Dave the Diver from MINTROCKET and NEXON is a casual single-player adventure RPG in which you’ll explore the ocean for a fine fishing/sushi restaurant sim experience. Check our Dave the Diver review!
Dave the Diver from MINTROCKET and NEXON is a casual single-player adventure RPG in which you’ll explore the ocean for a fine fishing/sushi restaurant sim experience. It’s a sunny summer day, and Dave is chilling at the beach when he gets an urgent call from Cobra about some delicious sushi. He immediately gets on a plane to discover the secrets of the mysterious Giant Blue Hole, a location where the terrain and ecology change every time you dive in! Yes, this one most certainly has some roguelite elements to it, but it’s part of what makes this one a fun experience.
It turns out that what Cobra has in mind is for Dave to do what he does best – that would be diving – to use a harpoon to catch the ingredients that will be used for the aforementioned delicious sushi. You’ll move around with the left analog stick, speeding things up by pressing the ZL button. Do know that doing this will also consume your oxygen at a faster rate! You’ll use the right analog stick to aim your harpoon by first pressing the A button to make Dave focus, use the left analog stick to point at where the harpoon will be shot, and fire by pressing the ZR button. And if things get tricky, you can use your special knife by pressing the B button.
And now, to the business part! Cobra has a friend who is a sushi chef. His name is Bancho. He left the business for a while but is now ready to dive back in – no pun intended. Since fish from all over the world can be found at the Giant Blue Hole, having a sushi restaurant right there makes a lot of sense since Bancho will be able to make the finest, most fresh sushi ever!
Unfortunately, just as the sushi restaurant was ready to open, an earthquake hits, which left the interior of the restaurant with quite a mess! But since Cobra had already invested a lot of money into the whole operation, he decides it’s best to operate the restaurant as is to try and recoup as much of his investment as fast as possible, while Dave dives for ingredients while also helping to sort out repairs and upgrades to the restaurant… as well as upgrades to his equipment so that he can take on the dangerous creatures he’ll find while diving!
Dave will fish during the day, bring the ingredients to Bancho to prepare all of the delicious meals on the menu, and then the restaurant will be open for business during the evening. Once you have enough ingredients, you’ll need to rush toward the surface before you run out of oxygen, or you’ll end up dropping most of what you caught! Once you get back on the boat, you’ll get to check out how long it took you to catch what mature nature had to offer, how deep you dove, how many creatures you caught, and the biggest catch in the group.
When back at the restaurant, Bancho will get the food ready for paying customers who can’t wait to be served some delicious sushi. Dave is also required to help, so you’ll need to learn on the job… and fast! You’ll be preparing the ingredients and serving customers so that Bancho can focus on what he does best: cooking. By opening up the ingredients tab, you’ll be able to check out your fish, crops, sauces, and all other materials available to you. You can move between tabs by using the L and R buttons as needed.
New recipes must be added to the menu before they can be sold to customers. It all starts easy enough since you’ll be focusing on dishes that can be made with what you’ve just caught, along with a drink option or two that can be paired with them, and the base menu with, say, Norimaki, which is sushi made with seaweed, vinegar, and wasabi. Maybe add some Yellow Tang Sushi, along with a Rainbow Wrasse Sushi, to get things going. You need to keep in mind how many ingredients are at your disposal since your aim should be to earn as much money as possible each evening to be able to rebuild the restaurant after the earthquake, as well as to help Cobra recover his initial investment.
If you run out of ingredients for the dishes on the menu, then you’ll need to either refill the ingredients or you’ll have to replace that item with something new. There’s also the option of enhancing the flavor of dishes! Think of it as basically leveling up a dish so that it can have an even better flavor and yield better earnings. Do know that any ingredients that you use to enhance a dish will be spent from your stock, so you won’t be able to use them to make other dishes.
Dave will need to complete a series of mini-games as he works at the sushi restaurant to be able to keep customers happy while Bancho prepares their meals. You will need to, for example, pour some green tea for a customer by using the right analog stick to pour just the right amount. Customers who drink green tea of a good of higher grade – that is, for how Dave pours it – will pay more. Serving them their order as fast as possible will also help, so you can dash by pressing and holding down the ZL button to speed things up – just be sure to keep an eye on your stamina!
You can use your smartphone to check out your current missions, as well as to review other content. You’ll have a Calendar app, a Mail app, a Wheater app that will let you know how the weather will be over the next handful of days, a My Music app so that you can listen to the songs from the Dave the Diver game that you’ve already unlocked, a handy Calculator app, an Album app where you can take a look at pictures, a Tips app where you can review the tips you’ve received so far and even a Mini-Games app.
Once you progress a bit in the game, a new app will be added: the iDiver app! By using the iDiver app, you’ll be able to spend your hard-earned money at the sushi restaurant to upgrade your equipment. Upgrading Dave’s equipment is a must if you want to be able to dive deeper into the Giant Blue Hole. Along with increasing the depth to which you can dive, you can also upgrade your oxygen tanks so that you can dive for longer, increase how much cargo you can carry with you, and even increase the damage dealt by your harpoon!
Dave the Diver is a casual single-player adventure RPG in which you’ll explore the ocean for a fine fishing/sushi restaurant sim experience. It’s a game that I had been looking forward to playing on Nintendo Switch since I had been following its development after it went into Early Access last year. What I present in this Dave the Diver review does not mention everything you will do in the game, nor the many characters you’ll meet, the different missions you’ll take on, and the different twists and turns you’ll experience along the way. Saying anything else would spoil the experience for you, so you’ll have to play this one to see why it’s a must-play on Nintendo’s console. Dave the Diver is out with a $19.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Dave the Diver review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by NEXON.
