In advance of the first Holiday Pack DLC, Final Fantasy XV receives a new update which fixes numerous bugs and introduces a New Game+ option for players to restart the story.

It's been a very long road for Final Fantasy 15, having been in development for around a decade and evolving out of Final Fantasy Versus 13 along the way. All of that hard work has seemingly paid off for Square Enix however as the game has quickly become the fastest selling game in the franchise, thanks to solid reviews and positive word of mouth. Still, the work isn't done as Square Enix continues to add new content and updates to the game, like the recently released 1.03 which lets fans restart the story through New Game Plus.

According to Nova Crystallis, the hefty 3.2 GB patch also includes a number of bug fixes to the experience alongside the anticipated New Game+ mode.  Unlike other games however, New Game+ in Final Fantasy XV works a little bit differently as not everything carries over.

After finishing the story, New Game+ appears on the main menu, effectively replacing the standard new game option. By selecting New Game+ from the difficulty screen, the original save is overwritten and players dive into the story once again. Fans who want a clean play through should select easy or normal instead of the New Game+ option to start fresh. Keep in mind that New Game+ does not scale up enemy difficulty nor are there any additional difficulty levels, so players will likely be killing enemies in one hit at the beginning parts of the game.

While all hunts, hunting rank, and story progression are completely reset, players retain their experience and level, Ascension skills, chocobo customization, weapons (minus The Engine Blade), outfits, Royal Arms, items, recipes, spells, and Survival, Fishing, Cooking and Photography levels. Any customization done to the Regalia outside of the F-Type upgrade is also retained. For those who opted for the airship upgrade in the previous playthrough, the car will start out as the stock model it will need to be unlocked through normal play once again.

Lastly, it's also worth mentioning that for players who have opted to have a particular character permanently join their squad through a certain glitch, that character will remain in the party. Square Enix has not yet fully fixed the glitch at this time and the only way to truly get rid of the character is to start completely from scratch.

Update 1.03 arrives one day ahead of the first planned DLC bundle known as the Holiday Pack. The basic version of this content is available to all for free, and includes a number of festive items such as seasonal picture frames for Prompto’s photos, a carnival ticket, level stopper and more. A premium version of this pack will also be available for season pass holders including even more costumes, songs and in-game items.

Are you going to be taking advantage of New Game+ or are you taking a break from the length RPG experience for now? Let us know what you think about these upcoming additions in the comments below.

Final Fantasy XV is available now on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.