I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow Review

I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow is a short game about a boy who is sick and has to stay in the hospital for a while. You’ll be playing a bunch of mini-games while hearing his story. It takes around 2,5h to complete.

Approximate amount of time to 100%: 2,5 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10 for most of the achievements.. and one of the achievements it is very high… it is a skill-based timed achievement and I’m wondering if it is even possible.
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Is there a good guide available: Not yet, but for the most part you don’t need a guide
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: I am unsure as I’m missing the hidden cassette tape, if it is hidden in a mini-game or something it is not missable. It might be missable if it is in a room as you can’t return to those after finishing the game.
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No difficulty option
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No

I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow can be a triggering game, as it is about a young child who gets cancer and has to stay in the hospital for a while. This game starts with a trigger warning, but I would like to add that the story has a good ending, so if you wouldn’t play it because of the possible ending… I can take that fear away. If you still think the game hits too close to home because it is about a child stuck in the hospital, please check out a different game. Your mental and physical health are the most important things in life!

Another important part I would love to highlight is that 50% of revenue goes to Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity. So buying this game also helps out this charity while it gives you a small look into their work.

In I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow you will mostly be in your hospital room and play mini-games there. The game does an awesome job of highlighting which items are optional to do and which will progress the story. The red-outlined object will progress the story, so if you want to go for all the achievements, do that one last. The main mini-game is a platformer in which you play a cute bird. There are other mini-games like a racing game and one where the floor is lava.

What I love about this game is that it reminds me of my childhood. I haven’t been in a hospital in my childhood, but the toys you see and the SNES and GameBoy in the game, it all oozes nostalgic. The mini-games also trigger a nostalgic feeling.

I don’t want to dunk too much on this game as I love what they do for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity and I believe it is based on a real-life experience of the developer. It is amazing that they used their own experience to shed a light on such an important topic. However, I felt like the game is missing something, and I can’t put my finger on what it is missing. The game is short, but with such emotional storytelling games that is a good thing. Maybe some polish, but I understand the artwork is a choice and that it also helps with triggering that nostalgic video is you were a 90’s kid. So I’m not sure what I’m missing, but I’m missing something to get more hooked. That doesn’t take away that I did enjoy the story and had a blast playing through the game.

To complete the game it comes down to just play every mini-game for the most part. there are achievements for completing the platformer game, as well as for the racing game. If you missed those.. they can also be played afterward through the main menu.

There is an achievement for finding a hidden cassette tape, I’m unsure if this is missable as I haven’t found it. And there is an achievement for scoring over 15 points in the Throwing game… this one I’m sure I’ll never unlock myself.. my high score is 7 and that was with a bunch of luck already.. as I normally scored between 3 and 5. So I have no clue how to score over 15 in this skill-based but timed mini-game.

I give I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow 3,5 out of 5 stars.

This review for I’ll be Brave, Tomorrow was written on 25 September 2024, based on the current Steam version of the game which has 12 achievements at the time of writing this review. This information can be outdated, for example, when the developer adds or removes achievements or releases (new) DLC.