This is a pretty unique game. I think the best way to describe it would be a Stardew Valley meets Recettear meets a restaurant manager game mishmash. Then add about a hundred tiny minigames to it and some crazy characters and you pretty much get yourself a Dave the Diver.


The main activity of the game is diving in the blue hole, where all kinds of fishes can be found. You hop in the water, hunt for fish for the sushi restaurant, gather ingredients and weapon parts, avoid aggressive fish and try to manage your (not so) limited air supply while doing all that. It's fun, it's super relaxing and straight-up addictive.

The first 20h of the game, I literally couldn't stop playing. Collecting fish cards, fighting pirates and bosses, upgrading weapons and discovering the secrets of the lost civilization I wanted to do it all. And as you progress, more things to do open up, breeding fish, managing a farm and so on. Haven't had this much fun in a game for a while.

The game loses some steam later on, however. AFAIK the chapters were being releases during the early access and the devs had to keep the players busy between chapter drops. Later on the game gets a bit too grindy and there's a lot of things to manage. Diving, sushi restaurant, 2 farms, fish breeding, night diving, GYAO and other things require a lot of micromanagement and when you finally open a second location, it's just too much work. I just wanted to dive, man.

One more thing that bugged the hell out of me is the inconsistency with the hand-holding. Sometimes the game would give you an unskippable pop-up and small mini-game to try out new mechanics, other times, you didn't even know that there's something new to do. Hell, I didn't even figure out you can refill the wasabi yourself until 15h into the game.


I think the pixel graphics of DtD is great. The characters, fish and surroundings look absolutely beautiful. Especially, the first and main zone of the blue hole is an absolute masterpiece for me. The lively colours and lo-fi music feel amazing and even after unlocking all of the content the game has to offer, I think I spent most of the time in the first zone. It's just so good.

I felt a bit underwhelmed with the final couple of areas, I think they were visually rather dead compared to the initial zone. It doesn't help they're mostly non-randomized, so there isn't much exploration to be done. The shallow and medium depths change quite often, which is very refreshing. The rest of the game is rather static in comparison.


The wacky characters of DtD definitely add a lot of charm to the game. From the stoic Bancho to anime-obssessed Duff they all find original and funny in their own way. There's a lot of interactions between Dave and the other characters and they're often quite hilarious.

The main story, however, feels pretty bland. At first it's quite interesting, but as you go further it reveals itself as a rather cookie cutter experience. No spoilers, but halfway through you'll probably already figure out how the game is going to end.


I think Dave the Diver starts VERY strong. I was in complete awe of it the first half of the game. The latter half is not as good, but I still think the game is amazing and definitely worth picking up, even at full price.