New Game Plus

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New Game Plus (usually written as "New Game+") is a video game mode that allows the player to start a new game after they finish the game at least once, where certain aspects of the finished game affect the newly started game. New Game + is not always referred to as such, though; many games use alternate names such as "Replay Mode", "Challenge Mode" or "New Game Ex".

Origin

The term was first coined by the 1995 role-playing game Chrono Trigger. This play mode is most often found in role-playing games, where starting a New Game+ will usually have the player characters start the new game with the statistics and/or equipment they ended the last game with. Key items that are related to the story are normally removed so they cannot ruin the game's progression, and are given back at the time they are needed; likewise, characters that the player acquires throughout the story will also not appear until their scheduled place and time, but will get the enhanced stats from the previous play through.

Examples

Games with multiple endings often feature a New Game+ mode, such as Chrono Trigger, as having pre-leveled characters makes successive playthroughs of the game easier and faster; with some games featuring over a dozen endings and more than 50 hours of gameplay, it would be a daunting task to play the same game for 50 hours to see each ending. Another notable game in this regard is Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, which requires many subsequent playthroughs for one to be actually presented the whole story. Similarly, Astro Boy: Omega Factor actually incorporates the New Game+ into the overall story. Final Fantasy X-2 also has a New Game+ option, allowing the player to start the game again, but still have all of the items, dresspheres and accessories they ended the game with.

Games with completion ratings can also feature a New Game+ mode. Tales of Symphonia give bonuses for collecting things. In some cases, specific features are locked away until the player starts a new game using the New Game+ option. In Sigma Star Saga, a special item is needed to unlock two of the four available endings; this item is unavailable on the first playthrough, but can be found in a New Game+ game. New Game+ can also be used as an unlock trigger for replaying the game at a higher difficulty, such as in the various Mega Man Battle Network games.

Although this type of play is usually found in role playing games, there are non-RPGs with this feature. Mario Superstar Baseball has a challenge mode that requires the player to earn stars to promote characters to Superstar status; but it is impossible to get all the stars on a single playthrough, and no character can get all their stars until the latter difficulty levels. By continuing from a complete game, the characters keep all the stars they earned, and all characters can become Superstars in successive plays of the challenge mode. No More Heroes allows you to replay the game on the "Bitter" difficulty setting with all your items and money carried over from a previous save.

Another more famous game that utilises the New Game Plus mechanism includes Final Fantasy X-2.

Clear Game

A slight variation of this is the Clear Game, a special mode that is played after finishing the regular game. In this mode, the player is given the ability to continue playing, even though the game is finished, allowing him or her to see the effect of defeating the last boss on the game world. EarthBound for the SNES is an example of this, as is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Some games instead return the player to the point just before the last boss, like Mega Man Legends 2.

In many games with this feature, new challenges and levels are opened to give the player an extra goal; each of the .hack games featured a bonus dungeon after completing the main mission objective on the disc.

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Last updated on Friday March 14, 2008 at 00:42:31 PDT (GMT -0700)
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