Braid

So over the Christmas weekend, my boyfriend introduced me to an incredible game! It's called Braid, and it's a puzzle game that deals with turning back time...

I don't even know how to describe it, it's simply an enjoyable experience to play! The puzzles are challenging, but rewarding. The art style of the game seems entirely done in soft, colorful water-colors, and how each level seems to represent another season. It's just beautiful!

 It actually reminded me a lot of the game Limbo. (I've never personally played it, but have watched Pewdiepie's play-through.) They're both excellent puzzle games, only the color pallette is obviously richer...

Another thing I like is that Braid makes lots of funny references to the Mario games!

Even down to the enemies the main character, Tim, has to jump on to defeat.

The best thing I like about the game is the in-game text, which appears before you have to play each level. It really makes a great story. One that I'd really like to share with you.

SPOILERS!!! If you'd rather play the game and see the text yourself, then you don't have to read any of this.

(Yes, it starts off with Chapter 2. Apparantly the first chapter comes last, for some reason...)

"Chapter 2: Time and Forgiveness"

"Tim is off on a search to rescue the Princess. She has been snatched by a

horrible and evil monster. This happened because Tim made a mistake."

"Not just one. He made many mistakes during the time they spent together, all 
those years ago. Memories of their relationship have become muddled, replaced 
wholesale, but one remains clear: the princess turning sharply away, her braid 
lashing at him with contempt."

"He knows she tried to be forgiving, but who can just shrug away a guilty lie, 
a stab in the back? Such a mistake will change a relationship irreversibly, 
even if we have learned from the mistake and would never repeat it. The 
princess's eyes grew narrower. She became more distant."

"Our world, with its rules of causality, has trained us to be miserly with 
forgiveness. By forgiving them too readily, we can be badly hurt. But if we've 
learned from a mistake and became better for it, shouldn't we be rewarded for 
the learning, rather than punished for the mistake?"

"What if our world worked differently? Suppose we could tell her: 'I didn't 
mean what I just said,' and she would say: 'It's okay, I understand,' and she 
would not turn away, and life would really proceed as though we had never said 
that thing? We could remove the damage but still be wiser for the experience."

"Tim and the Princess lounge in the castle garden, laughing together, giving 
names to the colorful birds. Their mistakes are hidden from each other, tucked 
away between the folds of time, safe."



"Chapter 3: Time and Mystery"

"All those years ago, Time had left the Princess behind. He had kissed her on 
the neck, picked up his travel bag, and walked out the door. He regrets this, 
to a degree. Now he's journeying to find her again, to show her knows how sad 
it was, but also to tell her how good it was."

"For a long time, he thought they had been cultivating the perfect 
relationship. He had been fiercely protective, reversing all his mistakes so 
they would not touch her. Likewise, keeping a tight rein on her own mistakes, 
she always pleased him."

"But to be fully couched within the comfort of a friend is a mode of existence 
with severe implications. To please you perfectly, she must understand you 
perfectly. Thus you cannot defy her expectations or escape her reach. Her 
benevolence has circumscribed you, and your life's achievements will not reach 
beyond the map she has drawn."
 
"Tim needed to be non-manipulable. He needed a hope of transcendence. He 
needed, sometimes, to be immune to the Princess's caring touch."

"Off in the distance, Tim saw a castle where the flags flutter even when the 
wind has expired, and the bread in the kitchen is always warm. A little bit of 
magic."


"Chapter 4: Time and Place"

"Visiting his home for a holiday meal, Tim felt as though he had regressed to 
those long-ago years when he lived under their roof, oppressed by their 
insistence on upholding strange values which, to him, were meaningless. Back 
then, bickering would erupt over drops of gravy spilt onto the tablecloth."

"Escaping, Tim walked in the cool air toward the university he'd attended after 
moving out of his parent's home. As he distanced himself from that troubling 
house, he felt the embarrassment of childhood fading into the past. But now he 
stepped into all the insecurities he'd felt at the university, all the panic of 
walking a social tightrope."

"Tim only felt relieved after the whole visit was over, sitting back home in 
the present, steeped in contrast he saw how he'd improved so much from those 
old days. This improvement, day by day, takes him ever-closer to finding the 
Princess. If she exists - she must! - she will transform him, and everyone."

"He felt on his trip that every place stirs up an emotion, and every emotion 
invokes a memory: a time and location. So couldn't he find the Princess now, 
tonight, just by wandering from place to place and noticing how he feels? A 
trail of feelings, of awe and inspiration, should lead him to that castle in 
the future her arms enclosing him, her scent fills him with excitement, creates 
a moment so strong he can remember it in the past."

"Immediately Tim walked out his door, the next morning, toward whatever the new 
day held. He felt something like optimism."


"Chapter 5: Time and Decision"

"She never understood the impulses that drove him, never quite felt the 
intensity that, over time, chiseled lines into his face. She never quite felt 
close enough to him - but he held her as though she were, whispered into her 
ear words that only a soul mate should receive."

"Over the remnants of dinner, they both knew the time had come. He would have 
said: 'I have to go find the Princess,' but he didn't need to. Giving a final 
kiss, hoisting a travel bag to his shoulder, he walked out the door. Through 
all the nights that followed, she still loved him as though he stayed, to 
comfort her and protect her, Princess be damned."

That's as far as I've gotten in the game. I still have Chapter 6, Chapter 1 and Epilogue to go. When I finish the game, I'll reveal what happens in the end and what I think of the whole experience.