Braid made me feel sad and guilty long after I finished playing. Its main rule is rewinding time to fix mistakes, and this simple design hits me hard. At first, I thought rewinding was just a fun trick to beat puzzles. Every time I messed up, I hit the rewind button right away, believing I could erase all bad choices like the main character trying to save the princess. The game uses soft, fairy-tale pictures to trick you—everything looks warm, but small clues tell you the hero is actually the one who hurt others. The last level breaks this warm feeling completely. The princess runs away from him, and time rewind can no longer fix what he’s done wrong. Playing this game like reading a story, I learn that game rules carry real feelings. Some pain can never be taken back, and I only got this idea by slowly and carefully playing through every part.
