Post-Endgame Content

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A feature created to improve the replayability of some games. Some games are designed so you can reach Hundred Percent Completion in one go, but some others don't make everything the game has to offer available until you've beaten the game (that is, seen the credits) at least once. This is very common in Role Playing Games and games with levels, but it can appear in every genre.

The exact things you can unlock vary from game to game. Common unlockables include a Secret Character, higher difficulty levels, a new costume, the True Final Boss, and many more. Sometimes the game makes the content unlockable by doing a rewind to the last Save Point before fighting the Final Boss, but it's quite more common that the unlockables appear only in New Game Plus, which is Post End Game Content on its own right too.

A subtrope of Unlockable Content and supertrope to New Game Plus and Endgame Plus. It will frequenly overlap with the other subtropes, Double Unlock being the most frustrating and most common one. Necessary for Hundred Percent Completion. Compare with Downloadable Content. Compare also with Extended Gameplay.

Examples:

• The World Ends With You has a "Chapter Select" feature (including a bonus chapter, "Another Day"), optional sidequests for every chapter, Ultimate difficulty, and most of the strongest pins, equipment and key items.
• Dante Must Die and upper difficulties in the Devil May Cry series. They later unlock the Super Costumes (not that you need them anymore).
• Inward Chaos and Secret Characters Gabranth and Shantotto in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
  • More costumes, Confessions of the Creator and more Secret Characters in Duodecim.
• Metal Gear series:
  • In the PS 2 and PS 3 re-releases of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake, you can get the bandanna for infinite ammo only after beating the game.
  • In Metal Gear Solid, depending on which of the Multiple Endings you get, you win either the Stealth camoflauge or the infinite ammo bandanna. Beat the game twice on the same save and Snake will wear a tux and the Ninja will look like Spider Man.
  • Metal Gear Solid 2 awards cool sunglasses to whoever beats the game twice on the same save. There are also various post-game rewards that you can take into a New Game Plus by collecting dog tags.
  • Metal Gear Solid 3 awards The Patriot and a Tuxedo to whoever can beat the game, and depending on your choices in a certain end game cutscene, you can get Ocelot's Revolver. You also carry over all your special camos from beating the Cobras with stamina kills.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4 basically has all of the above. Tuxedo? Check. Bandanna? Check. Stealth camo? Check. Special guns? Check. New special guns? Check. Of course, you have to either buy them or do some seriously Nintendo Hard tasks to win it all. You also carry over all of your boss-specific weapons, including the Game Breaker Rail Gun which destroys vehicles, and you carry over all your old guns, ammo and silencer stats.
• To unlock the hidden Boss Rush level of Ace Combat Zero, you have to complete the game trice.
• Some achievements in Brütal Legend are only obtainable after beating the main campaign.
• Nippon Ichi's Strategy RPGs are famous for this, particularly the Disgaea series. Many Bonus Bosses and Dungeons only become available after killing the final boss, as well as some Secret Characters. Some of the remakes feature gaiden storylines that are only unlocked after completing the game, as well.
• Silent Hill series:
  • Silent Hill 1: If you beat the game once you'll access the chainsaw. Do it twice with a good and bad ending and you get access to a Katana.
  • Silent Hill 3: Beating the game gives you access to the HEZZAH BEAM!
  • Silent Hill Origins: Doing certain things in game will get you post-game rewards that include a plasma rifle, some Game Breaker gauntlets, and some sweet threads.
• Castlevania series:
  • The Duplicator item and several cheats for a new save become available in Symphony of the Night if you have a Clear or Replay save. If you get a high enough percentage you can unlock the option to play as Richter and Maria.
  • The Sisters and Richter modes unlock in Portrait of Ruin depending on the ending you get. If you kill 1,000 Old Axe Armors, you can also play as one.
  • Aria and Dawn of Sorrow unlock Boss Rush mode, as well as Julius mode (which, in Dawn of Sorrow, becomes how the game continues after the Dark Lord ending).
  • Order of Ecclesia unlocks New Game Plus, Hard Mode, Albus Mode, Boss Rush and Sound Mode. If you beat the game at Level 1 Hard Mode, you'll unlock level 255 mode.
• Chrono Trigger has New Game Plus, where you can find many more endings that you couldn't access before unless you level grinded a lot. The DS version exclusive Dimensional Vortex, however, only unlocks in New Game Plus.
• The Pokémon series:
  • The first generation unlocked the Cerulean Cave, home to the most powerful Pokémon Mewtwo. The remakes also unlocked the Sevii Islands.
  • The second generation unlocked the Kanto region, with the gym leaders of the first generation ready to fight you again. Many people, however, consider this to be part of the game, and not an unlockable. Mt. Silver, on the other hand, only unlocks when you beat the 8 old gym leaders and lets you fight the True Final Boss, the protagonist of the first generation.
  • The third generation unlocks the roaming pokémon Latios or Latias. Ruby & Sapphire unlock Rayquaza and the Battle Tower, Emerald unlocks the Pokémon Frontier.
  • The fourth generation unlocks the upper right part of the map, with the Fight, Survival and Resort Areas, but to unlock the latter two you need to have seen every pokémon in the Regional Pokédex (which can be a pain in the ass and a Guide Dang It to boot). Turnback cave also appeared when you unlocked the previous areas. Pokémon swarms started to appear every day too.
  • The fifth generation went one step further than any other, as beating the game lets you fight the Champion of the League, something never done before. Other important fights with Bonus Bosses are unlocked too, as well as new areas (the right part of the map) where old generation pokemon appear. The option to connect with the fourth generation becomes available too.
  • The Mystery Dungeon series are far from over when you end the game. You'll gain access to many new areas and a second storyline. You'll also be able to fight the boss legendary Pokémon from the first part.
• Completing Super Mario Galaxy 2 with 120 stars unlocks the green star challenge, an additional 120 stars. These range from pathetically easy, to Rage Quit inducing difficulty depending on their location and means required to snag 'em. There's more. If you can get 240 stars (a feat in itself) and deposit 9,999 starbits in the toad bank, you'll unlock the Harder Than Hard Grand Master Galaxy. This level comes with its own comet coin which must be collected along with the course's star. Afterwhich, you get to take on "The Perfect Run". Good luck with that.
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time: Completing the main quest will unlock the Maze of Tribulations, the Ursa Cave bonus dungeon, and allows you to take on the rest of Sphere 211 (which covers the remaining 111 floors). Each dungeon comes complete with their own bonus boss battles. However, Lenneth and Freya cameo as the game's two "Super Boss" characters, and have attacks so devastating, they can annihilate even fully leveled parties in record time.
• In Batman Arkham City the ability to use alternate Batsuit skins for freeroam is unlocked after beating the story once (although it is also possible if one inputs a cheat code at the main menu screen before beating the game).
• Fallout 2 offers you legitimate cheats that increase all your skills to 300 and give free experience. One is a book given by a priest in New Reno; the other is a download in Vault City's computer. Both are avaiable after you beat the main quest.
• Tons and tons of characters in the Tekken series.
  • Tekken Bowl, Force and Ball in 3.
• The Professor Layton series offers you the Sound Mode, images, the cinematics and descriptions of every character... that is, if you obtained enough picarats from solving puzzles.
• In the Jak and Daxter series:
  • Jak II Renegade offers more mini missions for you to complete, and you also can unlock cheats and Hero Mode with the Precursor Orbs.
  • Jak 3 Wastelander unlocks more or less the same as 2, but it let's you choose what you want to buy instead of requiring to reach an specific amount of orbs.
• The Megaman Battle Network series all have a fairly extensive post game. It basically exists to allow the fairly complex combat system to be fully utilized, as the main game can be completed without too much effort, but the post game requires you to really understand what you are doing.