Gameplay:
Dave the Diver has an engaging gameplay loop at first that combines simple underwater exploration and catching fishies during the day and restaurant management during the night. It offers a serviceable blend of dungeon crawling/exploring the deep and management elements, keeping players engaged with diverse activities. However, the experience can become stale quickly, and completely irrelevant mechanics introcuced until literally the last moment of the game forcing you to partake in tons of different things and activities that are nowhere near as interesting as the core mechanics, as upgrades also get really grindy in the mid game and get worse as it goes on. It feels like the tutorial never truly ends, even the final boss (and even the credits) introduces some type of new mechanic that just gets frustrating after this unnecessarily long game reaches the end. I loved the first 3 or so hours, but it got so slow and boring the longer I played. Despite these issues, the core gameplay loop is addictive, but after a while everything besides getting the main objectives become pointless and I spent way too much time working on my restaurant before I realized after you make some money, theres really nothing new to see with that aspect. All that while the game forces you into required kpop concerts, breeding fish tutorials, becoming a journalist taking pictures, farming crop tutorials, Tamagotchi clones, stealth missions on land, escort missions, controlling two character at once, and that's just the surface. If these mechanics were more fleshed out and optional I would like them a bit more. But the game just DRAGS AND DRAGS on for way longer than it needs to due to these additions.
Graphics/Visuals:
The pixel art in Dave the Diver is nice, with some genuinely great looking cutscenes in the core style getting to see the characters in a bit more detail, while they all have great and unique designs. But the mix of 2d pixel characters and 3d environments looks a bit off at times. The art direction of individual assets is good though. Each location underwater is basically the same thing but with a filter on it and different colored rocks though.
Story/Narrative:
The story in Dave the Diver is engaging at first, trying to get your resturaunt settled and getting customers, with a blend of humor and some mystery. It does succeed in that at least. Dave is basically forcibly drawn into opening a sushi restaurant, leading to a series of adventures underwater. The writing is lighthearted and pretty simple but occasionally deep, out of nowhere leading to unskippable and long cutscenes where you do nothing besides listen for a good 10 minutes or so. The worst slap in the face is when I was presented with an option to hear the deep lore as the "short version or long version" I selected the short version of course because it was already a while before I actually got to play the game, and the characters ignored what I asked for and just gave me the long version anyway as a "joke" that wasn't very funny. I do love Dave and all of the other quirky characters though but sometimes the story just comes to a halt when you are forced to return to the surface constantly, get a single item, and come back for no reason other than to pad out the time it seems.
Audio/Sound:
The audio design and music in Dave the Diver complement setting perfectly, it feels like you are underwater exploring with mellow tracks and distant sounds. The sound effects and music are well crafted. The soundtrack sometimes even changes to the different gameplay segments, like when you enter a building or ride a beluga it will play a different version of the same song. Hot pepper tuna is my song of the year of course.
Replayability:
Dave the Diver offers a huge amount of content, but I highly doubt anybody would ever want to slowly bog through this game a second time. Being able to skip entire pointless sections, cutscenes, and minigames however would improve this MASSIVELY. The game can feel so repetitive and tedious in the later stages, when searching for hidden items or grinding for the many upgrades. A completionist probably wouldn't even 100% this one aside from maybe all upgrades and 3 star fish and stop there.
Innovation:
Dave the Diver combines multiple genres constantly, for the most part this doesn't really work for me because none of them are particularly done well, but it does at least create a unique gameplay experience for sure. If the game was shorter, with deeper resuraunt and diving mechanics I wouldve rated this higher on innovation even while having less ideas because each of those pointless ideas are as fleshed out as Mr game&watch games for the most part. They are all just the bare minimum to be considered minigames and the average Mario Party minigame trumps each of them in polish. I guess it IS innovative to have a never ending stream of ideas in this, but it doesn't FEEL like it really is.
Content/Extras:
The game is packed with content, but do you really want to experience most of it? My opinion is no. Catching all 3 star fish, maxxing out your stats and your restaurant is enough for me. You couldnt pay me to 100% this game with collecting all the weapons, and 100% each minigame, along with a million other checklists offered. There IS at least always something to do, and if you love the game and the gameplay switchups you might like to complete it. However, compared to another game that balances a lot of different ideas and gameplay changes (Inscryption) this game pales in comparison. In Inscryption, I am extremely excited when the gameplay switches up, but in this I groan loudly. None of the new ideas and minigames significant value to the overall experience. The Dredge DLC was exciting to start, but after playing it, I realized it was the same exact thing as the core experience but with a different coat of paint.
Overall Enjoyment:
Dave the Diver is a fun and charming game at first and still retains some of that charm throughout, that offers an overwhelming blend of new gameplay elements constantly that never seems to deliver mostly. It also has some pacing issues in the story and can feel repetitive over time. The core gameplay loop is highly satisfying until you play for a few hours then the main interesting piece of this game feels like work. The games visual and audio design is great of course, its story involving the induvidual characters is great, but the extended lore is a chore to listen to. It might seem like I hate this game, but I dont. At least not until the last few hours of this game I finally reached a point where I couldnt wait for it to be over. But I think I had some fun at least for long enough. It does have some memorable moments though.
Similar Game:
Moonlighter
My Time at Portia
Dave the Diver has an engaging gameplay loop at first that combines simple underwater exploration and catching fishies during the day and restaurant management during the night. It offers a serviceable blend of dungeon crawling/exploring the deep and management elements, keeping players engaged with diverse activities. However, the experience can become stale quickly, and completely irrelevant mechanics introcuced until literally the last moment of the game forcing you to partake in tons of different things and activities that are nowhere near as interesting as the core mechanics, as upgrades also get really grindy in the mid game and get worse as it goes on. It feels like the tutorial never truly ends, even the final boss (and even the credits) introduces some type of new mechanic that just gets frustrating after this unnecessarily long game reaches the end. I loved the first 3 or so hours, but it got so slow and boring the longer I played. Despite these issues, the core gameplay loop is addictive, but after a while everything besides getting the main objectives become pointless and I spent way too much time working on my restaurant before I realized after you make some money, theres really nothing new to see with that aspect. All that while the game forces you into required kpop concerts, breeding fish tutorials, becoming a journalist taking pictures, farming crop tutorials, Tamagotchi clones, stealth missions on land, escort missions, controlling two character at once, and that's just the surface. If these mechanics were more fleshed out and optional I would like them a bit more. But the game just DRAGS AND DRAGS on for way longer than it needs to due to these additions.
Graphics/Visuals:
The pixel art in Dave the Diver is nice, with some genuinely great looking cutscenes in the core style getting to see the characters in a bit more detail, while they all have great and unique designs. But the mix of 2d pixel characters and 3d environments looks a bit off at times. The art direction of individual assets is good though. Each location underwater is basically the same thing but with a filter on it and different colored rocks though.
Story/Narrative:
The story in Dave the Diver is engaging at first, trying to get your resturaunt settled and getting customers, with a blend of humor and some mystery. It does succeed in that at least. Dave is basically forcibly drawn into opening a sushi restaurant, leading to a series of adventures underwater. The writing is lighthearted and pretty simple but occasionally deep, out of nowhere leading to unskippable and long cutscenes where you do nothing besides listen for a good 10 minutes or so. The worst slap in the face is when I was presented with an option to hear the deep lore as the "short version or long version" I selected the short version of course because it was already a while before I actually got to play the game, and the characters ignored what I asked for and just gave me the long version anyway as a "joke" that wasn't very funny. I do love Dave and all of the other quirky characters though but sometimes the story just comes to a halt when you are forced to return to the surface constantly, get a single item, and come back for no reason other than to pad out the time it seems.
Audio/Sound:
The audio design and music in Dave the Diver complement setting perfectly, it feels like you are underwater exploring with mellow tracks and distant sounds. The sound effects and music are well crafted. The soundtrack sometimes even changes to the different gameplay segments, like when you enter a building or ride a beluga it will play a different version of the same song. Hot pepper tuna is my song of the year of course.
Replayability:
Dave the Diver offers a huge amount of content, but I highly doubt anybody would ever want to slowly bog through this game a second time. Being able to skip entire pointless sections, cutscenes, and minigames however would improve this MASSIVELY. The game can feel so repetitive and tedious in the later stages, when searching for hidden items or grinding for the many upgrades. A completionist probably wouldn't even 100% this one aside from maybe all upgrades and 3 star fish and stop there.
Innovation:
Dave the Diver combines multiple genres constantly, for the most part this doesn't really work for me because none of them are particularly done well, but it does at least create a unique gameplay experience for sure. If the game was shorter, with deeper resuraunt and diving mechanics I wouldve rated this higher on innovation even while having less ideas because each of those pointless ideas are as fleshed out as Mr game&watch games for the most part. They are all just the bare minimum to be considered minigames and the average Mario Party minigame trumps each of them in polish. I guess it IS innovative to have a never ending stream of ideas in this, but it doesn't FEEL like it really is.
Content/Extras:
The game is packed with content, but do you really want to experience most of it? My opinion is no. Catching all 3 star fish, maxxing out your stats and your restaurant is enough for me. You couldnt pay me to 100% this game with collecting all the weapons, and 100% each minigame, along with a million other checklists offered. There IS at least always something to do, and if you love the game and the gameplay switchups you might like to complete it. However, compared to another game that balances a lot of different ideas and gameplay changes (Inscryption) this game pales in comparison. In Inscryption, I am extremely excited when the gameplay switches up, but in this I groan loudly. None of the new ideas and minigames significant value to the overall experience. The Dredge DLC was exciting to start, but after playing it, I realized it was the same exact thing as the core experience but with a different coat of paint.
Overall Enjoyment:
Dave the Diver is a fun and charming game at first and still retains some of that charm throughout, that offers an overwhelming blend of new gameplay elements constantly that never seems to deliver mostly. It also has some pacing issues in the story and can feel repetitive over time. The core gameplay loop is highly satisfying until you play for a few hours then the main interesting piece of this game feels like work. The games visual and audio design is great of course, its story involving the induvidual characters is great, but the extended lore is a chore to listen to. It might seem like I hate this game, but I dont. At least not until the last few hours of this game I finally reached a point where I couldnt wait for it to be over. But I think I had some fun at least for long enough. It does have some memorable moments though.
Similar Game:
Moonlighter
My Time at Portia