10 Seriously Dark Video Game Endings

9. Braid

Jonathan Blow’s 2008 puzzle platformer Braid is an interesting one. From the outset you’re a dude called Tim travelling through a series of bright, whimsical levels using your handy power of time manipulation to save a princess from a monster.

Or so it seems.

In the game’s final level everything but Tim moves in reverse. It depicts the princess running from a knight, working with Tim to dodge obstacles in order to reach her home. In Braid’s final moments, however, time moves forward again reversing Tim’s actions which shows the Princess running from Tim, placing obstacles to try and evade him and finally being rescued by the knight.

It’s revealed that the monster she’s running from is actually Tim, the dude you’ve been playing as the whole game.

The implications of you being the villain of the story the whole time, and the recontextualising of Tim’s reflection on himself and comments on his journey and the princess the whole time are pretty damn unsettling. That’s doubled down given you’ve already connected with Tim quite a bit due to the frustrations of many of the game’s tricky puzzles. Only to find out he sucks.