Braid: a game that stimulates your senses.

Braid, a game so underground that it is on par with Linux users and Counterstrike players post 2000. The game starts out with simple puzzles that you, the player, have to solve. As you progress through the game, you are given time manipulation abilities that can reverse, slow down and even duplicate yourself to solve complex puzzles. All this to find the princess whether she is really there or not.

I'm sure she is there, bub.

Despite the wonderful music and enjoying the scenery that makes a better plot than What Dreams May Come, the ending is left up to debate to what it is really all about. In the final puzzle, your character, Tim, looks up to see the princess escaping her captor, a pissed off knight. You along with her, run away from the flames and at the end meet each other, and live happily ever after...

Why are you with him?

But wait, the music is in reverse, what is going on? As you reverse the play through, you see that Tim is chasing the princess and she doesn't want you near her. In the end, she finds herself in the comfort of the knight who is taking her to safety leaving Tim alone in the dark just as confused as you are. We just scratched the surface there. If you are collecting stars for 100% completion of the game, in order to get the last star, you have to get near her and she explodes...literally. 

Not exactly, but you get the idea.

So what does it all mean? Braid is all about the journey and not the destination, it doesn't matter if you got the princess or not. What matters is how you develop, how Tim assesses his situation and what he could have done better. Each world also has puzzle pieces to collect that reflects the abilities Tim learns in the game and sometimes a reflection of what Tim experienced in his life. The men portrayed in the puzzles are not Tim but one can infer what is happening. 

Source from GIS, only image I can find that has the puzzle pictures.

In puzzle 1, we see a man in an embrace with a woman and sees that he is about to spill the bottle of wine. The first world we learn that we can reverse the mistakes and redo our next move. 

Puzzle 2 shows a man at a table signifying that a substance such as alcohol can be used to manipulate his environment. In the third level a key is needed to open doors. The key is the substance that can be manipulated. You can reverse all you want but the item remains in your hands.

Puzzle 3 shows a child's room with toys and a man at the door either leaving or checking in. Tim learns the ability to move forwards and backwards through time to get to what he wants. 

Puzzle 4 shows a man sitting looking sad at an airport. Another image of the same man is shown in the background smiling and talking to other people. In the game, Tim learns to separate himself into a shadow person that acts according to the action you have made. For example you can record yourself opening a door, rewind, use the shadow person to do the same action and Tim can open the other door at the same time. Confusing? Yeah it is.

Puzzle 5 is a keeper. The image is of a man looking into an object that is shining in the trashcan, the man appears to be hesitant about something. The poster next to him is an army recruitment poster of Uncle Sam from World War 2. Tim learns to use a ring that slows down the movements in a fixed area in order to reach an item that would be impossible to do at normal speed. 

At the beginning of these worlds we see books that Tim reads that is a reflection of his life in the real world. I'll just give you the gist of this:

1. Tim remembers having an argument with this significant other and feels guilty due to her becoming distant in the relationship. 

2. Tim is obsessed in finding this hidden knowledge through his experiments. What kind of science is he conducting? Why was it so important than his relationship, or is it a reflection of his deteriorating relationship?

3. She stood tall and majestic. She radiated fury. She shouted: “Who has disturbed me?” But then, anger expelled, she felt the sadness beneath; she let her breath fall softly, like a sigh, like ashes floating gently on the wind.

She couldn’t understand why he chose to flirt so closely with the death of the world.

4. The flags at each level signify a warning: 

World 2: N

World 3: U
World 4: L
World 5: X

World 6: K

In the order of the flags NULXK

N: No
U: You are (standing into/approaching) danger
L: Stop instantly
X: Stop carrying out your intentions
K: You should stop, I have something important to communicate

Consider this a warning Tim, No means NO!

Either Tim is too stupid to see the signs or he is really obsessed in finding the princess. In the end, it seems that Tim, despite his ability to manipulate time, he cannot reverse the damage he has caused in finding the princess. The castle made of small stones represent his psyche, his attempt at rebuilding and accepting the fact that there are somethings that cannot be repaired and perhaps his discovery is meant to happen one way or another. 

Out of the mistakes I have made in the past, I used these as foundations to begin again.

Whether you believe in this or not, give it some thought to what the character of Tim is really about and not the princess. The princess is a secondary element to the story atomic bomb or not. Tim is a character who has the ability to redeem himself but in the end is a monster in the eyes of the princess, a monster who is just as guilty as pushing the button to release the atomic bomb. He found her, he used her and all she really wanted was for Tim to understand her and keep her close so she won't destroy the world with fear. But, he didn't do that, he failed to stop and protect her. He let her be exploited and in her fury, lashed out in her disappointment knowing the world will forever be changed. There's no turning back, she ran to a knight just as imaginary as her looking for the one to protect her and keep her hidden, what Tim failed to be and obsessed to be. 

If you want a mind challenging game by solving puzzles and manipulating time, this is for you otherwise the story is going to drive you nuts.