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Each year, far above the clouds in the Celestial Archipelago, a tournament is held where legendary figures send their braves to face strange trials. This time, the action takes place on the Sylvania Isles, a lush and magical setting full of creatures, forest paths, and other mildly suspicious things.
In Bravest, each player becomes one of these legendary figures. You build two paths across your island: one for your agile brave, who deals with tricky terrain, and one for your invincible brave, who faces off against monsters. The goal is to collect as many prestige points as possible by guiding both braves through the paths you’ve created. The one with the highest score becomes the new legend of the archipelago.
👥 2-4 players, ages 8+
⌛ Playing time: 20 minutes
📝 Designers: Maxime Rambourg & Théo Rivière
🎨 Artwork: Eyha
🏢 Publisher: Laboludic (Review copy provided by Geronimo Games)
Gameplay Overview
The game begins with each player choosing a legendary figure and taking their own two-piece island board. You also get two wooden brave tokens, one for each type, and a score marker in your player colour.
The island boards are double-sided. One side is called Light and is recommended for your first few games. The other side, Darkness, has slightly more complex challenges and makes the game a bit tougher. Nothing dramatic, but enough to shake things up once you’ve got the basics down. Everyone has to play the same side for a session, so no mixing.
All 75 tiles are shuffled and placed in the box, which acts as the draw pile. In the centre of the table, you place the round drafting board, showing the Sylvania Isles. You draw 12 tiles and place them around the edge, then place three selector tokens to mark which tiles can be picked.
On your turn, you choose one of the three tiles indicated by the selectors and add it to your island. Tiles need to be placed on the grid and must either connect to an existing tile or extend one of your two starting paths. You’re not forced to line up paths perfectly, but just keep in mind that braves stop if they hit a dead end.
After placing your tile, you move the selector that was next to it clockwise to the next available tile. Then draw a new tile from the box and fill the empty space.
Each brave starts in their own corner of the board. The agile brave begins in the bottom-left and moves through terrain-based challenges. The invincible brave starts in the top-right and faces various creatures. Different tile symbols give different kinds of points, and some tiles give bonuses when placed cleverly or in combination with others. Most of the game is spent trying to place tiles in ways that serve both braves without completely blocking one off. Easier said than done.
Once all players have filled their island grid, the game ends, and you flip the central board over to reveal the score track. Each brave then moves along the path you built for them, automatically following the yellow lines until they reach the edge of the board, hit a dead end, or end up back where they’ve already been. They’re not allowed to travel the same segment twice, though both braves can cross the same tile if needed.
Points are scored along the way for whatever symbols they encounter, and whoever has the most prestige at the end wins.
Artwork and Components
The look of Bravest is bright, colourful, and pretty charming without being overly cute. The box art shows the two braves standing on a glowing mountaintop, which gives you a good idea of what kind of world you’re stepping into. The fantasy theme isn’t super deep, but the artwork gives it character.
Each island board is nicely illustrated, with clear starting zones. The central board looks good on the table and serves both as the drafting board and the scoring track, depending on which side is showing. The selector tokens are large and easy to spot, which helps when you’re quickly checking tile availability.
The terrain tiles are really the centre of the design. They’re bright and clean, with consistent icon placement. Symbols like swords, lava, ghosts or mages are easy to spot, and the yellow paths are well contrasted against the backgrounds. Even if you rotate tiles, it’s clear what’s what, which helps keep the game flowing without constant second-guessing.
The brave tokens are chunky wooden pieces with simple illustrations. They’re easy to tell apart: the agile one is smaller and lighter in appearance, while the invincible one looks like they’ve been doing push-ups for a hundred years. There are also useful reference sections on each island board, which help cut down on rulebook checks.
Overall, the components are well made and practical, with just enough charm to set the tone without going overboard.
Our Experience
In our plays of Bravest, the game came across as a light, puzzle-style experience that worked well for casual sessions. Everyone works on their own island, but the shared tile draft brings a bit of interaction. It’s not confrontational, but you do end up watching what others are collecting, especially if someone’s clearly building a strong path and you see a tile they obviously want. Whether you take it or not… well, that’s up to you.
The light side of the board was good for learning the game and understanding how tile combinations worked. The darkness side added a bit more complexity without changing the overall feel. It didn’t make the game deeper in a major way, but it did force us to think slightly harder about placements and paths.
The gameplay itself is quite calm. There’s very little pressure, but still enough decisions to keep it engaging. Balancing the two braves is where most of the challenge lies. Focusing too much on one usually means the other suffers, and since both score separately, you can’t afford to ignore either.
The end of the game, when each brave walks their path and triggers effects, was surprisingly fun to watch. You see the result of your choices play out in front of you. Sometimes they glide through smoothly, other times they get stuck far too early because you were overly clever (or careless) during tile placement. It’s the kind of game where mistakes feel like learning moments rather than disasters.
We didn’t find much downtime, even with four players. Turns are usually quick, and the rules don’t invite overthinking. That said, at higher player counts the draft can slow slightly if someone gets stuck analysing every tile. For us, two or three players was the ideal count.
Final Thoughts
Bravest is a friendly, family-weight game that leans into spatial puzzles and light tile drafting. It’s easy to learn, nice to look at, and offers just enough decisions to keep players engaged without pushing anyone too hard.
That said, it’s a fairly relaxed experience. If you’re into tight competition, direct interaction, or games with long-term strategy, this probably isn’t going to scratch that itch. It’s more of a build-your-own-adventure puzzle, with a bit of drafting on the side.
The most rewarding part of the game is in managing both braves and trying to squeeze as much as you can out of limited tile options. It never becomes overwhelming, but you do feel the pressure of trying to make the most out of imperfect choices.
It didn’t completely wow us, but we enjoyed it, and it’s something we’d gladly bring out on a quiet evening, especially with mixed groups or families. The charming art and low-stress gameplay make it approachable, and the dual-path mechanic gives it just enough personality to stand out.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Geronimo Games for review.
