What is a New Game Plus, you might ask? Well, it is a type of secret game mode that gets unlocked once you finish certain games. What is in it for us, gamers? Completion, more loot, more XP, and more gaming. And the bragging rights, of course, of fully completing a game. So, without any more potentially rage induce rambling, here are the Top Ten New Game Plus Modes:
10. Nier: Automata
Now, I am not that bad of a person so, of course, it is only fair we start with some New Game Plus Modes that are relatively easy but completely worth it. Nier: Automata’s Plus Mode really gives more flesh to the story and its characters, making the game better than it already was. Not only is Nier Automata a great game worth replaying, but with its New Game Plus Mode, you get to take advantage of your past playthrough and improve your new journey. In this mode, you get to keep everything you ground for in the first playthrough, but now you get (according to our sources) more than 15 unique, different endings.
9. Persona 5
Persona 5, just like our last entry, is a Game Plus Mode on the easier side. However, the game itself is incredible and has so much lovely lore waiting to be unlocked, that you could justify playing it forever. Sadly, you can’t, but still, the new game plus mode is really worth it. Why? Well, seeing you are invested enough for wanting actual reasoning behind playing such a great game again, here it is. You get to keep all of your money, your persona, equipment, skills, card, and, more importantly, your social skill. This means you no longer have to grind for them, which gives you more time to, you know, actually enjoy the lore.
8. Horizon Zero Dawn
Two entries seem enough to ease yourself into this list. It is now time for the big guns, stepping up the difficulty. Horizon Zero Dawn is an extremely enjoyable game, but then again, all the games on this list are. For those of you intellectuals wanting to get a little bit more reasoning, hear us out. In Horizon Zero Dawn’s new game plus mode, you get to carry all of your equipment, character progress into the new playthrough plus (spoiler alert!), you can obtain new loot and cosmetics to become the techno barbarian with mad drip you always wanted to be. You might be asking yourself, “How hard can this be, though?” Well, extremely hard, considering you can get difficulty locked. This means you won’t be able to bring the difficulty down when fighting the toughest opponents. A higher difficulty level is also offered, with new challenges and tougher opponents, if you are brave enough to face the battle.
7. God of War
With your Leviathan Axe in hand, get ready to scream “BOOOOIIII!”. You may wonder how hard can God of War be, despite all your weapons, armour, and skills remaining in your new playthrough. In our opinion, the promise of killing more gods and being able to craft new badass armour is more than enough for a second playthrough. If you’re still second-guessing your replay of God of War, listen up. When you start your new game plus mode you get to choose between different levels of difficulty, with the most challenging one labelled “Give me a Challenge+” difficulty. We dare you to start with this difficulty and finish it without breaking a single control. This game mode is challenging, rage-inducing, and will certainly make you break a sweat. It is a great story, great mechanics, and now with a very hard difficulty. What more can you ask from the gods? Well, their head, for starters.
6. Ghost of Tsushima
Moving past the crazy bald guy with a Leviathan Axe, we now present a super-skilled Samurai, ready to face off a Mongol Invasion to protect his homeland. Ghost of Tsushima is an excellent game in its own right, but some might have felt its difficulty to be lacking. Ghost of Tsushima’s new game plus mode, however, got right back at the haters. While you get all the bliss, all the XP, and all the weapons—with the option of even forging new weapons with increased damage, your opponents’ skill grow exponentially, as well. Ghost makes an excellent job keeping the balance of the game, increasing both your weapons but the overall difficulty of the experience, as well. This neat balance makes the game enjoyable but refreshes the gameplay experience. Overall, it is worth playing again.
5. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Have you ever asked yourself “Why is Geralt, a Witcher for years, so easily killed by random swamp things and a priest?” Just us? Hopefully not. Fortunately, The Witcher 3’s new game plus mode solves this issue. The new mode allows you to keep everything from your original playthrough, as most games in this list do, which means you are now going to start with an OG Geralt, which is really what we all wanted. While we could continue talking heaps about Geralt, this is not what this list is for. Instead, let’s focus on the Deathmarch Difficulty. While OP Geralt is all of our dreams made true, Deathmarch boost every single enemy’s health span and power levels. One could argue we go back to square one, where, despite his enhanced skills, Geralt goes back to being accidentally one-shotted by his own horse.
4. Castlevania: Symphony of The Night
This is for the people who have been waiting for classic to appear on this list. Allow us to take a trip down memory lane, to perhaps one of the first games that completely turned around the gaming scene as we know it. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has one of the most unique new game plus modes ever, in our opinion. Why? Well, the interesting thing is that Castlevania itself is a tough game, so that covers the difficult part of it. The genius part of this new game plus mode is that, instead of letting you start again with all your skills, you start with either Richter or Maria from zero. This is truly a refreshing spin on the new game plus mode genre, and one that was made when it was not that famous or known to do it. Once again, Castlevania proves to be ahead of its time.
3. Batman Arkham Knight
We have reached the top three. This new game plus mode is where we start to get into the extremely hard, white-knuckle inducing part of the list. The part that only the bravest gamers should ever attempt. Only the most skilled would dare to venture into these lands. While it might seem like a surprise to start our top 3 with a superhero game—since these don’t have a reputation of being the best, or most challenging, here we go. Batman Arkham Knight surprised gamers all over with its new game plus mode. Following the pattern, you get all your upgrades, gadgets, and skills from your original gameplay. What makes it a very hard experience, then? For starters, you get locked into Knightmare difficulty which is the hardest of the game. Enemies are randomized or at least changed. This keeps the game fresh and challenging at the same time. The big thing, though, is the fact that boss fights are shifted, and made harder, which in turn makes this one of the most difficult new game plus modes we have ever encountered.
2. Bloodborne
So, we have reached that part of the list where all of you were expecting which games were going to be here. The first of these games is Bloodborne. For those few of you who do not know about Bloodborne, this is, for starters, considered one of the hardest games ever, even in its normal playthrough. On top of the already incredibly hard gameplay, the new game plus modes let you carry equipment, XP, blood echoes. Seems like an easier version of your first gameplay, right? Wrong! As the new game plus mode not only enhances your enemies’ health levels, but also the damage they give off.
Honourable Mentions.
Before we reach the much anticipated Top 1 which, to be honest, should be as easy as guessing who ate the red velvet cake at your family reunion, when little cousin Arnold has his face red-stained, there are some other games worth mentioning. We are going to shout out some games that didn’t make it into the list simply because they were not difficult enough, but deserve recognition, nonetheless.
Dishonored 2
Dishonored lets you play the game again but by giving you all your rune points back, meaning that you get to play as a totally different character again. Gameplay-wise this is great, but difficulty-wise is not any harder.
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 5 is the type of new game plus mode made for like we mentioned in the Nier: Automata entry, people who love the lore and want to explore every little corner of it. Yakuza 5 lets you keep all your money, items, levels, revelations, and for those who love to complete a game 100%, it carries over completion percentages.
Resident Evil 4
For the fans of the Resident Evil franchise replaying Resident Evil 4 should be a must, and even more when you get to keep all your weapons, new S.T.A.R.S. costume. However, the big downside of this new game plus mode is that you get locked into the difficulty of your original gameplay.
Borderlands 2
The big one everyone will be asking “why it is not on the list?”. Well yes, Borderlands 2 makes your enemies stronger and scales them to your level, but it also gives you all your weapons, which by the end game are quite OP. It also lets you keep your XP and allows you to get even better loot and XP. Plus, fans of this game will know the truly hard game modes is the new game plus mode, which unlock when finishing the new game plus mode.
1. Darksouls
For our last entry, the most obvious one for the people that have played it had to be Dark Souls. Which one, you might wonder? We’ll let you choose. Just like we explained with Bloodborne, The Darksouls Series has been one of the hardest games in video game history. When asked about his Darksouls gameplay experience, a member of our team explained how he ended up refunding the games, as he got excessively mad and end up crying to himself “A GAME DOESN’T DEFINE YOUR GAMING ABILITY”. Hopefully, this was just an exaggeration. Regardless, Darksouls is definitely worth playing if you are brave enough. The new game plus mode lets you keep your gear and XP, as well as the ever-important keys that let you skip parts of the game. You might be asking then “what’s the catch?” The new game mode makes it harder to hit enemies, so you are no longer able to combo them into death. The difficulty of an already super hard game gets ramped up even more. Say goodbye to your keyboard and controllers.
Conclusion
This concludes the list of top 10 games with the hardest new game plus modes. Post-game funk is real, ladies and gentlemen. The feeling of loss and lack of sense we gamers get when we are violently thrust back into real life after days of being invested in a game can be overwhelming. Developers, however, are just like us. They know our needs, and they know that saying goodbye to a game, its characters, and its world, is definitely not easy. Because of this, they grant us these hidden gems, additional challenges, and world expansions. We think we can all agree New Game Plus Modes are truly a blessing from above. Sort of. We hope you found this list enjoyable and that it gives you an idea of which games you should replay, and which games you should just leave alone—for the sake of your emotional stability. We’re kidding. Partly. Anyhow, next time you are at a loss of what new game to buy, try giving your oldies a chance! Who knows what they might be hiding if you just manage to finish them?
