Braid

Braid borrows story elements from traditional platformers like Super Mario, but then subverts the tropes in ways that make the player think. The protagonist, Tim, is searching for a princess who has been taken by a monster, but his reasons for doing so are ambiguous and seem to involve his guilt over a past mistake and the desire for atonement. There are six different worlds that Tim travels through in search of her, and each one has a unique theme, such as frustration. In the game's final level, time reverses to reveal that the princess is actually running away from Tim until a knight rescues her. All along, Tim has been the monster.


After the game is completed, additional information is unlocked that adds a level of interpretation and further ambiguity. No matter how players choose to understand the game's meaning, a prevailing theme is the idealization of one's partner or women in general. Tim has created an idea of the princess in his own mind and views her as perfect even though he doesn't know her. As the ending suggests, this false personification of other people is highly damaging to both the person being superficially understood as flawless and the one having these perceptions.

Braid's puzzles are known for being especially challenging.

• What do you think of the time travelling/reversing mechanics? Do you think they tie into the overall story?
• What messages is Braid trying to convey? Why would the creators choose to focus on these concepts?