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[Jonsoncao]

the story is way too ambiguous for me

anyone bothers to explain a little bit? thanks!

Spoiler

who is this princess?

the last level after you scroll back, the guy who kidnapped the princess turns to an oldman! wats this?

wat exactly does Tim want to compensate for?

is the answer always "Princess is in another castle" from the dragon?

 

[Son of Godzilla]

the story is way too ambiguous for me

anyone bothers to explain a little bit? thanks!

Spoiler

who is this princess?

the last level after you scroll back, the guy who kidnapped the princess turns to an oldman! wats this?

wat exactly does Tim want to compensate for?

is the answer always "Princess is in another castle" from the dragon?

The princess is an echo of a time lord.

The princess fled into his arms because of the war and strife that created her. Once Tim has left, she goes off on her own.

Tim wants to compensate for being the last of his species.

When Tim finds the princess, he acknowledges her but still misses his true family.

 

[WordAssassin]

Holy fuck!! Braid is on sale this week for 800MSP!! Oh God I have to download it.

Edit - GOD DAMMIT it's only for Gold Members. Fuck!

 

[Firestorm]

the story is way too ambiguous for me

anyone bothers to explain a little bit? thanks!

Spoiler

who is this princess?

the last level after you scroll back, the guy who kidnapped the princess turns to an oldman! wats this?

wat exactly does Tim want to compensate for?

is the answer always "Princess is in another castle" from the dragon?

Story FAQ on GameFAQs. Very helpful.

But answers:

Spoiler

atomic bomb
I don't remember old man but you're the one she's running away from if you didn't get that
I guess his part in the creation of the bomb?
yes

 

[BobFromPikeCreek]

The story is terrible. Just ignore it.

 

[TheExodu5]

The story is terrible. Just ignore it.

.

If you want a decent indy story that isn't so pretentious, play World of Goo!

Not a knock on Braid though, since the game is awesome.

 

[BobFromPikeCreek]

The puzzles were pretty fun, but I just imagine Johnathan Blow typing the text in the storybooks with a hand down his pants.

 

[Mar]

The story is terrible. Just ignore it.

 

[Jasoco]

I still see it as unrequited love. The princess being the girl he loves, the main character an obsessed stalker. When you are at the end and she's running away from the "bad guy" and helping you, you are only seeing what you want to see, and when you get to the end you realize all along you were the one chasing her and she was trying to get rid of you. Stalker.

I don't really see the whole atomic bomb thing.

But in the end, isn't this what Jonathan Blow wanted? Open interpretation? There's about half a dozen different ways to think about the story. This is just my own.

 

[LCfiner]

I still see it as unrequited love. The princess being the girl he loves, the main character an obsessed stalker. When you are at the end and she's running away from the "bad guy" and helping you, you are only seeing what you want to see, and when you get to the end you realize all along you were the one chasing her and she was trying to get rid of you. Stalker.

I don't really see the whole atomic bomb thing.

But in the end, isn't this what Jonathan Blow wanted? Open interpretation? There's about half a dozen different ways to think about the story. This is just my own.

i always looked at it this way , too. the gameplay supports a very simple story, wonderfully executed at the end.

there's a lot of metastory that comes up via the books but all that seems like such a stretch.

 

[Gomu Gomu]

Just finished the game. Oh my god
I really hope this game is released on PSN or whatever. Every one should play it.

Although I didn't perfectly understand the whole story. I remember there was like a web page that explains the whole story of Braid.

 

[Sydle]

Bought it earlier this week on XBLA with the discount and all. It's a fantastic game! Highly recommended.

 

[Azure Dream]

But in the end, isn't this what Jonathan Blow wanted? Open interpretation? There's about half a dozen different ways to think about the story. This is just my own.

There is a great story told within the gameplay, and then some rubbish text they tacked on that doesn't hold much meaning. I think Jonathan even said something to that effect at one point, that they just made up the text of the books as they went.

 

[TheGreatDave]

The story is terrible. Just ignore it.

Yeah. With the exception of the last bit I couldn't stand the self wanking going on in the game. Skip the text, enjoy the rest.

 

[Firestorm]

Spoiler

I still see it as unrequited love. The princess being the girl he loves, the main character an obsessed stalker. When you are at the end and she's running away from the "bad guy" and helping you, you are only seeing what you want to see, and when you get to the end you realize all along you were the one chasing her and she was trying to get rid of you. Stalker.

I don't really see the whole atomic bomb thing.

But in the end, isn't this what Jonathan Blow wanted? Open interpretation? There's about half a dozen different ways to think about the story. This is just my own.

Well if you haven't read it already: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/943284/53842

 

[Keikoku]

The story is terrible. Just ignore it.

Yeah. With the exception of the last bit I couldn't stand the self wanking going on in the game. Skip the text, enjoy the rest.

Are these joke posts ? :lol

Anyway, Braid is my GOTY 2008. Truly a masterpiece.

 

[TheGreatDave]

Are these joke posts ? :lol

Anyway, Braid is my GOTY 2008. Truly a masterpiece.

Mine wasn't. Do you enjoy the text in Braid?

Nobody ever changes their mind on this stuff, but I really hated all of it. Braid is at it's best when it's impressing you with it's amazingly well designed gsmeplay, not trying to be something it can't be through the texts.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Mine wasn't. Do you enjoy the text in Braid?

Nobody ever changes their mind on this stuff, but I really hated all of it. Braid is at it's best when it's impressing you with it's amazingly well designed gsmeplay, not trying to be something it can't be through the texts.

I do. I thought it was very well written, meshed with (and helped set) the tone of the game and helped tell an interesting story. It's one of my favorite aspects of the game.

 

[Gomu Gomu]

Btw, has the game's soundtrack been released anywhere?

 

[letsbereasonable]

But in the end, isn't this what Jonathan Blow wanted? Open interpretation? There's about half a dozen different ways to think about the story. This is just my own.

No, actually. I seem to recall at least one or two interviews (maybe with the A.V. Club?) where he specifically says this isn't one of those "make what you want of it" types of stories and that it has a specific meaning and single interpretation, though he concedes that he could see how the game could be taken that way.

Ah, found it. It was the AV Club:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/game-designer-jonathan-blow-what-we-all-missed-abo,8626/

He also talks about people specifically on GAF and other boards not getting or misinterpreting key elements of the story.

I'm not championing the story or the game by any means; I agree with some of the posters here that while the gameplay is very good, the story and narrative are not. I'm just pointing out that it seems Blow has a very specific way he believes the game and story can/should be interpreted.

 

[HurricaneJesus]

The more I read the text in the game the more I feel a deeper connection to it. It is cool if you personally don't like it, but to call it bad, when compared to the shit we are used to in gaming, is idiotic.

Braid was my GOTY 2008 and top 3 of all time. I will be picking this up off Steam as soon as it is released, in just a few days.

I don't really see the whole atomic bomb thing

*slight spoilers*

Well it is referenced directly in the epilogue, as well as subtlely referenced elsewhere. Also, the numbers on the mailbox outside of the princess' house respresents the date of the first atomic test. I think the name of the game says it all. It is meant to be intertwining theories. I don't care what Jon says. It is obvious that is is about a lost love. No doubt in my mind Jon had his heart ripped out at some point in his life and based Tim on himself. Then there are the other references that serve no purpose other than to make the story deeper, and with more intertwining braids.

 

[HurricaneJesus]

Ugh, this is coming out in 3 days and this thread is a ghost town. I hope people are still looking forward to this.

 

[Shard]

Op Updated with various details about the PC and Mac versions.

 

[Willeth]

No, actually. I seem to recall at least one or two interviews (maybe with the A.V. Club?) where he specifically says this isn't one of those "make what you want of it" types of stories and that it has a specific meaning and single interpretation, though he concedes that he could see how the game could be taken that way.

Ah, found it. It was the AV Club:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/game-designer-jonathan-blow-what-we-all-missed-abo,8626/

He also talks about people specifically on GAF and other boards not getting or misinterpreting key elements of the story.

I'm not championing the story or the game by any means; I agree with some of the posters here that while the gameplay is very good, the story and narrative are not. I'm just pointing out that it seems Blow has a very specific way he believes the game and story can/should be interpreted.

I feel like I have to listen to the interview we did with him again, now. I seem to remember using the words 'open to interpretation' and him agreeing with me. Now I'm confused.

 

[djtiesto]

I don't think it's the actual atomic bomb, per se, but more like Tim (who has an obsessive personality) struggled with developing another technology that would forever have profound impact on society-the power to travel through time. I really love how the story of the game is totally open to interpretation.

 

[Visualante]

Demo is up at http://www.playgreenhouse.com/

Play Greenhouse jumped the gun, note that it is available at all other notable digital distribution outlets so you don't have to buy with them if you don't want to.

 

[Jonsoncao]

I don't think it's the actual atomic bomb, per se, but more like Tim (who has an obsessive personality) struggled with developing another technology that would forever have profound impact on society-the power to travel through time. I really love how the story of the game is totally open to interpretation.

but with the "Now we are all sons of bitches" quote....

it DOES sound like telling the story of Tim as a nuclear physicist

 

[_RT_]

Is there any way I can buy this game without installing programs from the hosting sites?
It seems Impulse is similar to Steam in this regard?

 

[Visualante]

Is there any way I can buy this game without installing programs from the hosting sites?
It seems Impulse is similar to Steam in this regard?

Greenhouse seems to be standalone. You just buy it on the site and input a serial.

 

[Polk]

Is there any way I can buy this game without installing programs from the hosting sites?
It seems Impulse is similar to Steam in this regard?

I don't think Gamersgate has standalone app anymore, and you can buy Braid there.

 

[_RT_]

Thanks peeps-

 

[Vexidus]

Has anyone bought this on Steam? I can't seem to figure out how and I've been waiting for this game forever..

 

[INTERNET]

There's an editor built-in, accessible even from the demo by adding "-editor" to the command line. It looks pretty impenetrable, to the point where I couldn't figure out if it had crashed or I just wasn't doing it right.

 

[Lord Error]

I have download the demo from Gamersgate, and put the game through some paces on lower-end PC configurations to test Jonathan's statement that you'll need quite a high powered PC to run it well.

Turns out he was mostly right, but not all hope is lost. Here's what I found out playing first few levels:

I installed the demo on a first gen MacBook Air, the one with 1.6Ghz Intel Dual Core, and an Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor. This is probably one of the worse computers around when it comes to gaming. With Windows 7 Beta installed with Bootcamp, I found Braid demo actually quite playable on it, but it had a noticeable (but fairly consistent, which made it better) frame skip everywhere. I'd say it run at about 20FPS on the level selection screen, and maybe 25FPS on the first few actual levels. Level selection screen has more stuff going in the background, so this is not surprising. Again, game execution speed was not affected, there was jut frame skip. Because of that I found the game playable, even though obviously a far cry from the intended 60FPS smoothness. Another thing worth noting is that making the screen smaller in settings didn't improve performance one bit.

On a PC with P4 3GHZ, with Nvidia 6800GS, I expected the demo to run better, because Jonathan said the game is mostly GPU intensive, and not so much with CPU. However, I found it originally pretty much unplayable on this config - mostly because it wouldn't skip frames. There were no frames skipped, but the game run probably 3x slower than intended.

*edit* However, this all changed when I used

-no_vsync_test

command line option, mentioned in developers blog. When I started game like this, it run so much better, frame skip was there, and I think it must be running at about 30+FPS now.

So, overall, I got what I wanted - playable Braid on my laptop, and I'm happy enough with it. Now that I saw it running on these two machines, I think Jonathan should have probably not said anything as he might have discouraged people with low end PCs from looking into this game, whereas actually there's no reason not to. Everyone interested should at least get the demo and use it with the command line option mentioned above.

 

[zbarron]

Has anyone bought this on Steam? I can't seem to figure out how and I've been waiting for this game forever..

I am also not able to buy it. I found it strange that it wouldn't let you pre-purchase it but this is just frustrating.

I'm downloading the demo now from GamersGate.

 

[BobsRevenge]

You can buy it off of Impulse.

 

[Lord Error]

Looks like it's better to wait with purchasing it for sometime later today, as he mentioned on the blog that there will be an updated version which will incorporate this command line switch fix I mentioned in a better way.

 

[Arozay]

Short but great. I liked the earlier stage mechanics over the latter ones. The "story" and text didn't appeal to me, seemed like it was thrown in for the monocle bookclub crowd. The

Spoiler

twist with the last stage with the princess was nice

, then the epilogue happened and the writer starts to jizz all over himself again.

That aside, would look forward to another game with puzzles in the same vein.

 

[_dd_]

Lol...stoned I don't think Braid would be fun...some of the puzzles would leave you hating life. :lol

I played the whole game high...


LOVED the music, talk about soothing/calming.

Graphics are just plain awesome, 2DHD artwork is ftfw

Puzzles seemed fine, hard as hell, but fine.

 

[Farnack]

Yeah the demo install just crashes... wtf?

 

[KTallguy]

Fucking awesome game.

Thank you for FINALLLLLLLLLLLLLY coming to PC.

Yours Truly,

KTallguy

 

[NorrenRadd]

Fantastic game. I just need to do the speed run achievement. I craved more from the story.

 

[nincompoop]

Does this not support game pads?

 

[ToastyBanana]

Does this not support game pads?

Only the 360 controller. I'm using joy2key with my gamepad though.

 

[nincompoop]

Well that's some bullshit, no buy for me.

 

[Boonoo]

Just got this last night, and I played up to world 5. I'm really enjoying it, World 4 was especially nice.

I was wondering, though, is it possible to get all the puzzle pieces in level 2-2 right away? There are two in there that just don't seem possible to get yet (and I remember hearing something on gfw radio about not being able to get all of them right away in world 2--I haven't run into this issue in any of the other levels.

Edit:
Heh. Got em. Sneaky.

 

[Visualante]

Amazing game. Didn't give the storytelling a chance so I can't comment on the plot.
The part where you

Spoiler

act out your own cut scene before watching it

at the very end in particular. It took me about 5 minutes to really appreciate what I had done.

 

[dgenx]

Ok I just finished the game

Really loved the soundtrack, I was kinda confusing about the books, but the part at the end was marvelous.



but.. I feel dumb cause I didn't fully understand the epilogue.. can someone explain?

Also I loved the gameplay in world 5.

The game was awesome, I hope we get little cute games like this more often

 

[Ken Masters]

are there any links to the soundtrack?

 

[Visualante]

If you own the PC version in ~Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/braid/data/ there's a .zip called package which contains the soundtrack in .ogg vorbis format.