Braid Analysis (Spoiler-Filled!)

savvyraven · Post by **savvyraven** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:07 am

I am soooooo thankful someone else sees just how retarded this game is! I have to finish it because, well...because I have to, but my Lord, this game is the most retarded thing ever. I hope that litte bastard dies a miserable death at the end!

I purposefully skipped over any spoilers, but I just might have to rethink it.

This game is rated 1 maggot filled piece of shit star *

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:55 am

Don't be hatin' just cuz y'all can't figure shit out.

savvyraven · Post by **savvyraven** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:58 am

It's not that we CAN'T, it's more like it's not worth our precious time. We have better things to do. Like sitting on our asses watching paint dry!

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:03 am

In the key's defense, though it does work differently than everything else in the game, it works perfectly consistently within it's own set of rules. When you reverse time by walking left, it goes wherever it was. When you move right again, it rejoins the present moment.

I realize at first blush it seems to be behaving randomly, but it's not the case.

Worm · Post by **Worm** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:50 pm

Yeah, the solution came to me pretty quickly(the next day around noon after turning it off for the night), but the only way to come to that solution was to think of the puzzle in a very meta way. "Okay how is this intended to be solved, all previous puzzles have had one solution usually involving a single key motion or trick, etc" If a player needs to start thinking "what is the solution designed to be" rather than "what is the solution" that's a major failing of the game, not the gamer.

Essentially if you think of the puzzle in a linear fashion in someway you'll realize that it needs to be solved left to right, and that anything else is impossible. I would have liked if the falling monster could have been jumped on from the first ladder to hop you up to the second level, because using him to get to the third level in a single motion doesn't work as well and can be easily messed up.

It's present earlier in that stupid jigsaw puzzle solution.

The problems with the puzzle could have easily been solved by making the critter left/right immune rather than time immune, but again, blow doesn't craft anything subtly.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:07 am

I may have been hard on Braid.

Here is the thing - I have cursed a LOT of games in my time. I have sworn at the good ones, up and down. Before I understood that one of my favorites (Front Page Sports : Football Pro 96) wasn't Madden, and wasn't going to play like Madden, I took the disc from the drive and flung it across my bedroom. Spazzing out means that a game is good - if it were shitty, you just stop playing.

So I am going to give Braid another crack.

No, there is no explanation as to why the key is different. But this is Blow's first game, right? The first game he ever did? This is perfectly fine for someone's first game.

Plus, what the fuck else do I have going on.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:37 am

The key is, actually, NOT different, and works exactly the same way as it should, given the world 4 mechanics. Notice that all the other keys that DON'T act that way in world 4 are green sparkly ones.

This key is NOT, and thus is subject to the world 4 time laws, and behaves according to those laws, just like every other object in world 4 does.

You only THINK it acts special because it's the first (I think?) thing you can carry which is subject to the laws of world 4.

savvyraven · Post by **savvyraven** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 11:54 am

God I hope Braid dies a miserable death. That is the ONLY justice the game will have.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 12:23 pm

His name is TIM, and I just want BOTH of you (or all THREE of you, if Worm disagrees with me) to admit that the key works exactly the way it should given the way World 4 works, and that it is not a "special case".

ADMIT IT!

I DEMAND IT!

savvyraven · Post by **savvyraven** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 12:25 pm

I admit that it works in that it doesn't work!

hygraed · Post by **hygraed** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:10 pm

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... /203-Braid

He addresses a lot of the complaints you guys seem to have with the game, although his final verdict seems to be more favorable.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:11 pm

savvyraven wrote:I admit that it works in that it doesn't work!

Right. I will admit that it does not work in a way that I like it to work, which is how I thought it should work.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:11 pm

hygraed wrote:http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... /203-Braid

He addresses a lot of the complaints you guys seem to have with the game, although his final verdict seems to be more favorable.

Thank you for staying with us through the dark times of this BBS. I promise it will get better.

hygraed · Post by **hygraed** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:16 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Thank you for staying with us through the dark times of this BBS. I promise it will get better.

I post on Something Awful on a regular basis. The worst shitstorm I've seen on these forums pales in comparison to the idiocy I see every day in GBS.

Worm · Post by **Worm** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:16 am

ZP has been completely horrible for his last three reviews, so I'm kind of glad I can't watch that one currently.

Fickle companion may work like the world works, however you're not introduced to the world working like that up until that level (ladders and keys, and etc). Not to mention it makes perfect sense to think that the little goomba carrying the key would erase it's history. So it's a special case in that there's no lead up to it, and that there is a specific single solution where there would be two solutions if the game was consistient (ergo a time immune monster carrying the key shouldn't make it time immune. He may be able to effect it despite the time conditions, but I don't think the key starts glowing green when he holds it) so yeah, it's probably the worst puzzle in the entire game.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:26 am

hygraed wrote:http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... /203-Braid

He addresses a lot of the complaints you guys seem to have with the game, although his final verdict seems to be more favorable.

His complaints are valid except for the one about the "two door" thing, which while frustrating and seemingly random at first, turns out to not be random.

Like the key, they're just working exactly the way they should given the world 4 mechanics.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:32 am

Worm wrote:Fickle companion may work like the world works, however you're not introduced to the world working like that up until that level (ladders and keys, and etc).

No matter WHAT board the key was introduced on, it would still be the case that you're not introduced to it until then. Was it supposed to include a little tutorial bubble? "HINT: the key works just like everything else in this world, but since it is an inanimate object that you can carry, it will act differently from the goombas who are autonomic creatures!"

Not to mention it makes perfect sense to think that the little goomba carrying the key would erase it's history.

Of course it does. Such is the nature of the Green Sparkly Things.

(ergo a time immune monster carrying the key shouldn't make it time immune.

Of course it should. How many green sparkly platforms in the game make YOU time immune just for standing on them? (Answer: all of them.)

so yeah, it's probably the worst puzzle in the entire game.

This may be the case, but only because it's confusing, and more easily solved by just trying everything than by figuring out in your head. To say it doesn't make sense, though, is incorrect.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 11:53 am

It may make sense. But good game design has the thing "introduced" anyway. I am confident that the designer will nail this if he ever chooses to make another "side scroller" type puzzle game.

A guy making his first game is going to make some mistakes. It doesn't ruin the amazing job he did otherwise.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 12:17 pm

How is he going to introduce it in a way other than "putting it into the game at some point"?

The world 4 mechanic was introduced right away, in the first level, as all the world's work. How do you introduce different applications of the mechanic without just having them in the game?

Like I said, you want a tutorial before every board to explain why everything on the board is going to work like it is?

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:11 pm

pinback wrote:How is he going to introduce it in a way other than "putting it into the game at some point"?

The world 4 mechanic was introduced right away, in the first level, as all the world's work. How do you introduce different applications of the mechanic without just having them in the game?

Like I said, you want a tutorial before every board to explain why everything on the board is going to work like it is?

This is the fundamental issue with game design. Esepcially in a world where there are NO fucking manuals.

Ben, I grant you that it SEEMS tough. But you don't get off the hook here. Stuff that operates, or even seems to operate differently than other objects in the game world do need to be introduced.

Did you think that the puzzle forming a bridge was okay? Because I am 4 worlds in and that play mechanic hasn't been duplicated.