Nothing Like A Video Game To Make You Feel Stupid

[dudelovenext]

So I downloaded Braid for the Xbox 360 a while ago. I wanted to beat the game without a guide, but the last four puzzle pieces I just couldn't get.

So I caved in and looked it up and beat the game.

Wow. I really did not get this game and its message.

The last level of this game is unlike anything I've played. It wasn't too hard, but I had a "oh shit!" moment.

The level starts out seeming like you are rescuing a princess. You help each other by flipping switches to lower doors so that the wall of fire doesn't catch either of you. But you then get to the end of the level and you are standing outside the princess' bedroom window. You play the level in reverse and you are actually trying to stop each other, just narrowly missing.

It was a real mind-trip. You can go here for a great break-down of the plot.

One thing that pisses me off is reading an interview with the game's creator, Jon Blow. He said that he didn't want to give the meaning away and that it was up to each person to interpret it.

I don't like people like that. While it's awesome to let people figure it out and let them go "Ah-ha!", some people just won't get it. Is it that great that you're denying many people a great story, just because they don't get it?

Still, great story, go download it. :)

Comments

[fearless-son.livejournal.com]

I think that Yahtzee gives an excellent summery (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/203-Braid) of what that game accomplishes.

[dudelovenext.livejournal.com]

Do you agree with his assessment? Did you get the story?

[fearless-son.livejournal.com]

Honestly? It is clear that Johnathan Blow made the story deliberately ambiguous, he has indicated that by saying that it was meant to be individually interpreted and discussed. However, I question as to weather there is actually one true "meaning" written into the story. I think that Blow never had a firm narrative ending in mind.

I think of it a little like Shadow of the Colossus. That is another game that is open to interpretation, and that vagueness was deliberate on the part of the developer. The director of the game has said that it is his belief that Wander is the first in the line of the curse of horns that lead to Ico, but he stressed that is just his interpretation rather than an absolute intended narrative. By saying that, he is also saying that Shadow of the Colossus never actually had an intended narrative at the end, there was no "true meaning" to it. I think that Braid is the same way.