Review: Dive into cozy underwater fun with DAVE THE DIVER

Dave the Diver recently made a splash on the Nintendo Switch. Developed and published by Mintrocket, Dave the Diver is an adventure game originally released on Steam about a year ago. I’d heard a bit about the game and was interested, and with the new release on Switch it seemed like the perfect time to dive in. Mintrocket was kind enough to provide me with a copy of Dave the Diver for this review, but you can purchase it from the Nintendo eShop for $19.99.

DAVE THE DIVER is a single-player adventure RPG that involves deep-sea exploration and fishing during the day and running a sushi restaurant at night. Join Dave and his eccentric friends as they try to uncover the secrets of the mysterious Blue Hole.

In Dave the Diver, you take on the role of the titular Dave and are forced to dive for a rich guy to catch fish and other sea creatures. The fish are then used in a sushi restaurant where you end up working as a waiter. Along the way, there are a few other things that come up like fighting pirates, saving dolphins, finding shipwrecks with anime girl figurines, and more. The game is quite deep as it mixes roguelike mechanics with restaurant management.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect much from it Dave the Diver. I thought I’d have some fun, but I only see it as a relaxing game when I only have a few minutes to play something. The game immediately sunk its teeth into me and I was hooked. The game features a pixel art style that looks really cool. It’s not a graphically intense game, which means the Switch can handle it, and honestly, I love it as a portable game. For me it’s a perfect portable game. It looked pretty cozy and I didn’t even mind putting it on the TV.

The main part of the game is when you can go diving. Dave typically manages to do two dives a day: morning and afternoon. You can go in and use a harpoon, gun, and melee item to catch fish and other sea creatures like jellyfish. There are also items like glass, sea grapes, and more to collect, and upgrades for your items to make your dive a little easier. There are a couple of things you need to keep an eye on though. You have your storage limit, your O2, and your depth. All of these can be upgraded (as well as the power of your harpoon gun) before each dive for money earned by completing missions and doing well in your sushi restaurant. Your O2 acts as a health meter and if it drops to zero you will be saved, but you can only keep one item you have acquired, so choose wisely. It’s important to note that while you can craft new weapons and swap weapons before diving, weapons and upgrades acquired while diving do not carry over.

As you might expect, creatures closer to the surface tend to be more docile, but they don’t make you as much money at the restaurant. This helps generate risk and reward in the game. You’ll have cute clownfish and blue fish, as well as various sharks that want to fight, and at one point you’ll even fight a giant squid.

I also want to talk about the mechanics of the harpoon rifle. I’m not the biggest fan of how I have to hold A to aim and then while holding A pull ZR to shoot (same as the pistol). This is a little frustrating because in some cases I want to be able to react faster. Once you hook a fish, there are a couple of things that could happen. If he is weak enough, he will fight a bit and then be revived. Sometimes you will have to hit the fish multiple times. Other times you will be prompted to perform some sort of quick event (mashing a button, specific button sequences, etc.). This helps keep things a little varied. Plus, there’s a lovely setting that means you can hold down the button or joystick instead of mashing it and I love it so much!

Now let’s talk about the restaurant part Dave the Diver. Most evenings you will play the role of manager and waiter for the sushi restaurant. You will have to hire employees, fulfill orders, serve drinks, set up the menu and more. You set the menu each night based on your inventory and learned recipes, and you can even level up dishes if you have enough required ingredients to make people happier and earn more money per dish. You can also keep changing the menu after opening the restaurant each evening, which is really helpful when dishes run out. To serve the dishes, you go and collect them from the chef and then bring them to the customer. Drinks are little minigames where you have to pour just enough (not too much, not too little) for customers. This all works really well for me and the only thing I don’t like in restaurants is when you have to clean up a place which seems slow and frustrating.

Another fun part of Dave the Diver are some of the exaggerated footage that plays. When you upgrade a dish, craft a new weapon, look up a new recipe, or do a few other things, a cutscene will play that is ever so delightfully over-the-top. If you’re looking to speed up a gaming session or just don’t want to watch it, you can skip them.

Let’s talk about the negatives. The number one complaint I have is that it takes a long time to load anything. Once you load things up, the journey is smooth, but getting there takes longer than I’d like. For me personally it is like this. Dave the Diver It runs at 30fps on Switch, but honestly that wasn’t an issue for me, although I know some are more particular about it and I’ve heard that busier areas notice a drop.

Dave the Diver It’s a really fun game! I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Dave and am excited to continue playing. If you’re looking for a gripping story or cutting-edge graphics, this isn’t for you. However, the combination of business management and roguelike mechanics is really up my alley. If you liked other games like Hades OR Cult of the LambI highly recommend it Dave the Diver.