4.5/5 ★ – Yojimboi's review of Dave the Diver.

Dave the Diver is an incredible experience, and I'm gonna have a hard time describing how much I enjoyed it, but here goes. This game is an experience that had me fully locked in for the entire runtime, start to finish, I even went for the 100%. It may honestly be one of the best management games I've ever played, but there's a lot more to it than that. DtD blends together elements from just about every genre you can think of. During the day it is a roguelite exploration game where you're gathering sushi ingredients and crafting components to supply your restaurant and upgrade your gear. During the night you're working at bancho sushi, serving up fresh fish you gathered for all your customers. Throughout the games runtime there are myriad other genres blended in though. There are puzzle segments, bullet hells, on rails shooters, a Kaiju fighting game (if you were fortunate enough to get the DLC while it was in the store), a cooking mama adjacent minigame, a farming sim, and much much more. The incredible thing is that none of these elements feel out of place. They all blend so seamlessly with the game and its, admittedly, somewhat goofy atmosphere that it only serves to enrich the core gameplay. Speaking of gameplay, the daytime ocean exploration that makes up the bulk of the game is just excellent. The music in combination with the gorgeous pixel art style really lets you sit back and get fully immersed (assuming you're not being chased by a shark). I was so immersed during my nearly 50 hours in the game that I started subconsciously learning the names of the fish simply by seeing them, it's that good. There's also a fair amount of complexity on offer in its restaurant management systems. As you expand you're given a higher volume of customers to juggle, as well as more mechanics to interact with i.e. staffing, drinks of various types, keeping resources full during service etc. This complexity never feels overbearing though, as the game drip feeds you these new mechanics over time and gives you plenty of space to learn them before piling more on top. The only thing stopping me from giving the game a 10/10 is that it is marred slightly by a fairly repetitive endgame. It isn't that there's a lack of content, your restaurant still needs to be managed, there are new recipes, new events etc. even after the story concludes, it's just that nothing really changes beyond that point. All that being said, I truly believe this is an excellent game. It seems ideal for cozy gaming with a controller or handheld on the couch but offers just as much on PC if that's your jam. If you haven't played this game already, I highly recommend it, it may just be one of the most unique games you ever play.