How often do you like new game+ modes?

FAST6191

Techromancer
OP
Editorial Team
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
36,798
Trophies
3
XP
28,284
Country
United Kingdom
Following a conversation in the Tales of Zestria review ( http://gbatemp.net/review/tales-of-zestiria.394/ ) I reckoned it could be a good thread in and of itself.

If you are not familiar with the concept many games will, upon completion, open up a so called new game+ mode. Generally it is the same game again but harder, maybe with some different options and possibly with the option to carry over something from your first/previous play through. I am unsure when the concept was introduced but the precursor has to be the unlocking hard modes in games, something I have never been a fan of. I imagine certain roguelikes with stateful worlds that you could pick up old stuff in would also count as some kind of precursor as well.

So games with new game+ modes, do you play them often, do you like them in general, have you got any good examples of them, have you got any bad examples of them, is there a certain style of game that does it well or are they just a mediocre concept? By all means elaborate upon anything you like that has to do with it.

To answer for myself.
Depends if it is a good game and also a properly story driven game is unlikely to see me go through it again.
I can approve of the concept but it is hard to do well as you are kind of rebalancing an entirely new game within the same engine.
Rogue Legacy (which given the central conceit of the gameplay makes this an amusing twist to me), borderlands and I imagine borderlands 2 will do well for it as well when I finish that in a couple of days. Further back some things like Baldurs Gate dark alliance and similar such games did OK for that and even though it was a slightly different system then Dead Rising does OK here. Japanese RPGs, for want of a better term, so rarely do anything for me here and would probably much rather have some more end game content. That said the story driven Escape Dead Island had a mode which kind of broke things, or at least the first hour or so, by giving you health and a sword right off the bat rather than forcing stealth. Part of that might have been because it made my life easier grabbing screenshots for the review but I was playing it at the same time.

Bad... I can not think of any out and out bad. At times I wish I could forget the story and play like that for some games -- I always find it amusing when you are established as some out and out hardnut by the story, that is still level 1. There are plenty that make things crazy unbalanced, my favourite was after I whizzed through rogue legacy with a trainer on and then turned it off.

Back on the story thing then I imagine it could be helpful if I decide to replay a game in a few years after I might have forgotten the story, however that has not happened yet and I do usually delete saves or otherwise start over.
 

Terenigma

Terenigma everywhere
Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,624
Trophies
0
Location
Earth
XP
712
Country
New Game+ is always a good thing. I cant think of any game that has it which ruins the experience. I think every game that "could" have a NG+ feature, should.

I think the first game i ever played with a true NG+ was Chrono Trigger and going through that game again with all abilities unlocked was a blast, it felt like a reward for beating the game and now i could relax and just destroy everything.

Another EG of it being good = Deus Ex: human revolution. Originally that game did not have a NG+ feature and you could never max-out any of your abilities unless you started over and went for a different approach. However when it was released on Wii-u, they included a feature to carry over the stats and you COULD max out your gear and believe me when i say, it made the game MUCH more fun!
 

Bimmel

~ Game Soundtrack Collector ~
Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Messages
2,302
Trophies
2
Age
43
XP
3,778
Country
Gambia, The
I think the first game i ever played with a true NG+ was Chrono Trigger and going through that game again with all abilities unlocked was a blast, it felt like a reward for beating the game and now i could relax and just destroy everything.
And you played it through a second time with these abilities? When there was nothing to get at all?
But Chrono Trigger has several different endings which you can explore, so I understand that far more then your average Tales of, where nothing new happens.
 

Hungry Friend

It was my destiny to be here; in the box.
Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2015
Messages
431
Trophies
0
XP
552
Country
United States
imo ALL RPGs and long games in general should have a NG+ feature. When I think of new game+ though I think of going through the game again with most if not all the equipment you acquired in your previous playthrough ala Chrono Trigger, which was the first game I played that contained a NG+ option. It's easy as shit of course but beasting through the game allowed me to play through the story again very casually and since there are tons of different endings, I was able to pick up little details about the story that weren't so clear to me during my first playthrough. Adding a hard mode style NG+ is a pretty cool idea too.
 
Last edited by Hungry Friend,

Sakitoshi

GBAtemp Official Lolimaster
Member
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
2,256
Trophies
2
Age
33
Location
behind a keyboard or a gamepad
Website
sakiheru.blogspot.com
XP
2,911
Country
Chile
I'm yet to play Tales of Zestiria but new game+ of the last Tales of games had many things to do.
Tales of Xillia 1: you choose which character follow at the beginning of the game and so you have a good reason to play again. the extra dungeon is only accessible in a new game+.
Tales of Xillia 2: there are many choices in the game, you can play again to choose something different(in fact the game inform you which option you selected in your previous run). also there are multiple endings and the pay of your debt(you really need the 10x money boost).
Tales of Vesperia: if you are in a new game+ run you can explore the extra dungeon.

also, you can unlock the most powerful weapons in the extra dungeon, I don't know when that trend started.

I don't know about others but those are good reasons to me to play again if you liked the game(I did played Xillia 1 twice).

JRPGs in general sticks to let you play again but with more power and some extras.

But let's not forget games like Ghosts and Goblins/Ghouls and Ghosts that made the new game+ part of the game(play twice or game over pal).
or games that are unforgivably difficult on a second or third run(I'm looking at you Borderlands 2 and your ultimate vault hunter mode)
 

Tom Bombadildo

Dick, With Balls
Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
Messages
14,573
Trophies
2
Age
29
Location
I forgot
Website
POCKET.LIKEITS
XP
19,185
Country
United States
Depends entirely on the game and how it implements it, of course.

A couple good examples of both bad and good, Dark Souls 1 has a pretty shit NG+. Everything just gets harder and...that's it, nothing extra really happens. No special encounters, no real change in enemy behavior. They just hit you harder, and that's just lazy IMO.

Dark Soul 2, however, adds in a few new enemies, new invaders, new encounters, new item placements, a few bosses drop new souls which in turn offers new weapons and "lore"...A lot more content is added, besides just harder enemies, and makes it worth playing again.
 

RevPokemon

GBATemp's 3rd Favorite Transgirl
Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2014
Messages
4,839
Trophies
0
Age
27
Location
Fort Gay, West Virginia
XP
2,300
Country
United States
Depends

personally I like the fact you get more game for the money. I really like it in Pokemon as it adds alot generally and other games it is also welcomed to me.

I ultimately like and if I don't then I just don't do it
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • ZeroT21 @ ZeroT21:
    it wasn't a question, it was fact
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    He said he had 3 different doctors apt this week, so he prob there. Something about gerbal extraction, I don't know.
    +1
  • ZeroT21 @ ZeroT21:
    bored, guess i'll spread more democracy
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    @K3Nv2 one more time you say such bs to @BakerMan and I'll smack you across the whole planet
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Make sure you smack my booty daddy
    +1
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    telling him that my partner is luke...does he look like someone with such big ne
    eds?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    do you really think I could stand living with someone like luke?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    I suppose luke has "special needs" but he's not my partner, did you just say that to piss me off again?
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    besides I had bigger worries today
  • LeoTCK @ LeoTCK:
    but what do you know about that, you won't believe me anyways
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    @BigOnYa can answer that
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    BigOnYa already left the chat
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Biginya
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Auto correct got me, I'm on my tablet, i need to turn that shit off
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    With other tabs open you perv
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I'm actually in my shed, bout to cut 2-3 acres of grass, my back yard.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    I use to have a guy for that thanks richard
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    I use my tablet to stream to a bluetooth speaker when in shed. iHeartRadio, FlyNation
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    While the victims are being buried
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Grave shovel
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Nuh those goto the edge of the property (maybe just on the other side of)
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    On the neighbors side
    +1
  • BigOnYa @ BigOnYa:
    Yup, by the weird smelly green bushy looking plants.
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: https://www.the-sun.com/news/10907833/self-checkout-complaints-new-target-dollar-general-policies...