Ignoring the revisionist history which proclaims games like Braid as the progenitor of indie success in videogames—though its success in terms of the type of indie game it is (an "art game," per Jonathan Blow's description) and its market reach are certain signs of a paradigm shift to thwart AAA dominancy, an entirely capitalistic approach to videogame history—Braid demonstrates the impactful form of succinct play which designer/director Blow mostly prospers in as the analogies of Tim reveal themselves through 6 worlds. My initial concerns around this succinctness, especially in Worlds 5 and 6, as it diminishes the typical ramping-up of puzzle complexity existed until further replay and (as I'll discuss in my Anniversary Edition thoughts) the 15 hour commentary alleviated these concerns. Time is toyed with in intriguing manners, never overused, if often underused due to the brevity of the game; platforming, however, intrudes with a lack of precision compared to the games Blow criticizes (one of the possible narrative throughlines: AAA games, including Super Mario Bros., are regressive) with imitation and overt homage.

A personal bias against the type of puzzle game Braid is, relative to those I adore like the recent Lorelei and the Laser Eyes or Outer Wilds or Baba is You or, Blow's second major work, The Witness, left me without much interest in solving every puzzle myself, but with the commentary and additional play I have left Braid with great admiration of its design regardless. Furthermore, David Hellman's paintings provide the game an essential quality of handcrafted beauty to the graphics which assist Blow's artistic ambition contrasted to the homogenized franchises created by non-human companies, albeit these visuals have vast improvements in the 2024 remaster. With these paintings and the interactive elements, a story is wound around the ring, the hair, the body, and the overall semiotic sign of the Princess as it involves Tim, (hu)man, husband, and a force of fission: I'll leave this as a vague notion of what I consider to be Braid's narrative.

Braid, at least in this original version, may not be of the utmost importance in my mind to the development of indie games, puzzle games, art games, etc. In fact, The Witness is by all merits a better and essential videogame. What Braid does exemplify to me, in spite of my reluctance to praise it beyond its imperfections (to not speak too much into how it could make some puzzles easier to read or contain better audio or make the hidden puzzles less obtuse), is a considerable step away from what games "should" be for what they can truly be as an artform. This also includes making players wait almost two hours because (1.) it breaks the virtual space of game and play to a greater physical recognition and (2.) it is funny.