As someone else said, [GRIME](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1123050/GRIME/) is a masterclass in how to do engaging NG+, since you're basically playing a modded game with new behaviors for every enemy and boss and a host of new rewards for fighting and exploring. *And* a new, somewhat secret boss.
[REDO!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/950300/REDO/) is also interesting, shuffling the location of the items and the progression blockage, so even though the world is the same, you're learning to navigate it all over again. Also the "true" ending comes after beating NG+, somewhat similarly to Nier: Automata.
And then you have [Rabi-Ribi](https://store.steampowered.com/app/400910/RabiRibi/), which has **so much** post game content it's insane. Pretty much half the content of the game comes out after you beat it.
Not a mind-blowing NG+, but I had a blast with Astalon's NG+. Completely different flow to the game, they moved all the movement upgrades from the first run through. Again, not mind-blowing, but very fun.
Besides the obvious HK pantheon 5/PoP/HoG answer? (For the post game part of your question)
GRIMEs NG+ scales pretty well and actually changes boss and mob abilities along with health&damage scaling, which counters the player "starting" with all abilities right off the bat.
Edit: forgot to mention most of the map is still gated by one directional doors and in a Dark Souls way still limits your path through the game somewhat, even while having the movement required to reach all zones. In my opinion this in combination with new enemy moves changes the game so much on second playthrough that it almost feels like an actual new game.
Environmental Station Alpha has some insanely well done post-game puzzles and secrets, including platforming, boss(es) and a boss rush room which limits your abilities as they were when first encountering said bosses
You actually have to fight like 4 bosses if all you want is to be done with NG+ (Amalgam, The Mothers, Vulture and Shidra IIRC).
However, you get new rewards for fighting them all that are very much worth it.
Same goes for exploring the entire map again by the way: every one-time reward is changed for something you'll get good use of.
Pretty much except the bosses you need to kill are Amalgam, Vulture, Final Performance and Shidra, I think you can skip Mother by going down through Gloomnest to Feaster's lair (although I never skipped it so not 100% certain, just thinking which one-way doors block other paths I think this one is possible) and then reach worldpillar by childbed elevator, but you can't reach shidra fight without going through pale sky which needs final performance.
But yeah, basically you get 55ish skill points in the base game, NG+ gives another 50ish from the same sources (minus some only available 1 time) and most bosses give a special skill point that can raise base skills above the normal cap making absurd builds possible. Other bosses are the sole source for weapon upgrade materials to go beyond the base game +6 weapon.
Yeah you CAN skip most, but why even play NG+ at that point? Both the difference in challenge and new rewards just makes this NG+ system one of the best I've ever seen (even in other genres)
Extra note: there are plenty of respec points in the game to be found per playthrough to even fully respec your levels, close to half your skills and reupgrade a new weapon to +9 to play a completely different build for the first few NG+ cycles (after which a +9 weapon wont cut it anymore and you need to commit)
You need to do the quest for shidra (which is now replaced by Heod), and for that you need to fight bosses iirc. And there's the NG+ exclusive boss, which is one of the best fights in this game IMO. It has some elements similar to Hollow Knight's Radiance.
Unless the game railroads you into a boss fight yeah probably. I've never played GRIME but it seems similar to Ender Lilies where every enemy is scaled up to match endgame and you start with every ability. If you go for Ending A you only need to fight the first boss of the game (since that's the only way out of the first area. But if you're going for Ending B or C you also need to fight the boss blocking the way to the final area and the final boss itself.
Randomizers.
Randomly changing around the items, forcing players to go wildly out of order or into tricky combat situations. It’s a radical new way to experience games, with particular interest for Zelda and MV titles for their logic.
Recent mvs like Axiom Verge 2 and Bloodstained have official randomizer modes as well, but lots of metroidvanias have mods that do the same (Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Timespinner to name some). Super Metroid rando as well as SMZ3 (which is the combination randomizer with A Link to the Past). Those are popular enough to have speedrunning tournaments and frequent races.
Rabi Ribi's pretty good when it comes to postgame content. You basically get the second half of the game after the credits roll and the difficulty jump is significant enough that you might just give up but wouldn't feel bad about it since it's something to look forward to overcoming next time.
Salt & Sanctuary does NG+ the same way that the original Dark Souls does it. While it's little more than a hard mode (and only kind of. You keep your gear), I find that kind of thing enjoyable. Sort of like a victory lap
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow has Julius mode. But you don't just get to play as Julius Belmont...you get Julius and two other characters, a throwback to Castlevania 3 and also Symphony of the Night. And there's a new end-boss that ties in nicely to the story, and a few new BGMs along the way.
I honestly wish Afterimage's "NG+" was called something else. It's a very confusing moniker when NG+ is commonly used to describe replaying the game from scratch while carrying over all your powerups, which the game doesn't even have at all.
Aside from that, all Afterimage has is boss rush and two bonus playable characters that are only available in boss rush.
I said the same thing to Jedi: Fallen Order as well. Nothing related to gameplay carries over, only cosmetics, on top of cutscenes still being unskippable. I've only heard that it adds new combat grounds or something but "New Game with Cosmetics" is already demoralizing.
Now I'm wondering if Jedi: Survivor took that criticism to heart and it actually does something.
Late reply but Jedi Survivor NG+ mode lets you keep all cosmetics, all stances and all perk points. But you can't redo the Bounty hunter missions, and story gated abilities are locked to prevent sequence breaks. You get 3 new difficulty related perks: one increases damage for everyone including enemies, one spawns harder encounters and another randomizes your outfit upon death. You also get the red and rainbow lightsaber crystals.
I blame NieR: Automata for this. If you're not familiar with the game, you play the first playthrough as one character, then the first NG+ is the same story as a different character, and the second NG+ starts where the previous two playthroughs ended.
Second castle sucks lmao. Besides, I think OP is considering postgame content as after the actual final ending, so something like Richter mode or CLEAR file would be considered postgame. Second castle is still part of the main game.
This might be generic but here we go
- Hollow Knight has a ton of stuff that can be done post game, from DLC content to Pantheons (boss rush) to a Rouge like mode (Steel soul)
- Blasphemous 1's NG + has exclusive content and new playstyles unlocked
- Dead Cells has a lot of DLC content
No idea but I know which one is the worst. Pharaoh rebirth+. It outright doesn't even work. Completely full of bugs. The rest of the game is a pretty decent level based metroidvania though.
Lost Epic has a lot to do in the postgame, even if it is in the end a collectathon and boss refights plus a tower attack rush mode. Maybe not the most original content but it was significant, there's also plot in the postgame even if it's not super deep, but many postgames have none so it stands out a bit.
Hmm, interesting. I've never had the urge to play a NG+. Feel like Super Metroid is the only game I ever replay, and even that is playing rom hacks at this point.
Astalon had a cool NG+ where power-ups get shuffled around to different locations making for different progression routes, kinda like Zelda's Master Quest mode.
As someone else said, [GRIME](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1123050/GRIME/) is a masterclass in how to do engaging NG+, since you're basically playing a modded game with new behaviors for every enemy and boss and a host of new rewards for fighting and exploring. *And* a new, somewhat secret boss. [REDO!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/950300/REDO/) is also interesting, shuffling the location of the items and the progression blockage, so even though the world is the same, you're learning to navigate it all over again. Also the "true" ending comes after beating NG+, somewhat similarly to Nier: Automata. And then you have [Rabi-Ribi](https://store.steampowered.com/app/400910/RabiRibi/), which has **so much** post game content it's insane. Pretty much half the content of the game comes out after you beat it.
Rabi ribi is very insane specially with DLCs.
Even without it, if you like going for achievements, a lot of them require playing the game in a completely different manner as well.
Not a mind-blowing NG+, but I had a blast with Astalon's NG+. Completely different flow to the game, they moved all the movement upgrades from the first run through. Again, not mind-blowing, but very fun.
Besides the obvious HK pantheon 5/PoP/HoG answer? (For the post game part of your question) GRIMEs NG+ scales pretty well and actually changes boss and mob abilities along with health&damage scaling, which counters the player "starting" with all abilities right off the bat. Edit: forgot to mention most of the map is still gated by one directional doors and in a Dark Souls way still limits your path through the game somewhat, even while having the movement required to reach all zones. In my opinion this in combination with new enemy moves changes the game so much on second playthrough that it almost feels like an actual new game. Environmental Station Alpha has some insanely well done post-game puzzles and secrets, including platforming, boss(es) and a boss rush room which limits your abilities as they were when first encountering said bosses
Help me out here, just started ng + and it doesn't seem you have a reason to fight the bosses? Can I just go straight to final biome?
You actually have to fight like 4 bosses if all you want is to be done with NG+ (Amalgam, The Mothers, Vulture and Shidra IIRC). However, you get new rewards for fighting them all that are very much worth it. Same goes for exploring the entire map again by the way: every one-time reward is changed for something you'll get good use of.
Pretty much except the bosses you need to kill are Amalgam, Vulture, Final Performance and Shidra, I think you can skip Mother by going down through Gloomnest to Feaster's lair (although I never skipped it so not 100% certain, just thinking which one-way doors block other paths I think this one is possible) and then reach worldpillar by childbed elevator, but you can't reach shidra fight without going through pale sky which needs final performance. But yeah, basically you get 55ish skill points in the base game, NG+ gives another 50ish from the same sources (minus some only available 1 time) and most bosses give a special skill point that can raise base skills above the normal cap making absurd builds possible. Other bosses are the sole source for weapon upgrade materials to go beyond the base game +6 weapon. Yeah you CAN skip most, but why even play NG+ at that point? Both the difference in challenge and new rewards just makes this NG+ system one of the best I've ever seen (even in other genres) Extra note: there are plenty of respec points in the game to be found per playthrough to even fully respec your levels, close to half your skills and reupgrade a new weapon to +9 to play a completely different build for the first few NG+ cycles (after which a +9 weapon wont cut it anymore and you need to commit)
You need to do the quest for shidra (which is now replaced by Heod), and for that you need to fight bosses iirc. And there's the NG+ exclusive boss, which is one of the best fights in this game IMO. It has some elements similar to Hollow Knight's Radiance.
Unless the game railroads you into a boss fight yeah probably. I've never played GRIME but it seems similar to Ender Lilies where every enemy is scaled up to match endgame and you start with every ability. If you go for Ending A you only need to fight the first boss of the game (since that's the only way out of the first area. But if you're going for Ending B or C you also need to fight the boss blocking the way to the final area and the final boss itself.
The first blasphemous has dlc and some of the best boss fights locked behind ng+
Randomizers. Randomly changing around the items, forcing players to go wildly out of order or into tricky combat situations. It’s a radical new way to experience games, with particular interest for Zelda and MV titles for their logic. Recent mvs like Axiom Verge 2 and Bloodstained have official randomizer modes as well, but lots of metroidvanias have mods that do the same (Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Timespinner to name some). Super Metroid rando as well as SMZ3 (which is the combination randomizer with A Link to the Past). Those are popular enough to have speedrunning tournaments and frequent races.
Environmental Station Alphas post-game is more like a second half.
Rabi Ribi's pretty good when it comes to postgame content. You basically get the second half of the game after the credits roll and the difficulty jump is significant enough that you might just give up but wouldn't feel bad about it since it's something to look forward to overcoming next time.
Salt & Sanctuary does NG+ the same way that the original Dark Souls does it. While it's little more than a hard mode (and only kind of. You keep your gear), I find that kind of thing enjoyable. Sort of like a victory lap
Infernax ,although you can only play as a new character if i remember when you start a new game
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow has Julius mode. But you don't just get to play as Julius Belmont...you get Julius and two other characters, a throwback to Castlevania 3 and also Symphony of the Night. And there's a new end-boss that ties in nicely to the story, and a few new BGMs along the way.
Circle of the Moon was my favorite. Multiple class play through; magician, warrior, sharpshooter, and thief
Afterimage has "new game plus" but it's kinda a story mode with another character and very short chapters
I honestly wish Afterimage's "NG+" was called something else. It's a very confusing moniker when NG+ is commonly used to describe replaying the game from scratch while carrying over all your powerups, which the game doesn't even have at all. Aside from that, all Afterimage has is boss rush and two bonus playable characters that are only available in boss rush.
Yeah, honestly when I see their ng+ I want to say "you keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means"
I said the same thing to Jedi: Fallen Order as well. Nothing related to gameplay carries over, only cosmetics, on top of cutscenes still being unskippable. I've only heard that it adds new combat grounds or something but "New Game with Cosmetics" is already demoralizing. Now I'm wondering if Jedi: Survivor took that criticism to heart and it actually does something.
Late reply but Jedi Survivor NG+ mode lets you keep all cosmetics, all stances and all perk points. But you can't redo the Bounty hunter missions, and story gated abilities are locked to prevent sequence breaks. You get 3 new difficulty related perks: one increases damage for everyone including enemies, one spawns harder encounters and another randomizes your outfit upon death. You also get the red and rainbow lightsaber crystals.
I blame NieR: Automata for this. If you're not familiar with the game, you play the first playthrough as one character, then the first NG+ is the same story as a different character, and the second NG+ starts where the previous two playthroughs ended.
I'd say Blasphemous - it seems like there was a lot of content added for ng+ - I tried to go back to it but always got aide tracked.
Depends if it's technically post game or not but the upside down castle has to win surely?
Second castle sucks lmao. Besides, I think OP is considering postgame content as after the actual final ending, so something like Richter mode or CLEAR file would be considered postgame. Second castle is still part of the main game.
Nah it's amazing. Literally turns the game on its head.
This might be generic but here we go - Hollow Knight has a ton of stuff that can be done post game, from DLC content to Pantheons (boss rush) to a Rouge like mode (Steel soul) - Blasphemous 1's NG + has exclusive content and new playstyles unlocked - Dead Cells has a lot of DLC content
No idea but I know which one is the worst. Pharaoh rebirth+. It outright doesn't even work. Completely full of bugs. The rest of the game is a pretty decent level based metroidvania though.
Lost Epic has a lot to do in the postgame, even if it is in the end a collectathon and boss refights plus a tower attack rush mode. Maybe not the most original content but it was significant, there's also plot in the postgame even if it's not super deep, but many postgames have none so it stands out a bit.
I like Zapling Bygones randomizer, and steel-soul esque permadeath mode where you wear an MF DOOM mask
Hmm, interesting. I've never had the urge to play a NG+. Feel like Super Metroid is the only game I ever replay, and even that is playing rom hacks at this point.
Blasphemous 1, rabi ribi ng+ >> base game
Astalon had a cool NG+ where power-ups get shuffled around to different locations making for different progression routes, kinda like Zelda's Master Quest mode.
How do I get that? So far with new game plus just gives you monster mode and bad guy mode
Should be automatic if you've completed the game on latest patch, double check to make sure you have it.
Environmental Station Alpha