Which games have the best post-campaign / end-game content?

To be specific, I'm not talking about DLC here, although if added as a free update to improve the standard game that's fine. I'm also not talking about competitive mutliplayer as a reason to return to a game, although games with co-op content are fine.

Anyhow, you've hit the level cap, and / or finished the story, but there's still plenty of reason to keep playing. Perhaps it was always a part of the game, or perhaps the developers added it later, but the real game is just now beginning. Maybe it's loot, randomization, new challenges, post-campaign power upgrades, a truly enjoyable new game plus feature, or some other aspect of game design that makes a game last far beyond seeing the credits roll.

With that in mind, which games can you name that best fit that description, and why do you feel that they're the best examples of end-game content?

Lastly, if you have to discuss story or otherwise unexpected game features to explain your choices, please use spoiler tags.

I feel like it's gonna be hard to beat WoW and Diablo 3. You can argue about their systems all day long, but when it comes to delivering great end-game PvE content (which I assume this is about) they are pretty much top of the class. In some ways including an MMO is sort of cheating considering the games are specifically made to be played at end-game and are continuously supported with fresh new content. And as far as ARPGs goes many of them have end-game grinding, but what Diablo 3 did with adventure mode and rifts took it to a new level.

Dragon's Dogma. It's one of my favorite games of all time. It has amazing post game and one I'd like to see more. Once you finish the story, everything changes. I'm gonna spoiler tag the changes below, it's not all but what comes to mind right now/what I liked the most:

While I strongly agree with you that World of Wacraft: Legion and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls have the best endgame, those games require you to buy expansion packs/DLC, which the OP said he wasn't looking for.

Granted, there's still decent endgame content in WoW and Diablo 3 without needing to buy Legion or Reaper of Souls, Legion's Mythic+ dungeons and World Quests are the major reasons people are sticking with WoW. Especially after the player fallout from Warlords of Draenor, which is regarded as their worst expansion in terms of endgame content. Reaper of Souls solved Diablo 3's endgame woes with Greater Rifts and Bounties. But again, you need to buy Legion or Reaper of Souls, otherwise you'd be stuck with lackluster endgame.

I really like the Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix postgame. They threw in a secret, pretty difficult dungeon that’s a step up from the rest of the game. At the end of that, there’s a room where you can choose to fight any of the members of Organization XIII, except they’re mega bosses with extra rules/mechanics thrown in. Beyond that, there’s also the battle with Sephiroth, the tournaments in Olympus, and the fight against the Lingering Will, which I’ve still never been able to beat. Lots of cool stuff to do there.

In recent memory Nioh, a bunch of new side quests, free dlc, bloody tower esque dungeons and different difficulties that change up enemies and their placements.

MGS 2: Substance also had tons of stuff, dogs tags across various difficulties that switch things up and give rewards, snake tales, VR missions. I also enjoyed S - Ranking all the missions in MGS V but I realise that's not really more content. (although you do get rewarded for doing it)

Me getting back into Diablo 3 again after not playing it since Reaper of Souls first was released is actually what gave me the idea for this thread. I wanted to see which games did something similar, but I didn't want to lead with any specific example. It's funny that the first post named the game that inspired this thread.

To clarify even more, when I was saying "no DLC" I just didn't want people to start naming games with DLC as "post-game content," because that wasn't what I was interested in at all. Games like The Last of Us or BioShock Infinite have DLC, but they're more campaign additions rather than end-game additions. Reaper of Souls "let's add an end-game" DLC is fine, as would any other DLC that fundamentally changes the standard game to add longevity.

I really need to play that game. I've heard a lot of good things.

@spaceinsomniac: If we're opening the can of worms of paid DLC extending the endgame, then it's hard to beat MMOs in that regard, with World of Warcraft being the frontrunner. Elder Scrolls Online has vastly improved since launch with the Morrowind expansion, Star Wars: The Old Republic keeps getting better with each expansion, and the first EverQuest has nearly 20 years of content to dig through. Final Fantasy 14 would also be a strong contender, since the game auto-scales you to whatever content you're doing. So you could be level capped, and still do the starter dungeons in FF14 and be level appropriate for it.

Beating the traditional ending of Chrono Trigger, and then your post game is go back and end the game in a bunch of alternate ways is the closest thing that comes to mind, though I'm not sure it's quite what you meant.

EverQuest has 23 expansions. Lol.

Pokemon GSC. Beat the Elite Four? There’s still 8 more gyms in an enitirely different region, hell of Pokemon to catch, and Red to beat. Only thing is it probably hasent aged well lol

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

12 years later and I still replay F.E.A.R. at least once a year the firefights always bring me back for me it's the most satisfy gun battles in any game I ever played.

No, it's still pretty awesome.

Does the part in Red Dead Redemption where you play as Jack count? I found that part to be particularly effective post-game content.

Yeah, I'd go with this as well.

I also always enjoyed how the Souls games roll right into NG+(+++++++...)

I've always thought the Disgaea series post-game was cool with all its secret characters and bosses.

Every Etrian Odyssey game has an ultra-hard 6th stratum and a bunch of ridiculous super-bosses once you beat the main story. I make no exaggeration when I say the end of Etrian Odyssey IV added like 20+ hours to my playtime.

Here's some more

• GTAV, side missons
• Sleeping Dogs side, missions
• RE4, mercenaries
• Max Payne 2 and 3 dead man walking mode

The Diablo 3 battle chest, which has the base game and expansion, is 30 dollars. It's hardly a problem.

@ssully: Buying a Game of the Year Edition or complete edition bundle is still technically paying for DLC, especially when the base game is still cheaper at $20.

Also this was already cleared up in follow up posts.

This is the right answer. And if it hasn't aged well (it has), you got the remakes!

Just because The Witcher 3 drum hasn't been pounded in this thread yet I'll go ahead and pound it. THERE IS SO MUCH SHIT IN THIS GAME! but in a good way. The world is huge, there are tons of sidequests, witcher contracts and Gwent (f you're into that I personally wasn't) to do. Even when you've done all that there are special places of interest on the map that lead to dozens of different things.

The gameplay is likely to wear out its welcome well before you see everything but the sheer amount of things to do I think well qualifies it in the discussion here. Even if you don't want to do the non-story related things there are a ton of sidequests and I would say a great amount of them are well worth seeing for the stories they tell. Even when the tasks you're doing seem menial you are a god damn Witcher and that's what Witchers do so if you are into role playing it's good for that as well.

I know everyone hates it now but from what I read (haven't gotten far enough yet personally) it seems like Shadow of War has shit to do for miles, and they made those base attacks endless as well.

The Witness and Fez stand out in my mind the most. So many layers to unravel in both those games, and the coolest stuff occurs post credits.

That moment in Chucky Egg when, after days of trying, finally beating the last stage and BOOM new game+ starts. Back to the start with tougher enemies. It blew my tiny little mind. Certainly not the first game that did it but the first I encountered on my Tatung Einstein. More recently though it would probably be Crackdown - once the campaign was done just owning the city with a maxed out agent was the most fun I think I had with a game of that gen. I would have said Red Dead Redemption but, as with many other people, I didn't really take to the character change and the end.

I really enjoyed getting the ultimate weapons and beating the secret bosses in final fantasy(specifically seven since it was my first one).

MGSV is one of the few games where I ate up all of the post-credits content.

It's nothing utterly groundbreaking, but I've always liked how Mass Effect handle its new game plus. Since you get to keep your XP, powers, and so on. You're simply starting the story over with those things, you can up the difficulty, and make different decisions. I know the question wasn't about the DLC, but it probably has the best DLC of any other singleplayer game (mostly what they did with ME2 and ME3).

Every successful MMO?

Saying "but you have to buy expansions" is dumb: you're implying that those games didn't have any endgame at all until an expansion was added. The first WoW expansion came out over two years after Vanilla, for example; the people who remember Vanilla fondly certain weren't lacking for endgame things to do.

Resident Evil 4 had a very solid post game with so many additional content to eat up more of your time, especially with the PS2 Version and onward. However, it isn't for everyone but I say any Disgaea game is just as good but more for the hardcore since depending the player it could take what seems like forever or just a few weeks to months for others.

Star Ocean: Till The End of Time on PS2. Epic endgame, not quite Disgaea levels of depth , but reallly deep endgame that an average player who wanted to dedicate could actually fathom, unlike Disgaea.

I'm going to count The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra expansions as Pokemon Sword and Shield's post-game, mainly because I can finally use Alakazam without cheating.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.

Gotta say Monster Hunter as well. Rise is a bit easy to get/do everything but Iceborne/GU/4U I could put hundreds of hours into and the story is just the very beginning.

To pick something different I'd also give a shout out to Dragon Quests often having a significant second act after the main story.