The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has an ability called Ascend, which allows players to move through caves straight to the surface, and it recently emerged that it was originally a cheat code used by the developers for a quick escape.
Speaking to PolygonVeteran Nintendo developers Eiji Aonuma and Hidemaro Fujibayashi said they found exiting the game’s long, winding caverns so tedious that they would essentially hit a special escape button that was available to them in the developer version of the game.
“When I was exploring caves, I would get to the destination I was trying to get to,” Fujibayashi said. “Once I checked it, I would use the token to get to the top. Then I thought maybe this is something that can be used in the game. At that time, Mr. Onuma said : It hurts to surface again. To be honest, cheating can be fun. That’s why we decided to leave that feature in the final game.”
Tears of the Kingdom protagonist Link has four main abilities including Ascend, joined by Fuse, which allows players to combine their weapons and gears together in seemingly endless combos, Recall, which reverses time, and Ultrahand, which allows for manipulating and collect things in the world.
