Compatible emulators

Synopsis

Tim is a man searching for a princess who "was kidnapped by a horrible, evil monster." His relationship with this princess is vague at best, and the only clear part of that relationship is that Tim made some kind of mistake that he hopes to reconcile or, if possible, erase. As one progresses through Braid's six worlds, the storyline text at the start of each world provides deeper insight into Tim's quest for the princess and hints at the overall gameplay mechanics of each level. Themes discussed include forgiveness, longing and frustration. The final level, in which everything except Tim moves upside down, depicts the princess escaping from a knight and working with Tim to overcome obstacles and find herself home. Tim is suddenly excluded from the house, and as time progresses, reversing Tim's actions, events show the princess fleeing from Tim, setting traps that he is able to escape, until she is saved by the knight. Tim turns out to be the “monster” the princess is running from.
After completing the game, the player finds additional text that expands the story. The ending of the game is deliberately ambiguous and has been the subject of multiple interpretations. One theory, based on the inclusion of a hidden event and the famous quote uttered by Kenneth Bainbridge after the explosion of the first atomic bomb – "Now we're all sons of bitches" – is that the princess represents the atomic bomb and that Tim is a scientist involved in its development.[20] Some also refer to the game's name as a reference to both the braid of hair of the princess that Tim seeks as well as the intertwining of time, demonstrated by the various temporal mechanics explored in the game. Journalists have considered the plot of Braid to be closely related to the game itself, much as the book Dictionary of the Khazars and the films Memento and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind interweave the narrative in the construction of the work. In this sense, some have seen the game as carrying a simple credo, such as "You have to look back to move forward", as Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead suggests. Others have compared Braid to punk rock, intended (as Blow explicitly stated) specifically as a statement against the industry status quo; it is seen as deconstructing traditional gaming concepts, such as jumping on enemies or rescuing a princess from a castle borrowed from Super Mario Bros., and reconstructing them in-game to force the player to rethink the game's current design. Blow has stated that there is more than one interpretation of the story; he "wouldn't be able" to explain the game's entire story in words, and said the central idea is "something big and subtle and resists being looked at directly". Blow saw Braid as "the journey, not the destination". He deliberately designed the plot so that it would not be fully revealed to the player unless they had completed the game, seeing it as a way to provide "a longer-term challenge".

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