Do you want a break from all the fast paced action that most games contain nowadays? Do you still want exciting gameplay that keeps you engaged? I recommend you check out Dave the Diver made by Mintrocket. It’s a mostly calm and relaxing game that sometimes delves into the spookier side of the ocean.
The gameplay of Dave the Diver is split into two sections: diving and fishing, or cooking and selling your catch at your sushi restaurant. Diving is mostly relaxing, especially at the start of the game, but you will have to occasionally protect yourself from hostile creatures such as sharks, lionfish, and moray eels. During the story, you will also encounter zombie mermaids. You will have to pay attention to your air supply which is both an indication of how much longer you can stay underwater and your health bar. If it reaches zero, you will faint and return to your boat, having to choose only one thing to keep that you caught on that dive. Each “in game day” gives you two dives, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. I do have to mention that the game has a few boss fights against different enemies.
At night you will head to the restaurant, Bancho’s Sushi, where you will serve customers delicious and interesting dishes made by the professional and stoic Bancho. Occasionally a VIP customer will visit the restaurant, giving you a quest to find ingredients for a unique dish for them, which you will have to search for while diving. These special guests range from rappers to movie directors, and each has a fun cutscene showing how the food inspires them. The first VIP also gives you the opportunity to hire staff to help you serve the customers of Bancho’s Sushi.
Dave the Diver also collaborates with others quite often, these collabs range from a Godzilla side quest to the musician mxmtoon having her own VIP quest. These collaborations stories occur naturally over the course of the game’s story and are all completely free. One of the most prominent collaborations the game has done was a Dredge crossover, Dredge is a lovecraftian horror fishing game, and the developers of both games work together a lot. The DLC has you diving to find dangerous mutated aberrant fish at night, then sell them to mysterious hooded figures at your restaurant.
All in all, Dave the Diver is a relaxing game with spooky and engaging moments. It is on most platforms, such as Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation, and is $20. This game is incredibly entertaining and the characters are all unique with their own interesting stories. The game is still being updated, so expect more collaborations with different franchises in the future.