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 also known as "Replay Mode", "Challenge Mode" or "New Game Ex".
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 Plus 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 gives bonuses for collecting points called Grade. 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.
Some games include New Game+ features where you go through the entire game as a different character such as in Viewtiful Joe. In this game, completion of the game unlocks a new character on each difficulty (with the exception of "Kids" difficulty, excluding the PS2 version) and the player has the option to either start a new game as a new character, or simply continue with their previous one onto the next difficulty.
Although this type of play is usually found in role playing games, there are non-RPGs with this feature. The Ratchet and Clank series for example allows subsequent playthroughs at an increased difficulty, but also allows Weapons to be further upgraded, and the ability to gain more currency than what is allowed in the initial playthrough.
[edit] 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. Dragon Warrior II for the NES and EarthBound for the SNES are early examples of this. Some games instead return the player to the point just before the last boss, such as Mega Man Legends 2 and Dragon Quest VIII.
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.
