New Game Plus - Television Tropes & Idioms

Way of starting a new game by accessing a previous finished game, allowing you to start with improved stats or items won beforehand.

The main reason for this can be so the player has a shot at things like multiple pathways and endings. Indeed, playing through the game twice or thrice may be the best way to power up so you can face the Bonus Dungeon. A more basic reason is getting over the initial "hump" of the First Town playthru. Another possibility is making the Hopeless Boss Fight at the beginning of the game anything but.

The trope is named after the expression used in Chrono Trigger (where the majority of the game's multiple endings can be attained in this mode), but dates back at least as far as the Zelda series.

Examples:

The Mega Man Zero games had different versions of this (Hard Mode, Ultimate Mode).
Parasite Eve 2 had you keep a percentage of your BP and EXP each playthrough so you could get the good items and spells from the start.
- Parasite Eve let you keep your best weapon and armor and all items kept in storage. The Bonus Dungeon was not accessible in the normal game, only appearing in EX Mode.
In Metal Gear Solid, after completing the game, depending on which of the two ending story paths you chose, you could start over with one of two super-items: A headband that grants unlimited ammo, or an optical camouflage suit that grants invisibility. Get both endings, and you can play through the game the third time in a tuxedo, plus keep both special items.
After completing each game in the Ratchet And Clank series, players are presented with the option to begin a new game on the same save file, and are allowed to keep their ultra-powerful weapons and ammo. Considering how much currency the average player accumulates over the course of the average game (and subsequently spends on weapons and ammunition), this is pretty much the only feasible way for most players to get the first game's Infinity Plus One Gun, the RYNO.
The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker's New Game Plus featured Link playing through the game in the blue outfit he starts the game in (at the point where you would get the green tunic, you get invisible clothes instead). Also, text that was previously in the "ancient" language would be translated into English, revealing very interesting conversations (such as when the King of Lions boat is talking with Jabu, about Link, knowing he can't understand them.) As a third bonus, Link would start the game with the deluxe picto-box, making the picture-taking sidequest easier to complete.
Most Resident Evil games allow you to start with an extremely powerful gun once you unlock it, usually by clearing the game really fast, with a very high score.
- Resident Evil 2 had two playable characters; finishing the game with one would allow you to use the same save to play with the other. The events in the first game would affect the second; as well, the order you played them in would affect things as well.
- Resident Evil 4 allowed weapons, items, ammunition, and current maximum life bar length to be, upon finishing the game, carried over to a new game. This process could be repeated ad nauseum, and could result in the player's inventory being literally filled with hundreds of rounds of ammuntion and dozens of healing items from multiple play-throughs.
- Resident Evil (Game Cube): Beating the game with both characters (using the Once Again option for the second character) would unlock 'One Dangerous Zombie' mode. Beating that would in turn unlock 'Invisible Enemy' mode.
Given the hundreds of Souls found in the Castlevania "Sorrow" games (Aria of and Dawn of), a New Game+ was almost a necessity.
- Though if you have enough time to New Game+ it, you probably have enough time to farm 100% souls in order to get the 100% item. Admittedly, Dawn of Sorrow had a weapon crafting system wherein you needed to give up several exclusive souls in order to unlock the best weapons, so a New Game+ would be advised for that.
Final Fantasy X would let you keep you Al Bhed primers from previous playthroughs, if you went to the Al Bhed sphere as soon as you started a new game. If you had mastered the language in the other game this made early scenes easier to understand. It also let you get the special item from Rin's quest earlier.
- Furthermore, the non-American released International version of the game contains a glitch in the end-game that allows the player to replay the last third of the story with all their new weapons, powers, and equipment. It is performed by beating a Bonus Boss and then glitching your way past an NPC that blocks the now-destroyed Al Bhed home. Accessing this normally block-off area sets off an Event Flag, and the game acts as if you're visiting there for the first time. Most players take great pleasure in killing That One Boss in one hit.
- Final Fantasy X-2 had an actual New Game Plus option. After playing through the game once, it would save after the cinematics. You could then use the New Game Plus option to starts a new game, being reset to level 1, but retaining all your obtained Dress Spheres, Sphere Grids, and Completion Percent. This was an essential part of obtaining the Perfect Complete ending (requiring 100% or more) as there is a choice in the middle of the game that limits your game choices. On your first play through one path gives up to 100% completion, while the other gives up to 99.2%. (In fact, if you complete both paths completely, you technically get 105%, but the game only lists 100%.)
Super Robot Wars has had this for a good while, mainly to start over with lots of money to begin with. However, some have extra difficulties, just so your money is always useful.
After completing a Devil May Cry game once, players can continue on to the higher difficulties while keeping their weapons, upgrades and items. One exception is 1's Easy Automatic mode, where only another Easy Automatic game could be played afterward. 2, 3 and 4 did not suffer from this.
Spyro The Dragon 2 allowed you to play a new game with a permanent Super Fireball enhancement after beating the game with 100% and acquiring the enhancement in the very last "level", saving, and starting a new game in a different save spot.
- Also occurs in the rebooted continuity of {{The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night}} in which completing certain tasks allows you to replay the game with access to the Dark Spyro ability which shortens the playtime considerably (amusingly, Spyro also appears in his "dark" form during the cut scenes.)
Some Nippon Ichi games, such as Disgaea and Makai Kingdom, have "New Game Plus" options that allow players to keep all of the characters they've created up to that point, along with all of the awesome weapons they've collected. Almost a necessity, as these games are always rife with extra dungeons, bonus bosses and multiple endings.
Possible in WildArms 4. You can carry over items, including the [ROMs] you need as part of the quest to find the Bonus Boss, which can also be obtained by using a save file from an earlier Wild Arms game.
The online game Kingdom Of Loathing lets you "ascend" after beating the primary boss; and start over. Access to previous skills and items depend on what Self Imposed Challenge one gets. There are special rewards for completing higher difficulties.
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons had a variation on this. When you beat one of the games, you can input a long, in-depth code to the other version (if you have two Game Boys and a link cable you can just link them up to do so) This allowed you to begin the second game with 4 hearts instead of 3, and very commonly, characters would give you secret codes, which could be used in the first game for some extra sidequests. Not only that, but the second game you play actually acts as a continuation of the story, and includes a different final boss. You can also bring over all the rings you'd collected in the other game.
- This is actually somewhat One Game For The Price Of Two.
  - Except unlike most of them, here you have two very different full eight-dungeon quests, and different game mechanics.
While Metroid Prime 3: Corruption doesn't let you keep your high-end weaponry in its New Game Plus, it does keep all the logbook scans and credits earned intact, which makes getting Hundred Percent Completion possible via multiple playthroughs, instead of having to do it all in one shebang.
Persona 3 had a new game plus that is considered a Gamebreaker by fans of the Mega Ten series (which is normally considered much more difficult then other RP Gs) by the virtue that the New game starts with the main character at the level he was in the final save, all his weapons, money, and a record of all the Personas that have been created. The fact that the player does not need to repeat Social Links they have already maxed out adds to the opinion the New Game+ is broken.
- It's not broken any more or less than any other NG+ in any other game: in fact, since all being level 99 does by itself is maxing out your HP and SP and all your other stats are directly based on your currently equiped Persona, the only real gameplay difference you'll experience on a NG+ for the first month or so is the ability to take a lot more punishment and cast a lot more spells, you'll still do and take damage mostly compareable to your other partners who all start from level 1. And obviously, whether or not the player wishes to resummon all their old overpowered Personas he or she had at the end of the previous playthrough after the said month has passed is entirely up to him or her.
The Front Mission DS remake allows you to New Game + yourself into either easier or harder difficulties, as easy as 0.5x normal to as hard as 20.0x!
Boktai DS (Lunar Knights) let you keep your items on a New Game Plus. Keeping your levels and stats is optional.
Breathof Fire: Dragon Quarter took this a step further with its Scenario Overlay system. You can restart, or return to your last savepoint at any time, losing party levels and story progress, but keeping money, equipped items, skills, and stored items.
Star Fox Command limits you to one of the possible nine endings for the first playthrough. That's right, nine endings. The only thing that makes this sort of a New Game Plus however is the first level changing two times when the mode is completed several times.
World Of Warcraft is announced to the Death Knight Hero class in the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Although it hasn't been finalized yet, the current plan is that a player has to reach level 55 or above with one of their characters to unlock the ability to create a Death Knight. This Death Knight also starts at level 55.
In a rather unwanted variation, Odin Sphere essentially forces you into New Game Pluses for all of the main protagonists if you want to be adequately prepared for the final battles of the game.
Dead Rising lets you start a new game at any point, and Frank West keeps his level, skills learned, and whatever pictures were in his camera. You have to re-collect items, and you can't earn unlockables if you do this instead of getting a proper ending.
- This is actually a requirement to complete the game fully, as you cannot complete all the tasks in one run through. Additionally, beating the game the first time through is extremely difficult, because Frank's item capacity, speed, and special moves will be fairly low.
- The original Diablo does something like this. One can start a new game at any point and keep the earned experience, statistics and spells (though this troper isn't certain if the privilege extended to items and gold). But you have to start over from the very first quests.
The early online RTS NetStorm had this as a main gameplay mechanic. As you gained levels you received new units, but once you had all units you were given an option to restart. You'd lose everything gained from leveling, except now your weapons do 10% more damage.
Suikoden 4 and 5 also have included the option of a New Game Plus, though S5's is more of a bonus. While Suikoden 4 only lets you keep money and items in your inventory at the end of the game, Suikoden 5 let's you keep not only those, but Party SP (though oddly enough, not the personal SP of your characters, which is reset to 0), items in your storage, epic skills you've acquired, formations, the various skill manuals (which allow your party's combat and magic trainers to raise your skills to higher levels) and even allows you to run faster than normal when holding the Triangle or R2 buttons. The only downside is that neither game transfers over the equipment or runes your characters had currently equipped (everyone has their normal default equipment instead), which is quite obviously the best stuff you'd have. Also, weapons are all back at level 1.
Subverted, to much annoyance, in Pokemon. The only way to keep your mons and items when restarting the game is to get another copy, catch a bunch of Vendor Trash Pokemon, and trade them to your original game for the ones you want to keep. You can also pick 6 items to send over by attaching them. For this reason, most people don't even try to restart the games, or buy the other version.
Winning a game in the Diablo series opens up a higher difficulty levels for your now-experienced character. The gameplay doesn't change much, but the power of each enemy in the game does. In Normal difficulty of Diablo II, the low-level throwaway creatures in the starting areas die if you so much as breathe on them too hard; on Hell difficulty (the highest difficulty level), it's vice versa.
God Of War II offers a form of New Game Plus called Bonus Play, in which players who have already beaten the game once can start over (on the same difficulty level as before, or on any lesser level) with all the spells, weapons ,upgrades and bonus items they had previously collected, in addition to selectable costumes and special abilities which can be unlocked in additional game modes or by finding hidden items in the game proper.
Once you have won the game once, Mass Effect allows you to start a new game as the same character with the same inventory and experience at the new "Hardcore" difficulty and moves the level cap up to 60. Winning again unlocks the "Insane" difficulty level. Furthermore, killing enough enemies, killing enough enemies using specific weapons, and using abilities enough times unlocks certain bonuses, including the ability to use one of those abilities or weapons on a new character, even if that character cannot usually use that ability or weapon.
A staple of the Ace Combat series that allows you to keep aircraft earned in previous missions when you start the campaign over on the same save state.
Super Mario Land: Beating the game once unlocked the harder mode. Beating the game again after this would allow a stage select.
The World Ends With You has a version of New Game Plus that's even better than most: once you've beaten the final boss, you can jump to any chapter of the story at any point, even if you're in the middle of a different chapter, with your level, your items, your pins, your friendship levels, and so forth intact. Want to fight some Noise that only appear in chapter seven, but don't want to play through chapters one through six? No problem!
- They also let you skip through conversations at super-speed by holding down a button. Which is helpful, considering how talky most of the characters are.
The Icewind Dale series has "Heart of Fury" mode, which was designed for characters that have completed the original campaign. In this mode, enemy stats go through the roof. While it's possible to start Heart of Fury with level 1 characters, successful completion is another matter.

Nerf Arm

« Videogame Tropes »

News Travels Fast

Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing

Tools