Dave the Diver is full of style and charm and made me smile more than any game in recent memory. The pixel art cut scenes full of over the top anime-isms are totally endearing and wildly creative. There is a really interesting pairing of gameplay elements here: part Subnautica-esque deep sea exploration, part star-dew valley style resource management game, part restaurant management game ala overcooked. It sounds like it would be really difficult for a game like this to work but somehow it comes together quite well. The game also sprinkles in new minigames and mechanics at the drop of a hat to keep things interesting. These are often loving throwbacks to classic games or comedic nods to some element of pop culture. Most of these sections will put a smile on your face and even the ones that don't never overstay their welcome so even when they miss the mark a bit they will at least not bore you.
This is going to seem odd here, but the same thing I just complimented the game for also becomes my main critique; that is that the game feels like it should be a 5-10 hour experience but the developers keep trying to cram new things into it to increase the runtime. Because pretty much every day involves generally the same loop of fishing, checking on the garden, possibly progressing the story, and maybe playing a minigame before running the sushi restaurant at night 50-75% of what you do every loop will be the same thing you've done dozens of times already. This begins to drag towards the end and I ended up just trying to hurry up and finish it so I didn't reach my limit and abandon ship (ship... get it, diving pun, yes!). Even with this lull at the end I still really enjoyed my time with the game in total. Though when I think about Dave the Diver I am reminded of the difference between the American and British version of The Office. Remember kids, most of the time it's best to leave the audience wanting more instead of giving them more and more until they lose interest.
This is going to seem odd here, but the same thing I just complimented the game for also becomes my main critique; that is that the game feels like it should be a 5-10 hour experience but the developers keep trying to cram new things into it to increase the runtime. Because pretty much every day involves generally the same loop of fishing, checking on the garden, possibly progressing the story, and maybe playing a minigame before running the sushi restaurant at night 50-75% of what you do every loop will be the same thing you've done dozens of times already. This begins to drag towards the end and I ended up just trying to hurry up and finish it so I didn't reach my limit and abandon ship (ship... get it, diving pun, yes!). Even with this lull at the end I still really enjoyed my time with the game in total. Though when I think about Dave the Diver I am reminded of the difference between the American and British version of The Office. Remember kids, most of the time it's best to leave the audience wanting more instead of giving them more and more until they lose interest.