Elden Ring is undoubtedly one of the highest-rated and most influential games of the generation, featuring a wealth of content. However, its New Game Plus mode is pretty standard and doesn’t offer many reasons to replay the game with your high-level character. Sure, you can bring a completely different build into your next run, upgrade and use different weapons to face tougher challenges, or try speedrunning the game to unlock another ending, but the journey itself changes relatively little.
On the other hand, the action RPGs and soulslikes below really try something different with their New Game Plus modes. From rebalanced battles and new gear or abilities to secret bosses, entirely new quests, and custom modifiers, these titles offer their own spins on the NG+ formula, with unexpected surprises and meaningful changes to keep you playing.
7
Black Myth: Wukong
Put In Some Effort To Craft The Best Armor
Black Myth: Wukong might not offer the most substantial changes for a New Game Plus journey, but there are still enough perks for players who want to experience it. The biggest appeal here is extra crafting options for powerful gear that can’t all be obtained in a single run. Given that some bosses drop the required materials, you need to defeat them again in later cycles to complete your collection.
Beyond that, Black Myth: Wukong offers a few more tricks that might motivate fans to give it another go. The first is the unique Life-Saving Strand spell, available at the start of an NG+ cycle, which gives you a second chance after a fatal blow. In addition, reclaiming relics during subsequent cycles lets you activate additional passive effects, further boosting your combat potential.
6
Final Fantasy 16
Dedication Rewarded With Ultima Weapon
Stripped of many vital JRPG aspects, Final Fantasy 16 is the series’ Westernized entry, which may feel like a step back for some veterans. The game’s dynamic, layered combat system aims to compensate for that. As a result, its New Game Plus mode is also designed around having the complete combat toolkit from the start, aimed at players who have mastered the action flow and are ready for additional challenges and exclusive rewards.
FF16’s real attraction is Final Fantasy Mode, an extra NG+ difficulty that shakes up the experience substantially by remixing enemy placements and combinations for rebalanced battles. To keep up, expect to make full use of your Eikon abilities from the start. Expanded gear progression, with stronger reforged weapons and new accessory upgrades, also helps you survive. The big reward is the exclusive Ultima Weapon for Clive, which you can only craft near the end of an NG+ run to truly humiliate the final bosses.
5
Lords Of The Fallen
Tweak The NG+ Journey With Custom Rules
After years of post-launch updates, Lords of the Fallen is a very different game than it was at launch. Not only have the devs changed and rebalanced enemy density and positions, but major updates like Master of Fate have added a new layer for players returning to replay the game. The New Game Plus mode in LotF follows a mostly familiar formula, yet players can apply various custom modifiers to completely change their experience. These range from randomized loot and enemies to altered enemy numbers, healing, and checkpoint density.
It’s important to note that Master of Fate modifiers aren’t exclusive to NG+ cycles, but are still best suited to veterans who have already beaten the standard Lords of the Fallen campaign. At that point, it makes much more sense to try the game’s biggest challenges, including Ironman mode, which resets the campaign if you die in Umbral. After all, it’s hard to imagine many players completing the game with a fresh character on their first attempt without dying.
Scratch & Peek
Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as
possible.
4
Grim Dawn
Evolving In Depth And Breadth
A classic isometric ARPG gem, Grim Dawn is a perfect example of introducing higher difficulties with their own perks, offering plenty of surprises as you play through Elite and Ultimate with a single character. Each difficulty goes beyond simply making enemies stronger and adding resistance penalties to your character, instead gradually pushing you to refine your build and equipment.
Higher difficulties offer better loot rewards, while Ultimate also unlocks exclusive areas, hidden questlines, and secret bosses, including some of the most powerful foes in the game. Playing without a guide is especially rewarding in Grim Dawn, as you never know where a path might lead you next. In addition, gradually increasing your standing with the game’s factions opens up more quests and rewards, while growing notoriety with enemy factions eventually brings their Nemesis bosses into play.
3
Remnant 2
Unique Modular Worlds And Storylines
Remnant 2 is a very special soulslike that’s an absolute must-play for any fan of the genre, and not just due to its unique ranged-weapon focus. The biggest allure is the game’s structure, with its three main explorable worlds. From Bloodborne-like Losomn to sci-fi N’Erud and jungle-dense Yaesha, each packs several main story branches, with one chosen randomly for your playthrough. As such, it’s impossible to see every story, quest, boss, and secret or collect every weapon by simply playing through each world once, reaching the final boss, and calling it a day.
One thing to note here is that Remnant 2 doesn’t have a traditional New Game Plus mode. Instead, you can reroll the entire campaign or revisit individual worlds in Adventure Mode once you’ve completed them. This structure gives Remnant 2 a unique appeal, encouraging fans to keep playing and reshuffling its worlds to uncover more randomized content, interconnected storylines, and encounters hidden by the devs.
2
Blasphemous
An Entire Boss Questline Reserved For Replays
Blasphemous is another example of an excellent New Game Plus hook beyond tougher enemies and a stronger character. The main draw is probably The Stir of Dawn questline, reserved for replaying the campaign. This exclusive story adds four Amanecidas boss fights followed by their master, Laudes. Its NG+ mode, True Torment, lets you retain sword upgrades and collected equipment while resetting your health, Fervour, and healing-flask upgrades, pushing you to earn them back during the playthrough.
The cherry on top is a choice of three optional Penitences (modifiers), including Bleeding Heart, Unwavering Faith, and True Guilt, designed to substantially change the fundamental rules of Blasphemous. These drastically alter healing, damage, and spellcasting, encouraging you to master the game’s mechanics in different ways. Naturally, completing a run with an active Penitence also grants distinct rewards, including unique skins and Reliquaries for dedicated fans.
1
Nioh 3
One NG+ Cycle May Not Be Enough To See Everything
The Nioh series is among the best fits for this topic, with the main story campaign serving merely as the first step on the journey. Due to the series’ focus on loot and enormous build flexibility, games like Nioh 2 give you plenty of reasons to keep playing through multiple New Game Plus cycles, gradually opening up their robust endgame with almost endless replayability. Nioh 3 tries to keep up, opening another layer of character building alongside remixed encounters and deadlier enemies in subsequent runs.
Nioh 3’s Shogun’s Journey changes enemy combinations on the battlefield while also introducing stronger variants. Divine equipment and Grace sets further expand your options, letting you combine unrelated gear through shared set bonuses. Of course, one NG+ cycle is never enough for Nioh, so Hell Rising introduces a third-playthrough difficulty, Enlightened One’s Journey, with cursed enemies, expanded progression, and additional build options.
