This game is absolutely fantastic! At first, I thought it would be a short and relaxing experience, but I was completely wrong (in a good way). There's a ton of content, and just when you think you've seen all the cool mechanics and design, the game surprises you again and again. It consistently keeps you on your toes.

That said, the sheer amount of content can feel a bit overwhelming at times.

Still, it's a must-buy if you're into this style of game!

I usually publish funny and senseless reviews, but this time...I find myself in front of a masterpiece. this game is a drug. the soundtrack, the story, the graphic style. at certain moments you will think that the developer has done some heavy drugs...but the truth is that he's a genius. at sometime you will feel like Ariel the mermaid from Disne....OoroorireO Fjuuuckkkrrgrg is happeninmg AgAiiiin


Ariel, listen to me
The human world, it's a mess
Life under the sea
Is better than anything they got up there
The seaweed is always greener
In somebody else's lake
You dream about going up there
But that is a big mistake
Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?
Under the sea
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'
Under the sea
Under the SEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Great, relaxing, addictive. :D

С этим божественным гарпуном можно даже Кракена словить

Honestly i understand the good reviews, this game is really well made. the art direction is S tier. it's really clear that no corners were cut and i can only imagine the amount of work that went into it!

my biggest frustration with the game though is that it doesn't let you play at your own pace.

you're constantly bombarded with tasks and events that feel like pointless chores. i just want to catch fish and sell it at my restaurant, but every day 3 people show up with 20 pages of dialogue about why you need to go find their anime figurine or why you need to go take a picture of this specific fish etc. there's sooooo much dialogue.

also, the hand holding is wild sometimes... you'll get hit with cutscenes like "ah, look! a breakable object! i wonder if i could break that object... (camera slowly zooms in on a rock with a giant arrow over it) (also this is a mechanic you've already used dozens of times and all other abilities are locked out until you break object with this exact rock)"
or, "oh no, a bad guy! i'd better hide behind something. (camera zooms in on object you can hide behind) *hides* ... phew, he's gone. (camera slowly pans to another bad guy) uh oh! here comes another one! (insert giant arrow pointing to second hiding place)"

if this game had a storyless mode i feel like i would like it a lot more. less talking, less chores, less hand holding, more fish-getting and money-making.

all that being said, i don't think any of the positive reviews here are wrong, this game is beautifully made and kept me busy for dozens of hours. i'm even probably still going to play it after writing this review. but sometimes i do wish it would just step out of the way and let me play how i want

When I write negative reviews for generally beloved games, I usually underline what's good about the game, what I believe drove so many people to like it - in the end, it's all a matter of opinion. But in DAVE's case, I actually might have a problem with that.

The pixel art is beautiful, detailed, and has lots of variety.

There. That's all I got. No, really. I disagree with the classic way of reviewing games where people rate graphics and story etc as if they were separate things; they're not, games are holistic experiences. Would you, after going on a date, say "Yea, they looked attractive, but they were so boring to talk to"? No, you'd probably say "I had a bad date with a pretty person".

DAVE is a bad date with a pretty person.

And ironically, to describe why is it bad, I'm going to have to talk about how it plays and something related to the story.

So it's a little like Cult of the Lamb. You have two separate gameplay modes and they both feed each other, while also providing variety. This sounds good in theory but in practice I find it never works as well as one'd like. Here, there's the diving and the restaurant management.

The restaurant management is incredibly simple - you just walk left to right, carrying orders, filling coffee, refilling wasabi. It sure feels hectic, but after a while you'll see it for what it is, and it becomes a chore; it did for me, at the very least. You can hire people to help you out, but it just makes you do even less.

Note, I -think- there are multiple restaurants you can eventually get, but I only unlocked one. So maybe it gets better later? I think 10 hours is enough time to decide I don't like something, though.

After some time I unlocked a fish breeding facility, and I thought "oh, goodie, more game to actually do something" but that turned out incredibly shallow too, and more pointless busywork. In fact, I'd argue that everything is shallow here, except perhaps the ocean and yes, that includes the diving.

Actually, let's talk about the diving.

The layout is randomised, but not really. It's made out of recognisable chunks, which generally stay in their parts of the map. This is so weird, at first I was confused as to whether this game even has random generation. Of course, your dives are limited by your oxygen (which is also your health, I like that) and by your inventory space. You are supposed to catch fish for the sushi restaurant, after all.

And catching the fish is... eh. You have a harpoon which you can upgrade during the dive, and depending on which harpoon type you have, you have to do a different QTE to "finish" the fish. This is awful in of itself, but some harpoons are more annoying to use than others because of this. What would you rather do, tap a button or spin the control stick around? Spinning the stick has been known to be not only annoying but actually hurtful since 1998 (Mario Party), then again, this might as well be ancient history now for some people.

There is a "pokedex" system for the game - it incentivises you to try catching every fish at least once - but oh wait, the fish have stars. So you caught that rare fish... but it's only 1 star. You have to catch a 3 star one. This is absolutely infuriating; I think "catch fish at least once" is a nice thing, but this ruins it. Incidentally, you're bombarded with notification markers during the entire game, but here you get a notification every time you catch a fish of higher stars. I think my blood pressure is rising from writing about this, so I'll stop here.

After a while, catching fish really starts to feel like a chore. That's probably why the fish farm is there. There is a story, and you want to explore the ocean for the hell of it (why would you play this otherwise?), but you'll still think "oh, I should catch this, it makes decent cash". I'm starting to come to the conclusion that "dungeon delving to bring back loads of resources" is actually a boring formula; then again, Darkest Dungeon did it well, so whatever.

So that sucks. You play a boring game to fuel playing the next boring game. But let's say that you actually enjoy some of the gameplay parts. You do this because of in-world reasons. The sushi bar, the characters, Dave himself, maybe some kind of environmental reason...

Actually, you don't. Because pretty much all the characters come off as obnoxious or boring. I think I liked Bancho (the sushi chef) the most, he had some kind of reasonable drive (make good food) - but even he struck me as judgmental and stuck-up. Dave himself might as well have been a water balloon with a face painted on it, just gets pushed around by others, and nothing else.

And there are many others, but they all safely fall under the umbrella of "awful".

Finally, the pacing. The game seemingly tries to justify itself by constantly throwing new ♥♥♥♥ at you early on. In a good game, this is exciting, but here it's more like a way to stave off boredom for a minute longer. Also, you're BOMBARDED with unlocks early on, to the point of being overwhelmed. Eventually, as will all things, the pace of unlocks slows down and then you're able to see the game for what it is.

And that's when I realised I can't play this anymore.

Achievements say 25% of people finished the game - not a bad number. Perhaps playing it as a background activity - something you do while your real attention lies elsewhere, such as with a podcast - maybe wouldn't be so bad. But to me, that doesn't make a good game. The decision is yours alone, dear reader.

My curator page

God I wish fish were real

An amazing game with awesome pixel graphics, a cool story, funny cut scenes and a lot of things to do. Took some time for me to like the game but definitely would recommend to anyone who's looking for a casual yet strangely addictive game.

Dave

fish