of the Kingdom players have taken to the game’s official Reddit page to discuss their feelings about the Ascend ability, as prompted by a thread created by Gentlemononon. In the thread, Gentlemonon talked about forgetting that they couldn’t use Ascend in games like Elden Ring, which was followed by similar comments from other Redditers, who also want to Ascend whenever possible.
There is actually a name for this phenomenon in real life, as it’s a condition called Tetris Effect (no relation to the video game of the same name), and it involves a change in your perception based on repeated activity. In the case of Tetris, it involves people seeing objects in the same way as the tetrominoes, especially in how they can fit together.
In the case of the Ascend ability, it also helps that climbing can be a nightmare in Tears of the Kingdom, thanks to the limited stamina meter, the slow pace, and the fact that rain can make the surface slippery and cause you to fall. Ascending through surfaces is such a useful ability that it’s no wonder that people want to see it in exploration-heavy games, where climbing can take a long time.
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The Ascend ability isn’t that flashy, especially when Tears of the Kingdom lets you create a Transformer, but it’s so useful that it’s easy for it to stick in players’ minds. This is especially true in a game where Ascend can be used to cheese the annoying Fire Temple and helps cut down on the frustrating parts that people hate, all with a simple vertical teleport spell.
