History VideoGame / Braid

* AffectionateParody: We have flags, castles, goombas, princesses, piranha plants, and the original level of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' where our parodied hero originated. Someone really likes ''SuperMarioBros''. And undeniably the best example of all- "I'm sorry but your princess is in another castle."

** The text changes to [[spoiler: the same stories, but in the perspective of unspecified females. A man rescuing a woman in Manhattan? The woman is being abducted. The atomic bomb being invented? A woman is expressing disappointment in humanity. A child jilted for not being able to go into a candy store? His mother is waiting until he's older.]]

* GainaxEnding: The [[spoiler:alternate ending]] will turn from DownerEnding into this the more you [[MindScrew analyze]] the story. [[DonnieDarko Donnie freaking Darko]] is more straightforward. {{Lampshaded}} by [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation a certain video game reviewer]] who puts up a few guesses of who the "princess" is.

* {{Homage}}: Just about everything is homage to [[SuperMarioBros Mario]].
** The "goombas" offer an alternative homage by being [[SonicTheHedgehog hedgehogs]].

* HeroicSacrifice: Sort of -- there's one puzzle that actually [[spoiler:[[MindScrew requires you to kill yourself]] in order to get the puzzle piece. Of course, for Tim, DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist, so it's not that much of a "sacrifice".]]

** Only a genius or a cheater[[note]]with good reflexes[[/note]] can complete the game on the first try with only the minimum required deaths (one[[note]]if your reflexes are ''phenomenal''[[/note]]), much less completing the secret ending.

** Jonathan Blow in an early PC Gamer interview stated one of the games' main influences is Infocom's ''Trinity''.

* SpeedRun: Only worth 15 [[CosmeticAward gamerpoints]]
** There's now a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzvFAZ6_G3w TAS]] which completely tears the game apart. Fun features:
*** "Movement by Degrees" without the key. (By the way, the piece is behind a locked door. [[spoiler:The floor is not impenetrable, though.]])
*** Getting a non-green key, dropping it, reverses time to before he got it THEN forwarding time while on a green pad to after he dropped it so it's in an easily accessible area.
*** [[spoiler: Kills the princess without getting all of the secret stars.]]

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:World 1-1. Tim isn't actually a KnightInShiningArmor, he's a crazy stalker who the princess is trying to run away from, and the "horrible monster" is a ''real'' Knight In Shining Armor that is rescuing her from ''Tim''. Yes, it's a MindScrew.]]
* WhenAllElseFailsGoRight: Played with, straight at the beginning, subverted and zigzagged later. Interestingly, the ending cutscene that plays out in the correct chronological order has Tim and the princess moving to the ''left''.

** You can't fix attempting to use a green sparkling key on the wrong door by rewinding time.
*** You can, however, reload the screen to reset the puzzle.

* AltText: Sort of... if you can find it.

* BackToFront: [[spoiler:The final level has Tim running along the princess as she escapes from a knight in shining armor. He seems to have kidnapped her, and Tim activates mechanisms along the way to help her escape. But at the end, time is reversed and then you see the true meaning of the scene: the princess was running ''away'' from Tim, and he was chasing after her. The knight was the rescuer, Tim was the villain.]]
* BigBad: [[spoiler:'''Inverted''', as the supposed villain in the final level, when you turn time back to its regular state, was in fact rescuing the DamselInDistress from '''you'''. See also [[Fridge/{{Braid}} Fridge Horror]].]]

* CantTakeAnythingWithYou: That key could be useful? Sorry, stays in the previous room.
** Oh, you mean in the ''same'' room? Ah -- you see, when you rewind time, you retraced your steps to before you picked up that key or puzzle piece, so you also un-picked it up. We apologize for the inconvenience. [[spoiler: Usually.]]

* FallingChandelierOfDoom: The Bosses are defeated by creatively manipulating deadly chandeliers.
** How many times can you drop one chandelier on someone? As many as you want, if you mess with time.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:The title screen seems to be this.]]

* GoombaSpringboard: Crucial for completing some of the puzzles. You gain additional height by stomping multiple goombas, as well. [[spoiler: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] for one of the hardest puzzles, by keeping that one not-goomba bouncing.]]
* GottaCatchThemAll: Required to get the resolution of the story.

* KnightInShiningArmor: [[spoiler:DoubleSubverted, or even [[ZigZaggingTrope more.]] ]]

* ManEatingPlant: [[{{Homage}} Look familiar?]]
* MeaningfulName: It's painfully obvious, but: His name is Tim, and he can control '''tim'''e.
* MentalWorld: The levels. [[EpilepticTrees Maybe...]]

* MultipleEndings: Two -- the obvious ending, and collecting the [[spoiler:eighth secret star]]. There is also alternate text in the Epilogue, if you can find it.
** It is possible to trigger the second ending just by [[spoiler: being fast enough in 1-1. It's rather hard but doable.]]

* StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler:Tim himself, as it is revealed that he is the [[TomatoInTheMirror true monster]] that the princess is running from.]]

* BackToFront: [[spoiler:Saving(?) the princess.]]

* DeusExNukina: [[spoiler:The AlternateEnding.]]

* GainaxEnding: The [[spoiler:alternate ending]] will turn from DownerEnding into this the more you [[MindScrew analyze]] the story. [[DonnieDarko Donnie freaking Darko]] is more straightforward.
** {{Lampshaded}} by [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation a certain video game reviewer]] who puts up a few guesses of who the "princess" is.

* LostForever: [[spoiler:Don't touch the World 3 puzzle until you find the star related to it.]]

* OurTimeTravelIsDifferent: Time travel follows slightly different rules in each world.
** One rule holds true for all worlds, though--Tim cannot fast forward into time he hasn't experienced personally.

* PuzzleBoss: All of them.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Very much so. It actually contains more than one layer of symbolism, too.
* SaveThePrincess: Deconstructed.

* TimeyWimeyBall: The premise of the game.

* VillainProtagonist: [[spoiler:Tim, in the end.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[VideoGame/ZeroWing IT'S YOU!]]

* TheEndingChangesEverything: [[spoiler:For both endings. In the first, Tim is a stalker chasing the Princess. The secret ending implies that the game is an allegory for nuclear weapons development: the Princess is the split atom, and Tim is a scientist.]][[/labelnote]]

* TheEndingChangesEverything: [[spoiler:For both endings. In the first, Tim is a stalker chasing the Princess. The secret ending implies that [[labelnote:Extra-Spoilery Spoilers for Secret Ending!]]the game is an allegory for nuclear weapons development: the Princess is the split atom, and Tim is a scientist.]][[/labelnote]]

* SpeedRun: Only worth 15 [[CosmeticAward gamerpoints]], incredibly enough.

*** The best "Impassable Foliage" you'll ever see (starts at 15:49 in the video).
*** Getting a non-green key, dropping it, reverses time to before he got it THEN forwarding time while on a green pad to after he dropped it so it's in an easily accessible area. Also, you can't see him reverse time for reusable keys at all.

** Jonathan Blow in an early PC Gamer interview stated one of the games' main influences is Infocom's ''Trinity''. Ya don't say...

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[ZeroWing IT'S YOU!]]

%%* HeroAntagonist

* PurpleProse: At the beginning of every level, you're treated to a particularly bad case of this.

* SceneryPorn: It seems the majority of the time spent working on this game has been spent on backgrounds.
** Over a year, apparently.

* [[spoiler:HeroAntagonist]]

* KnightInShiningArmor: [[spoiler: DoubleSubverted, or even [[ZigZaggingTrope more.]] ]]

* LoveMakesYouEvil

** [[spoiler: A secret star]] cannot be gotten if you solve the [[spoiler: World 3]] jigsaw puzzle too early.
** Time can no longer be rewound once [[spoiler: you achieve either ending]].

* LetsPlay: By [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Braid/ DarthBlingBling]]. Spoiler warning, of course.
** Also [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSXofLK5hFQ Soulja Boy]]. Yes, ''that'' SouljaBoy.

* HeroAntagonist

* {{Antepiece}}: The puzzles can be very complex and rather unwelcoming. But there is at least one part that tries to make a certain puzzle clearer, or more accessible, by having a simplified version of the puzzle just before it (that's what an {{antepiece}} is). Specifically, this is a puzzle about complex interactions between keys and doors, some of which are affected by your power, some of which aren't. There are two puzzle pieces: getting the first one can be done without thought or understanding, there are only two doors and one key. But there is a three-door-two-key puzzle that follows, which requires reflecting on the simpler situation. A picture can be seen here[[http://postimg.org/image/8optav9hd/]]

Take ''SuperMarioBros'', add a few unlimited time powers, put it in front of an animated impressionistic canvas, throw in some seriously [[MindScrew mind bending puzzles]] and add a [[ArtGame truckload of symbolism]], and you have ''Braid'' by Creator/JonathanBlow. You control Tim as he searches for a DamselInDistress, while [[GoombaStomp stomping]] various odd creatures to progress through levels and collect [[GottaCatchThemAll puzzle pieces]]. Tim can rewind, create Doppelgängers, slow time, and manipulate special objects and enemies that are either exempt or particularly vulnerable to his control of time, depending on the theme of the level.

* AbnormalAmmo: Some cannons shoot out clouds. Others shoot [[strike:manheads]]mooks.

* AdvancingWallOfDoom: The final world, and it generally requires tight timing. [[spoiler:This has an implied justification to avoid a paradox, as well as to clamp down on the alternate view of what happened.]]
* AffectionateParody: We have flags, castles, goombas, princesses, piranha plants, and the original level of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' where our parodied hero originated. Someone really likes ''SuperMarioBros''.
** And undeniably the best example of all- "I'm sorry but your princess is in another castle."
* AnachronicOrder: The first world is World 2, and [[spoiler: World 1 is only unlocked after you collect every [[GottaCatchThemAll puzzle piece]]]].
** Not to mention that [[spoiler: you start World 1 at 1-4, and PLAY BACKWARDS to 1-1!]]

* AnAesop: There are pages and pages that could be written on this. The most popular one seems to be "you can't undo the past".

** Oh, you mean in the ''same'' room? Ah -- you see, when you rewind time, you retraced your steps to before you picked up that key or puzzle piece, so you also un-picked it up. We apologize for the inconvenience.
*** [[spoiler: Usually.]]

* DifficultySpike: Halfway through World 6.
** [[spoiler: It drops back down for World 1, which is actually the final world.]]

** GoombaSpringboard: Crucial for completing some of the puzzles. You gain additional height by stomping multiple goombas, as well.
*** [[spoiler: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] for one of the hardest puzzles, by keeping that one not-goomba bouncing.]]

* GuideDangIt: [[spoiler:Most, if not all, of the eight secret stars.]]
** [[spoiler: Including ''the existence'' of said stars.]]
* [[spoiler:HeroAntagonist]]

* [[KillerRabbit Killer (Cat) Rabbit]]: Or rabbit with an identity crisis?

* [[spoiler: LoveMakesYouEvil]]

* SetPiecePuzzle: Pieces scattered through each stage that unlock a ladder to the [[strike:final]]''first'' world.

* [[spoiler:StalkerWithACrush: Tim himself, as it is revealed that he is the [[TomatoInTheMirror true monster]] that the princess is running from.]]
* [[spoiler:StarShapedCoupon: The eight secret stars.]]
* [[spoiler:TheEndingChangesEverything: For both endings. In the first, Tim is a stalker chasing the Princess. The secret ending implies that [[labelnote:Extra-Spoilery Spoilers for Secret Ending!]]the game is an allegory for nuclear weapons development: the Princess is the split atom, and Tim is a scientist.]][[/labelnote]]

* [[spoiler:TomatoInTheMirror: [[ZeroWing IT'S YOU!]] ]]

* [[spoiler:VillainProtagonist: Tim, in the end.]]

* [[WhamEpisode Wham Level]]: [[spoiler:World 1-1. Tim isn't actually a KnightInShiningArmor, he's a crazy stalker who the princess is trying to run away from, and the "horrible monster" is a ''real'' Knight In Shining Armor that is rescuing her from ''Tim''. Yes, it's a MindScrew.]]

* FollowTheLeader: Hilariously [[http://www.dorkly.com/video/30941/dorkly-bits-mario-is-too-mainstream parodied]] by ''[[WebAnimation/DorklyOriginals Dorkly]]'' with a conversation between Tim and Mario, with the protagonist of ''{{VideoGame/Limbo}}'' sitting idly by and VideoGame/MeatBoy making a cameo.

** You can't fix attempting to use a key on the wrong door by rewinding time.

* FollowTheLeader: Hilariously [[http://www.dorkly.com/video/30941/dorkly-bits-mario-is-too-mainstream parodied]] by Dorkly with a conversation between Tim and Mario, with the protagonist of ''{{Limbo}}'' sitting idly by and VideoGame/MeatBoy making a cameo.

* FollowTheLeader: Hilariously [[http://www.dorkly.com/video/30941/dorkly-bits-mario-is-too-mainstream parodied]] by Dorkly with a conversation between Tim and Mario, with the protagonist of ''{{Limbo}}'' sitting idly by and SuperMeatBoy making a cameo.

** green sparkling items and creatures cannot be manipulated by any sort of time travel.
** you can't fix attempting to use a key on the wrong door by rewinding time.
** [[spoiler: a secret star]] cannot be gotten if you solve the [[spoiler: World 3]] jigsaw puzzle too early.
** time can no longer be rewound once [[spoiler: you achieve either ending]].

* WaitingPuzzle: Taken UpToEleven with one (thankfully optional) puzzle.