Dave the Diver

About Dave the Diver

Dave the Diver is an action-adventure and role-playing simulator from Korean indie studio MINTROCKET released on June 28, 2023. You play as Dave, a guy who works two jobs that could not be more different. By day you dive into the Blue Hole to catch fish and explore strange underwater ruins. At night you run a sushi restaurant in Seoul. The game launched on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Mac, and the upcoming Switch 2. It asks you to balance frantic combat with careful menu planning while uncovering a mystery involving ancient sea people and a shady former arms dealer named Cobra.

Gameplay

Sessions split cleanly between two distinct loops. Underwater sections use tight controls for swimming, aiming a harpoon gun, and dodging fast predators like octopuses or giant squids. You collect fish that fill your inventory slots before you can breathe again. Surface gameplay shifts to managing a sushi shop where you take orders, prepare ingredients caught earlier, and serve customers within time limits. You upgrade equipment between dives to reach deeper zones with better loot. The restaurant side requires balancing menu prices, hiring staff, and keeping up with customer expectations. You might spend an hour hunting rare specimens only to lose money if your service gets too slow.

What Players Think

Players on PlayPile rate this game highly at 87.1 out of 100 based on 166 IGDB ratings. The community mood stays positive with a strong focus on the dual-loop structure keeping engagement high. Average playtime sits around 35 hours for most completers. Achievement data shows a healthy challenge curve with 43 total unlocks. Only 40.6% of players have unlocked everything, proving some tasks take real effort. The rarest achievement is GYAO! Master which only 3.50% of users have earned. Critics and fans alike praise the game for avoiding burnout by switching activities every few minutes rather than forcing long grinding sessions.

PlayPile's Take

This title works best if you enjoy games that switch gears quickly without losing momentum. The $8.39 price point at Fanatical makes it a steal given the 35-hour average length. You will likely miss out on the rarest achievements unless you master the hardest diving challenges. I recommend this for players who want a solid RPG and management sim in one package without paying full retail price. It does not try to be everything to everyone but succeeds at what it actually sets out to do. Buy it if you want a unique experience that respects your time while keeping you hooked.

Storyline

Former arms dealer Cobra discovers that every time he enters the Blue Hole, the ecology and terrain change, presenting a lucrative opportunity. He convinces the ever-optimistic Dave (the playable protagonist) and Bancho, a sushi chef specializing in rare sea creatures, to open a sushi restaurant nearby. While investigating the interior of the Blue Hole at the request of archaeologist Bacon, Dave finds that the descendants of ancient Sea People—who still live in the deep—are under threat. Realizing that this could be catastrophic not only for the hidden village but for the Earth itself, Dave dives deeper in search of a solution.