New game plus
After finishing the game, players restart the story carrying forward their character: levels, gear, abilities, sometimes against rescaled enemies or with content exclusive to the second lap. NG+ converts a completed save from an ending into an asset, extending a game's life at near-zero content cost. Designers use it to reward mastery (steamrolling early bosses with an endgame build is the power fantasy paid off), to give completionists a structured second run, and — in its best implementations — to recontextualize: Chrono Trigger unlocks endings only reachable with NG+ power, and Nier: Automata makes successive playthroughs narratively mandatory. Key decisions: what carries over (full power trivializes; partial carryover preserves challenge), enemy rescaling, exclusive rewards that justify the lap, and stacking (NG++ and beyond). Pitfall: pure stat-inflation NG+ with nothing new to see is a treadmill — the carrot must be content or perspective, not just bigger numbers.
- Dev effort: Medium
- Timing: Real-time or turn-based
- Common in: rpg
Seen in
- Chrono Trigger
- Hades