Dave the Diver Review - A Chill Diver by Day And A Fun Server by Night

I don't often play chill games because I like the games with hard combat or game with parry mechanics but I'm glad I played Dave the Diver.

After been recommended by many of my followers on X and a friend of mine - and also the fact that my Nintendo Switch 2 was just lying around - I figured that the best way to use it is to be able to play a chill game that I can pop up open any time I wanted and that's when I decided to buy Dave The Diver for Switch.

Dave The Diver is a love letter to the Indie games. While MintRocket is not an Indie dev they did everything possible to make this game look and feel like an Indie game and it shows in the characteristics of the game.

So what makes Dave The Diver such a successful game? Well that's what I wanna talk about!

When I started Dave The Diver, I did not have high hopes because it wasn't a Hollow Knight or PoP The Lost Crown like game but the game instantly grabbed me with it's premise; Help your friend run his Sushi restaurant and follow your love for diving into the ocean to catch fish for the restaurant.

The Gameplay

Gameplay of Dave The Diver is very simple and Straight forward, you hunt for fishes, grow crops etc for your restaurant by the day and you at night you gotta run serve at your restaurant by night! Let's break it down further.

The Day Activities

• Fishing - In order to serve sushi you need fish, lots of them, the better the quality of fish the more money you make. Quality is governed by how you catch the fish. If you kill the fish, it's a low quality, if you tranquilize or net the fish, it's higher grade. Now there are fishes that will come after you so you gotta watch out for them.

• Farming - Later in the game, you unlock a farm for vegetables for your restaurant and that allows you to make better dishes and rake in more money.

• Eggs collection - You also unlock a feature that allows you to gather eggs from your chickens.

The Evening and Night Activities

• Serving at your restaurant - You decide the menu with the fish you collect and then serve the dish to the customer as they show up.

• Serving drinks - Over time of the whole game you serve Tea, Beer and Cocktails to customers for bonuses and Higher tips, and it kind of involves a min-game. You have to server these drinks at the right amount to get the good tips otherwise you customers will not be satisfied.

• Managing the Restaurant - Well you can do this at any time of the day but when you are not serving food, you get to manage your staff, the ingredients needed for dishes, unlocking new recipes etc.

Overall, the gameplay loop of the game hits the sweet spot and keeps you busy without making you feel like you are doing the same thing over and over again. How does it do that? well let's talk about it when we talk about story of the game.

The Story, Quests and Characters

As I said earlier, the gameplay doesn't feel repetitive thanks to the story and quests of the game. What story and quest does is that it gives you a motivating enough task that it takes your attention away from the gameplay but keeps it all to its quests. So when you dive in to hunt for fish, the quest needs you to hunt for specific fishes and then you are lost looking for those fishes and while you are doing that you also look for high quality fishes for your general customers at the restaurant.

The story is centered around helping people, where and who? I'll leave that to you to discover but know that it's a very well written story and the dialogues are very witty, you will have a chuckle or two.

The characters of the game are very well made, they all have a witty sides to them and that makes this game more enjoyable. Since the dialogues in the game are in written format instead of voice, the writing and characters ensured that it was never boring.

Combat, Tools and Upgrades

Well there is not a lot of combating in the game but you do need equipment to be able to catch fish, protect yourself against sharks etc. and that's when guns come into play.

There are several types of guns that aid you in their unique way, from sniper to bombs, and some very unique guns that I won't talk about so that you can have that joy of finding them for the first time.

As for tool, in order to dive into the depth of the sea, you need proper diving gear otherwise you will be fish food and the game provides you a breathing mask and oxygen cylinder, diving suit and a carry box to store your fish.

All the above tools and equipments can be upgraded to go deeper into the sea and hunt bigger fishes!

Graphics and Cut Scenes

If you love pixelated art then consider this as the top of table form of it! I mostly play AA or AAA games and this was great change of pace to see those character movements and animations in pixelated form and it was no short of fun.

The cutscenes of the game is going to live in your memory for a long time. Each one of them have a Ninja form to it and they look super cool, when you see it, you will love it.

Conclusion

I had an excellent time with Dave The Diver and I enjoyed every moment it. I normally don't play DLCs of the game but I straight up played the Godzilla and Dredge DLCs for it because I wanted to see more of the game. I may have spent 30-40 hours in this small game but I could have easily played some more.

I hope when you are looking for a chill game or just a good game to play, you give Dave The Diver a chance because I am certain that you will fall in love with it too.