Alright I got what you both were talking about after defeating Gilbert and yeah, extremely interesting way to make you restart your playthrough. One weapon, one item as it said. I went with the Blade of Mercy +3 I had and Crowfeather Garb since those are so late-game and the former is so expensive (and more than halfway upgraded). I guess considering this isn't a difficulty upgrade it's fair enough for a restart. That it defaults to beginner Milquetoast class stats no matter what you picked is weird though. Wonder if there's a fix for that to keep to the class you initially picked or if that's an intentional design choice for some reason?
So, although I miss having my collection of everything (or most things?) in the game this wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Well, it helps that I heard about the "secret room" at the very start and how to access it and all the farming and completely broken stuff I collected there 🤣