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 that was originally released on Steam approximately a year ago. I had heard a little bit about the game and became interested in it, and with the new release on Switch, it felt like the perfect time to dive in. Mintrocket has been kind enough to provide me with a copy of Dave the Diver for this review, but you can grab it from the Nintendo eShop for $19.99.

DAVE THE DIVER is a casual, single-player adventure RPG featuring deep-sea exploration and fishing during the day and sushi restaurant management at night. Join Dave and his quirky friends as they seek to uncover the secrets of the mysterious Blue Hole.

In Dave the Diver, you take on the role of the titular Dave and get roped into diving for a wealthy guy to catch fish and other sea creatures. The fish are then used in a sushi restaurant where you end up working as a server. Along the way, there are a few other things that come up such as fighting pirates, rescuing dolphins, finding shipwrecks with anime girl statuettes, and more. The game has quite a bit of depth as it mixes roguelike mechanics with restaurant management.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from Dave the Diver. I figured that I’d have a bit of fun, but see it as just a chill game when I have just a few minutes to play something. The game quickly sunk its teeth into me and I got hooked. The game features a pixel art style that looks really good. It’s not a graphically intensive game which means the Switch can handle it and honestly, I love it as a handheld game. For me, it’s a perfect handheld game. It felt kind of cozy to me and I didn’t even care about putting it on my TV.

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

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

I do also want to talk about the mechanics of the harpoon gun. I’m not the biggest fan of how I have to hold A to aim and then while holding A pull ZR to fire (the same as the gun). This feels a little frustrating as I want to be able to react faster in some instances. Once you hook a fish, there are a couple of things that could happen. If it’s weak enough, it’ll fight a little and then get reeled in. Sometimes you have to hit the fish multiple times. Other times you will be prompted to some kind of quick time event (mash a button, specific button sequences, etc.). This helps keep things feeling a little varied. Also, there’s a lovely setting that makes it so that you can hold the button or joystick instead of mash it and I love that so much!

Now let’s talk about the restaurant portion of Dave the Diver. Most nights, you’ll serve as the manager and server for the sushi restaurant. You’ll need to hire employees, carry orders out, serve drinks, set the menu, and more. You set the menu each night based on your inventory and learned recipes and can even level up dishes if you have enough of the required ingredients to make people happier and earn more money per plate. You can also continue to adjust the menu after you open the restaurant each night which is really helpful as dishes run out. To serve plates, you go pick it up from the chef and then run it over to the customer. Drinks are little mini-games where you have to pour just enough (not too much and not too little) for customers. This all works really well for me and the only thing I’m not a fan of at the restaurant is when you have to clean up a place which just feels slow and frustrating.

Another fun part of Dave the Diver are some of the over the top cutscenes that play. When you upgrade a dish, craft a new weapon, research a new recipe, or do a few other things a cutscene will play that is always so delightfully over the top. If you’re trying to rush through a play 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 does take a long time to load anything. Once things are loaded, it’s a smooth ride, but getting there takes longer than I’d like. For me personally, that’s it. Dave the Diver does run at 30fps on Switch, but it honestly has not been a problem for me although I know some are more particular about that and I have heard busier areas do see a dip.

Dave the Diver is a really fun game! I have greatly enjoyed my time with Dave and am excited to keep playing. If you’re looking for a gripping story or cutting edge graphics, this won’t be for you. However, the mixture of the business management and roguelike mechanics really do it for me. If you’ve enjoyed other games like Hades or Cult of the Lamb, I would definitely recommend Dave the Diver.