You did it! You’ve fought through the impossible time
castle, heard a sketchy philosophy seminar, fired the professor, and saved the day. Roll credits. … But is that it? Maybe not. For decades, there has been an institution
in games - the New Game Plus. But game to game, the same concept can mean
a lot of different things. For some games, the New Game Plus is a way
to play again with the limits broken. For others, it’s an invitation to repeat
the game in a more challenging way, or to continue building and improving a character. For some games, it’s a way to explore more
story content and get a fuller picture of what was really going on, or what could have
been. And for many games it’s a combination of
some or all of the above. And yet, all these different approaches are
tied together with the same shorthand - ‘New Game Plus’. Today we’re going to look at 4 major flavors
of New Game Plus - God Mode, Secondary Challenge, Skill Ramp, and Narrative Device - go through
some of the pros and cons of each style, and see how a lot of games put their own unique
spin on the same concept. But first, a word from our sponsors Welp, there’s a lot of us stuck inside for
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your creativity. Thanks, Skillshare! Oh, and a couple things before we begin. One, lots of the games that we’ll talk about
will dip into more than one category, but we’re mainly highlighting one aspect of
these games. Two, we’ve put in practically zero spoilers,
which is amazing considering what we’re talking about. But if you’re very sensitive to spoilers,
check the description on this video for a list of timestamps of the games we talk about. If you boil it down, almost every game’s
New Game Plus mode is just a way to start a new game, but not quite to start it from
scratch. Something always carries over. But there are so many things that could get
carried over. Lots of games bring over the player’s character
progress from their previous run. Weapons, abilities, stats, you can take a
late-game character and place them at the start. Or the game could grant new weapons and powers
far beyond what a normal run-through would ever provide. For developers, it’s an easy mode to make,
since the game content doesn’t fundamentally change. In practice, it works a lot like a ‘God
Mode’ cheat code, but given as a reward to the very people who are in a position to
appreciate just how far their character has come, instead of just something anyone could
unlock at any time. Resident Evil 4’s New Game Plus is very
much that vanilla God Mode. It carries over your weapons, items and money
from the previous playthrough and makes some overpowered weapons available for purchase. The infinite rocket launcher and the Chicago
Typewriter throw balance out the window and are meant to blast through foes that were
once a huge threat. As you keep beating the game, you'll keep
stockpiling the equipment. Eventually you'll gain access to everything
the game has. But there are still some limits. The 'Professional' difficulty is locked out. The devs didn't want players to cheese their
way through the hardest difficulty with the best weapons. The Dead Space series does roughly the same
thing as RE4. You get to keep your upgraded weapons and
other bonuses to mow through early game enemies. But, Dead Space 2 DOES let you crank up the
difficulty while keeping your overpowered inventory. Metal Gear Solid 3 allows you to bring over
all of your weapons, items, and special camouflage from your previous playthrough, but it also
unlocks little bonuses here and there based on how you did. You might get a powerful new weapon or special
camo for beating the game very quickly, or without taking out many enemies, or never
getting detected. It’s a god mode, doled out slowly, based
on how you’ve done in the past, in a game built for doing multiple full playthroughs
using different tactics. It also dips into some categories we’ll
talk about later. Persona 5 carries over your money, equipment
and the Persona compendium and will let you re-summon registered Personas, which can make
your main character ridiculously overpowered for most of the game. While you can pick a higher difficulty, late
game Personas and equipment throw the game's balance out the window. On top of that, you carry over your social
stats, too. You can bypass lots of the social checks that
limit your progress early on, and certain confidants now rank up much faster. It's convenient, but just like in RE4 and
Dead Space, it mucks with the game design in the same way a cheat code might. A big part of Persona is efficient time management,
and the pressure of using your time wisely is a core component of the design. If you can already pass all the social checks
from day 1, the New Game Plus trivializes a lot of the game. Sure, it lets you get every confidant if you
missed a few on your last run. There is a super boss in New Game Plus, which
is nice, but it does trivialize huge chunks of a very long game which is a pretty steep price to pay. Even though New Game Plus is, by design, a mode for the die-hard crowd, that doesn't mean there aren't ripple effects from the choices you make. And that’s an issue with the God Mode New
Game Plus. By design it’s a path that throws game balance
out the window. That can be very fun, but also very fleeting. It’s a sledgehammer, prone to trivializing
large chunks of the game, which can be a pretty big discouragement for players to stick with
the New Game Plus run for a longer period of time. That doesn’t make it a bad option, it’s
just another thing to consider if you’re designing your own New Game Plus. Luckily, that's not the only way to do a New
Game Plus. Another way to do it is to turn the concept
on its head. Instead of making the characters more powerful,
make the game more difficult. Instead of focusing on bringing over stats
and what the player accomplished in game, the more difficult playthrough relies on players
bringing over their experience, and draws fun from getting their skills tested. The New Game Plus delivers a familiar game,
but the tougher challenge frames it in a new context. Some games dip into both Secondary Challenge
and God Mode at the same time. Most of the Ratchet and Clank games have a
challenge mode where you keep your weapons but enemies also get a boost in power to match
you. You gain a new set of upgrades for all of
your weapons. The enemies are a little stronger, but it's
still no match for your ridiculous arsenal. Let alone when you get the series staple superweapon,
the RYNO. This approach can fix some of the trivialization
problems with a pure God Mode, but it doesn’t deliver all that much of a challenge either. It’s kind of awkwardly in the middle. The Souls games lean more towards only the
Secondary Challenge style. On its face, the New Game Plus looks like
it’s part- God Mode. Players keep their equipment, stats, and items,
but instead of it being an easy romp through the kingdoms of Lordran or Drangleic or whatever,
the enemies are MUCH stronger and more durable. Dark Souls II adds even more, with extra Phantom
enemies, new items, and different enemy compositions. They’ll even place new enemies to surprise
ya. Plus, enemies keep changing and scaling up
with you for as many as 7 New Game Plus cycles. Each cycle pushes the challenge further and
further to ridiculous levels meant for the most dedicated of hardcore fans. The Secondary Challenge style is great for
raising the ceiling for players that already love your systems and want to aspire towards
a tougher challenge, but there are drawbacks too. For some players, pitching a New Game Plus
mode as ‘just like the last time, but it’s more work to complete’ is not a strong argument. It’s almost the inverted problem that God
Mode has. The lack of challenge is fun for some players,
and for others, not. In Secondary Challenge, for some the increased
challenge is fun and for others, not. There’s no pleasing everyone. But there’s another problem to watch out
for. It can be easy to ‘phone in’ this type
of New Game Plus by just tinkering with the enemy health and damage sliders and calling
it a day. Code Vein’s new game plus does just that. There’s no change in enemy behavior or placements,
and nothing else. It’s serviceable but it’s very barebones. The best versions of Secondary Challenge do
something else alongside making enemies tougher. Batman: Arkham City carries over upgrades
and your Riddler trophy progress, but it also changes the enemy AI a bit. They change their configurations, get tougher,
and get a lot more aggressive. On top of that, the game forces a challenge
from the Hard Mode onto Normal mode players. It removes the counter indicator that shows
up when enemies are attacking, forcing players to carefully observe the enemy’s animation
during fights. Some games up the challenge by putting in
an entire extra unlockable mode as their New Game Plus. You can see this in a lot of Nintendo games. The Zelda series has done it a few different
ways. The original NES game included a Second Quest,
which is practically a whole new game. The dungeon layouts and item locations are
different and the game is designed to be harder. Some dungeons even get multiple bosses. Ocarina of Time's Master Quest is roughly
similar, unlocking in the 3DS remake after you beat the game, or just as a whole separate
disc in the Gamecube port. Master Quest dungeons are remixed to be more
challenging with different enemy placements, altered layouts and puzzles, and enemies that
hit harder. This approach gives you MOSTLY the same game,
but it’s more interesting than if they had just messed around with the sliders of enemies
or placed more of them. Super Mario Galaxy’s 100% reward is Super Luigi
Galaxy where you can play through the whole game as Birdo. I mean Luigi. Luigi can run faster and jump higher but he
has less traction, so he slides around a little. In a precise platformer that’s a big change. Plus, they alter a few levels into a greater
challenge like with Luigi’s Purple Coins. Like Galaxy, Donkey Kong Country Returns and
its sequel feature their own remixed modes as a 100% bonus reward. In Returns, the mode has mirrored levels,
no access to your inventory, no access to Diddy, oh, and you have only one hitpoint. Tropical Freeze's hard mode is a little different. Levels aren’t mirrored, inventory items
are still unavailable, it disables checkpoints, but you can play as any of the 5 Kongs solo,
which you couldn’t do before. Secondary challenges and extra modes are great,
but the best version of that can mean spending a lot of time to build a whole new mode. What would be nice is something that can just
extend the life of the core of a game, without having to build a substantial new mode and
without just plastering a new weapon or item on top of a repeat playthrough. So far, lots of the games we’ve talked about
have tied the end of the game’s story to the end of the character’s progression. That doesn’t have to be the case. Some games build their character development
system to take up more time than you’ll have on one run-through of the game. It’s not quite a God Mode, you have to work
for it. It’s not quite a secondary challenge, as
you’re still working through the progression of your character as you left them in the
first playthrough. Think ‘very long tech tree’. And there’s maybe no game that does it better
than Devil May Cry V. Devil May Cry V uses a ton of unlockable abilities
and extra difficulties that are meant to be incorporated into your character as you play
the game over and over again. The skill trees for each of the 3 playable
characters have a TON of different moves to use, and the game doesn’t give you access
to everything in one playthrough. As you replay missions, all upgrades you get
are permanent, even on higher difficulties. Dante alone has 17 different skill sets of
different melee weapons, ranged weapons, styles, and other abilities. Most characters have a handful of additional
skills to unlock with the red orbs that players find and earn through playing the game and
getting high rankings. Unless they do a LOT of grinding, players
won’t have nearly enough to unlock every skill in their first playthrough. Some abilities can’t even unlock until you
reach the final boss, so even on your 2nd or even 3rd playthrough you won’t have your
character’s complete moveset. The slow development of your moves is a key
part of the game’s progression, and is a frequent hallmark of the character action
genre. Over time, the game’s skill ceiling slowly
keeps rising as you unlock more and more tools to style on enemies with. The way Devil May Cry V rewards deep knowledge
of your combat options and the way the skills are given out combine to make the game’s
combat system blossom, exponentially increasing how fluid and fun the game’s combat system
can be. DMCV’s unlockable difficulty modes play
a part, too. By withholding large parts of your moveset,
DMCV allows players to ease into a higher level of play while also laying out a “candy
trail” of unlockable difficulty modes. It’s almost like an elaborate tutorial where
the game doesn’t truly begin until you at least beat the final boss and unlock the “Son
of Sparda” difficulty. In this mode, every stage will use different
enemy compositions using the game’s entire bestiary. End game enemies can appear from the very
start and thanks to the player’s earned experience and the powered up characters,
it shouldn’t be overwhelming. It adds a fresh and satisfying new challenge. That slow-burn structure makes room for some
fun secrets, too. The game's prologue features a boss that you’re
not meant to beat at the very beginning. But once you get better and more powerful,
it’s very possible. You can even get a secret ending. It’s not just Devil May Cry, though. The Borderlands series gives you True Vault
Hunter mode where you keep all your weapons and abilities, and keep charging up your skill
tree. Enemies scale up with you, and the procedurally
generated weapons you come across scale up too, providing a smooth loop of progression
that lasts throughout multiple playthroughs. If a game takes the Skill Ramp approach, be
wary of making the early moveset too basic. If a game isn’t fun the first time, players
won’t bother with the New Game Plus. Platinum’s take on The Legend of Korra made
a mistake here. The meat of Korra’s moveset is tied to 4
different elemental bending styles, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Once you get them all, switching between them
during combat and performing combos is fun enough, but the game’s story setup creates
a big problem. You’re forced to start without any of the
bending styles, and the fun of the combat just isn’t there without them. You’ll slowly unlock each form throughout
the game but you won’t get access to all 4 styles until you’re near the end. If you stick with the game, you’ll be able
to use your full moveset when you replay those early stages, but it’s a slog to even get
that far, even though the game isn’t very long. Dead Rising is even more explicitly built
around playing and replaying a main storyline to build up skills over time. You can choose to restart at any point and
carry over your stat progression to the next run. Willamette Mall is on a scripted 3 day schedule
with many time sensitive missions to do and survivors to save. You can’t do everything your first run and
it’ll probably be a few playthroughs before you understand enough and your character is
strong enough to complete some of the missions and boss fights on the game’s tightly scripted
schedule. And speaking of progression tying into a game’s
narrative, it’s time to talk about our last category. There’s one more common way to reward players
for playing a game over and over again. New Game Plus in a story-heavy game is a great
time to show more context, or reveal more hidden information in a story, or let players
go down completely different paths than they did in the first run-through. If the story is the main attraction to a game,
and the New Game Plus provides a unique enough story experience, that’s often plenty to
keep players interested, with or without any additional changes to the game’s mechanics. First and foremost is Chrono Trigger, the
game that was the very origin of the name “New Game Plus”. Chrono Trigger allows you to start a new game
with your end game characters, which is pretty standard. The groundbreaking part comes in with the
game’s elaborate branching story structure that unlocks after you beat the game the first
time. There are over a dozen different paths to
the final boss, and they’re all tied to what’s going on right at that moment in
the story, when you decide to make your final stand against Lavos. Gag endings, tragic endings, they run a very
wide range of alternate storylines from your first run. The DS version adds even more new content
that can only be seen in the New Game Plus. Chrono Cross keeps up the tradition with multiple
endings based on the game’s extensive branching choice system. The same allies can be recruited in different
ways. Different paths can have different people
participating, and you can choose to play through different events than on your first
playthrough. The story adapts just as much as it does in
Chrono Trigger, and rewards players that have kept up with the game’s pretty convoluted
storyline. The Zapping system in the original version
of Resident Evil 2 is another unique take on the story-driven New Game Plus. RE2 has you choose between two different characters
who each have their own version of the story. Each character has an “a” and “b”
scenario that play out differently depending on the order they’re chosen. Choices that the player makes in the “A”
scenario for character 1 can also influence the “B” scenario for character 2, like
taking certain items in Leon’s run can result in them being missing for Claire’s. The 2018 Remake waters down this system, reducing
the variance between who you picked first in order to have a more complete single story. But we can’t talk about story-based New
Game Plus design without the most elaborate and dramatic version of them all: Nier and
Nier Automata. The original Nier uses the idea of New Game
Plus as a story framing device. The 2nd playthrough or “Route B” adds
additional context and information that flips your understanding of the whole story. That concept is dialed up to 11 in the sequel,
Nier: Automata. The game effectively has 5 “major” endings. The first two playthroughs, route A and B,
have you playing most of the game as different characters with different playstyles. The second playthrough overlaps a lot with
the first, but it gives a different perspective on the game’s events, and builds to something
more towards the end. Once you finish route B, routes C and D will
begin. They’re not at all the same game. Nier Automata uses the idea of a New Game
Plus as another unorthodox framing device, where each run-through is closer to a chapter
than it is a re-run of a familiar experience. The game briefly plays into the expectations
of a traditional New Game Plus mode in route B, then shatters them and makes what other
games often throw in as a little bonus into an absolute must-play to see where the story
goes next. And it goes so much deeper. Undertale’s New Game Plus system is different,
but just as elaborate. There’s no traditional New Game Plus with
carried over gear and skills. Instead, Undertale likes to use its repeat
playthroughs for some meta-storytelling, and to comment on the very concept of replaying
the same story over and over. Certain characters will imply that they’re
aware of your actions in previous playthroughs and that the timeline within the game has
repeated. You can even be locked out of certain endings
based on choices you made in completely different runs. Nier Automata and Undertale are a fantastic
pair of games to get you thinking about what you can do if you come at the New Game Plus
concept from a totally different angle. The two Zelda Oracle games have a story-driven
New Game Plus, but the mechanics are pretty strange. When you complete one of the two games, you
get a password to enter into the other game, which will link the two of them together. The linked version of each game unlocks extra
story content that connects the two games into a single complete story. It’s like the “A” and “B” scenarios
from RE2 but on a grander scale. You’ll start out with 4 hearts instead of
3. Characters from the previous game will appear. Your chosen companion is carried over and
you will be able to unlock some of the most powerful items and equipment. The order you complete the games matters too,
and starting with one or the other will change the story around a bit. And of course, using a New Game Plus mode
as a narrative device relies on having a narrative worth telling and revisiting. Look at The Quiet Man. It mutes dialogue in your first playthrough,
so you can be surprised on the second at what was really going on. Except the story wasn’t written to make
sense without dialogue. Whoops. If a game’s narrative is barely worth telling
once, it probably won’t be better on the second run, no matter what you do. There are so many more games with little nuances
and tweaks to the New Game Plus concept that we haven’t covered. Let us know in the comments about some of
your favorite games that use New Game Plus well, or more angles that games take to make
their New Game Plus special. We might mention it in a future video. New Game Plus is a deceptively simple concept,
overflowing with potential. *chill vibes outro from Nier*
