The firstGod of War’s New Game Plus mode impressed fans with its extensive changes to equipment, difficulty, and enemy behavior. Now, the New Game Plus mode of the upcomingGod of War Ragnarok(available now) is poised to make a similar, if not greater, impression on fans thanks to a plethora of game-changing new features.
Included in the update are several new types of armor, such as the Zeus and Ares armor, as well as Kratos' iconic cape from the opening scene. The kingpin piece of equipment, however, is undoubtedly Kratos’s old Spartan Armor, which can be purchased from the Huldra Brothers shop using Hacksilver currency.
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This armor is God of War’s version of the Zero Exp ability fromKingdom Hearts. While wearing the Spartan armor, your power level is locked at 1 and you have no perks or stats. This means that the difficulty comes from overcoming your own limitations and restrictions, rather than dealing with challenging enemy parameters.
To add to the difficulty, the armor requires you to parry attacks accurately and consistently, and the Spartan Aspis shield can help with this. Despite having a narrower parry window, successful parries with this armor will result in a more damaging attack, giving you an incentive to improve your parrying skills and perfect them.
In addition, the game features micro-specific challenge items known as Burdens, which can place negative “curses” on your normal actions (such as giving you Frost status when rolling), allowing you to fine-tune the difficulty to your liking.
For those who prefer traditional difficulty options, the game also offers an increased level cap and other equipment/item/stat upgrade options to make the transition to the new NG+ mode easier than ever, but most notable are the Gilded Coins. These coins provide perks and improvements that reward players for being creative with their builds, offering bonuses based on the stats they choose to invest in.
NG+ also introduces non-difficult-related features such as the Sparring Arena in Niflheim. Here, the father and son duo can team up with companion characters like Freya, Brok, Angrboda, and even Thor to take on new enemies and add a new twist to the gameplay. Finally, the game also includes a black-and-white Kurosawa-esque display mode for players who are itching for a more cinematic experience akin to Sony’sGhost of Tsushima.
