Spicing up New Game Plus mode

It's nice that Dragon's Dogma incorporates a New Game+ mode, but like of it's other flaws, it seems to take it in a confusing way. Also, it's basically "my way, or the highway" - players don't get a say, it's a New Game+ mode, take it or leave it.

Well, screw that.

But what's to improve about a New Game+ mode, anyway? Actually, a lot. Anyone who's ever played Namco's "Tales" series of RPGs can guess what I'm talking about: the Grade Shop.

See, in a Tales RPG, various actions in the game earn you a kind of currency called Grade. Generally it's a post-combat reward, but that doesn't have to be set in stone. In fact it'd make a nice addition to quest rewards - instead of just money and items which other players can simply grind for and buy, why not reward them with Grade - or whatever we're going to call it?

Anyway, all this Grade gets accumulated until the end of the game, where the game then presents the player with the Grade Shop, where Grade is used to "purchase" options to apply on the next playthrough, i.e. on a New Game+. For example, spending 500 Grade allows the player to retain all Fighter skills. Basically spend X amount of Grade to obtain Y effect in New Game+.

See where I'm going with this? Yep, we aren't stuck with the same boring old New Game+ every single time. The Grade Shop can sell things like "keep all level ups", so players can continue growing stronger - on the other hand, players who like a challenge can opt to NOT keep their level ups and start from level 1 again, except on a New Game+ they already unlocked Hard Mode and things like that.

Is that awesome or what? Customized New Game+ mode! Seriously, the Tales RPGs' Grade Shop should be a mandatory feature in RPGs featuring New Game+ modes. I'd love to have this instead of stupid useless trophies. Yay, so I completed quest X and quest Y, I get a trophy... which does nothing. Yawn. Nope. Give me a Grade Shop and let me design me own style of New Game+.

To drive the point home, here are some example Grade Shops:

Check them out - Namco knew what they were doing with the Tales RPGs all along; the Grade Shop clearly isn't an invention of the newer Tales games.

Ciao.