Dave the Diver is a magical, mesmerizing, unforgettable gem. Mintrocket’s debut game isn’t just one of the best indie games of the year—it’s also quickly become one of my favorite games of the last decade. Its world is beautiful, tantalizing, and surprisingly dangerous. Dave and the cast are well-written and meticulously animated. The sushi makes me hungry every time I play.
Dave the Diver more than delivers on its promise as a fun maritime adventure and role-playing game. Part salt-water exploration game, part sushi restaurant management sim, the game becomes so much more than the ocean blue aesthetic that initially meets the eye.
The Restaurant and the Blue Hole
Dave begins the game lounging on the beach. A phone call from an old colleague, Cobra, compels Dave from this comfort to the Blue Hole to catch marine life, uncover secrets, and serve sushi at Chef Bancho’s new restaurant. And, yes, you can interact with and feed the resident cat, Momo!
Dave’s days are divided between mornings diving in the Blue Hole and evenings working at the restaurant. The diving portion of the game revolves around catching fish, collecting objects (e.g., materials, relics, weapons), and completing the game’s compelling main and side quests. I won’t spoil the game’s underwater plot, but once things get eerily more fantastical than they initially seem, players are in for an engaging and worthwhile adventure in the depths.
Don’t write off the game’s sushi restaurant management as a distraction or simple mini-game. There are mini-games (and they are fun throwbacks to classic games that often feel Warioware-esque in fantastic ways). But the management of the sushi restaurant—serving food and drink, selecting the day’s menu, keeping the wasabi filled, hiring servers and chefs, etc.—is a full game by itself. The VIP characters that come through the door have rich, comedic, and occasionally even tragic backstories that are often revealed by serving them just the right meal.
Multivalent Dave
Playing as Dave presents two interlacing role-playing adventures. Catching fish and collecting objects helps you earn research points, upgrade weapons and gear, and prepare new dishes for the evening. Meanwhile, maintaining an interesting and diverse sushi menu helps the restaurant grow or “level up” on the social media website Cooksta—the food Instagram of Dave’s world. By selling sushi, the player will earn money, which they can use to improve Dave’s diving gear, buy weapons upgrades, hire and train staff, and later invest in sustainable fish, rice, and vegetation farms.
If all of that sounds like a lot to keep up with, it is. But magically, the game rarely (if ever) feels overwhelming. Gentle reminders via email or phone calls will nudge the player to tend to their farms. Upgrading, researching, and hiring all feel like natural processes built into the game’s two core routines.
These routines are so well calibrated and executed that players will rarely want to put Dave the Diver down. A Pokémon-inspired challenge to collect in-game cards incentivizes you to catch every fish at its highest grade. Achieving a high grade hinges on capturing fish alive, which in turn requires upgraded weapons and tools. Those upgrades are only possible by completing research goals, growing your sushi profits, and checking off various side quests. Minutes quickly turn to hours spent in the Blue Hole.
A Mysterious Blue Hole
The Blue Hole holds many secrets. However big the player may think the map is, an octopus or dolphin will quickly reveal a hidden entrance, a shortcut, or a new area to spend time in. Photography side quests will fill Dave’s phone camera with mesmerizing images of the depths and its inhabitants.
In addition to fetching objects and fish, the main quest mixes things up by throwing in some incredible mini-games. These mini-games switch up the gameplay genre–whether you’re welding or cutting objects from a first-person perspective or taking control of different in-game characters. These mini-games also provide fun callbacks to more classic games, including my favorite Metal Gear Solid reference in recent memory.
This underwater world presents plenty of danger as well. More than once, I ran out of oxygen while trying to catch a large fish or becoming too confident during the game’s creative boss fights. Fortunately, Dave the Diver is forgiving: It always lets you keep at least one item from your haul—and if Dave runs out of oxygen during a key quest moment, you can restart at the last checkpoint with all collected materials and fish still in your cache.
Final Thoughts
Dave the Diver surprised me. I remember seeing the game’s early access announcement back in August 2022. It looked fun, as the initial trailer captured the game’s marine aesthetic and showcased some cool underwater boss fights, a little fishing, and the restaurant simulator. Without playing it, however, I struggled to see how these seemingly disparate elements all came together.
After twenty-five hours with Dave, Bancho, Cobra, and the Blue Hole, I completed the main story and many of the game’s side quests. I still feel like I could stay lost in Dave’s world for a lot longer.
