Final Fantasy 16 has finally been released, and players can now jump into the medieval world of Valisthea to experience an entirely new story in the famed franchise. While players can choose to beat the entire game and stop playing, they can technically continue playing with the New Game Plus mode.
New Game Plus has become a popular feature in single-player games and RPGs. It basically allows players to go through the story again, but they’re allowed to keep all of the gear, stats, and progression from their first playthrough. This went over extremely well in Final Fantasy 15, and the developers at Square Enix have ensured it’s a day-one feature in the sequel.
In addition to New Game Plus, players also have access to another option, called Final Fantasy mode. You can read about both of those modes and how they work in my guide below.
How New Game Plus works in Final Fantasy 16
New Game Plus will open up to you immediately after beating the main story and seeing the end credits roll in Final Fantasy 16. Back at the main menu, you will see a new option appear, called New Game Plus. This essentially replaces the game’s two difficulty modes: Story Focused and Action Focused.
When you select New Game Plus, your version of Clive, all of the gear you have collected, and your skills will be ported over to a new save file. In this new save, you will start the story over from square one, but you will have the same character that you ended your original save with.
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To go along with this, the enemies in the world will be stronger and even positioned differently. So, for example, I might see a lethal Chimera appear in the early levels of the game rather than the easier enemy that I saw there the first time.
In addition to stronger enemies, you can also make Clive stronger by synthesizing items. This is done by combining duplicate items at a Blacksmith, which in turn gives you a single item that has a +1 attribute on it. This is mainly included in New Game Plus to give a use to all of the duplicate items you will find. Director of Final Fantasy 16 Hiroshi Takai broke this system down in an interview with IGN earlier this year.
“For example, let’s say that a certain accessory allows you to shorten the recast time for abilities by two seconds. By having two of these accessories synthesized into one, that becomes four seconds. You can even go as far as separately equipping one more of these accessories, which would allow you to shorten the recast time up to six seconds. There’s a wide variation of accessories that have different effects, and synthesizing them will allow for a new layer of depth in New Game Plus,” Takai said.
New Game Plus players will also be able to replay levels to try and get the best score in Arcade Mode. Players’ times are recorded in a leaderboard, which will show exactly how they match up against other players from around the world. Arcade Mode is a way for players to replay some of their favorite levels in the game and also compete against others.
How does Final Fantasy mode work?
Final Fantasy mode is another difficulty level within New Game Plus. Players who select this mode will be presented with even greater challenges when replaying Final Fantasy 16.
Just like in New Game Plus, the enemies will be tougher and you will see stronger enemies much earlier on in the game. This mode is only for the true masters of Final Fantasy 16, though, so don’t take it lightly.
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There’s also a mode beyond Final Fantasy mode, called Ultimaniac, which has its own leaderboard within Arcade Mode. Some Square Enix developers have even said they’re not sure if they could beat the game on this difficulty level, however, so I would recommend you tread with caution.
