DAVE THE DIVER is probably one of the best games I've played this year, and certainly made some travelling more fun recently with my Steam Deck (see my previous video here). A new update is out now adding in a whole bunch of extra content.
The game is loved by many with an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam from over 50,000 players. It's ranked 77 on the list of the best-reviewed games of all time on Steam, so it truly is one not to be missed. It was even the number 1 most played game on Steam Deck back in July.
The new content includes (spoilers, read below at your peril):
- New Story - Sub Missions - New sub missions have been added to late-game regions, which were previously focused on the main story.
- Lobsters & Crab Traps:
- New crabs and lobsters have been introduced along with the system called ‘Crab Traps’, which are used for catching them.
- You can set up crab traps and wait to capture crabs, lobsters, and etc.
- A new “Lobster Party” event, featuring new species, have been added.
- Auto Farming
- Hire MC Sammy to help with chores in the farm.
- New devices for storing eggs and feeding chickens have been added.
- New Event Boss - A new boss will appear when ALL Marinca cards have been collected.
- New Special Customer - Wandering Merchant
- New special customer ‘Wandering Merchant’ will visit Bancho Sushi.
- Serve him a special dish and he’ll occasionally return to sell various items, including new ingredients.
- New Night Species - To address the issue of many daytime fish species being prevalent during night dives, we are introducing new exclusive fish species that can only be found at night.
- Additional Contents
- Seed upgrade is now available at Kazhin’s seed shop.
- An ‘Operator' has been added to your contacts.
- Contact the operator to enter promotion codes, check your fortune, and review your dive information.
- A new ‘Nocturnal’ category has been added to the Marinca. Species that only appear at night will be moved to this category.
- Trading Cards & Steam Point Shop Items
Listen to their recent dev diary for more about the behind the scenes work on it:
Direct Link
DAVE THE DIVER is Steam Deck Verified and works great on Linux with a Platinum rating on ProtonDB.
There was a little bit of a blowback recently though, as the Golden Joystick Awards for 2023 has DAVE THE DIVER listed as an option for voting in the "Best Indie Game" award. The thing is, a lot of people seem to think it's an indie game, but it's not. The developer, MINTROCKET, is a sub-brand of NEXON a pretty big South Korean video game publisher. So it may "look indie" but it's far from it. What does "indie" even mean nowadays?
You can buy it on Steam.
Doesn't help that having a big hit will change the landscape. I think Megacrit (Slay the Spire) only had around 4 staff when they launched StS, but their web page lists nearly 10 now, and there are media reports of the team hitting 25 staff! Obviously a huge influx of money will change the studio, but they still hang on to that "indie" tag.
Last edited by scaine on 11 October 2023 at 2:05 pm UTC
I get it, having the game insult the player (indirectly) for wanting to play the game and unlock new stuff can be funny…when it's done in moderation, like once or twice. Watching this game, with each new character introduced I starting asking myself "Ooh, let's see, what exciting new way will they find to insult Dave, get him to do what they want anyway, and get away with it with no consequences whatsoever?" I don't know why this triggers me so much, but it clearly does; I just don't get why practically every NPC in the game has to be an unrepentant jerk towards Dave. It wouldn't be hard to sprinkle in a few lines like "Wow, I guess you're a pretty good diver after all! Sorry for judging you based on appearances when we first met."
Quoting: PhiladelphusI've been watching people play this, and can see why it's so popular…but man, I feel like a better title would be "Dave the doormat". The first thing that happens is Dave getting called back early from his vacation, talked into working without pay for a friend, and practically every single person that appears either insults Dave for being rotund, assumes his help without payment (until pressed on the point), and pretty much just walks all over him. I'm highly conflict-averse in real life and generally quite happy to help people (especially rather than make a scene), and even I got to the point where I was like "Stand up for yourself for once, Dave! (Politely) tell Ellie that she can gather her own research data until she apologizes for the first words out of her mouth being to insult a stranger she's never met and then assume he'll just roll over and help her immediately afterward!" There's a difference between being nice and helping people, and having some basic human dignity and self-respect.
I get it, having the game insult the player (indirectly) for wanting to play the game and unlock new stuff can be funny…when it's done in moderation, like once or twice. Watching this game, with each new character introduced I starting asking myself "Ooh, let's see, what exciting new way will they find to insult Dave, get him to do what they want anyway, and get away with it with no consequences whatsoever?" I don't know why this triggers me so much, but it clearly does; I just don't get why practically every NPC in the game has to be an unrepentant jerk towards Dave. It wouldn't be hard to sprinkle in a few lines like "Wow, I guess you're a pretty good diver after all! Sorry for judging you based on appearances when we first met."
I guess it didn't trigger me as bad as it did you, but I totally agree. It was off-putting every single time Dave was insulted about his appearance, or skills, or any of the myriad of other things they insult him for. I agree, every now and then that's fine, but oof, dude's just getting hammered on constantly. I quit playing for other reasons, but maybe if I pick it back up, they can make life a little better for ol Dave?
Quoting: JarmerI guess it didn't trigger me as bad as it did you, but I totally agree. It was off-putting every single time Dave was insulted about his appearance, or skills, or any of the myriad of other things they insult him for. I agree, every now and then that's fine, but oof, dude's just getting hammered on constantly. I quit playing for other reasons, but maybe if I pick it back up, they can make life a little better for ol Dave?Hmm, does it have mods? The gameplay does look pretty fun, maybe I just need a small "NPCs aren't all jerks" mod.
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