Vortex Gaming

숨 참고 데이브 더 다이브 아닙니다. 다이버입니다. 살짝은 헷갈릴 수 있는 게임 명의 데이브 더 다이버가 얼리 액세스 기간을 끝내고 정식 출시됩니다.

Dave the Diver, which has been positively received by gamers, is launching its full version with much more diverse content after its Early Access period. Following the three chapters already released, the game features stories that unfold in a much more interesting direction, a chilling but beautiful glacier area, and just as many new species as the deep, deep Blue Hole.

Dave the Diver is... I think it shows how simplified tycoon games that were popular in the feature phone era could evolve if they focused more on the gameplay aspect.

The very simple method of dividing the day into fixed time units to obtain ingredients and run a restaurant, a method often seen in simple mobile tycoon games, has been implemented on a larger, or rather, much larger scale.

The day is normally divided into three times: morning, afternoon, and night, or more specifically, the night is divided into two, making it four times. The player basically gets ingredients in the morning and afternoon and runs a sushi restaurant at night.

And the section where Dave the Diver shines, the section that clearly differentiates it from ordinary mobile tycoons, is the morning and afternoon, that is, free time. Instead of the one-dimensional purpose of simply 'getting ingredients' in this section, 'adventure' has been injected.

이 게임이 반쵸의 초밥집 타이쿤이 아니라, 데이브 더 다이버인 이유기도 하죠.

The proportion of adventure increases further after Chapter 3, the Early Access section. Our Dave, who thought he would be able to swim peacefully in the deep sea, wandering around the HaHa HoHo Fish People Village, roams the entire sea, the Blue Hole, sometimes like a spy, sometimes like a fugitive, and sometimes like a brave hero.

Thanks to this, we can freely adventure and explore the endless sea of the Blue Hole. The interesting thing is that in this process, you can experience a wide variety of atmospheres such as adventure, horror, and mystery, as well as various contents such as puzzles and boss battles.

And all of that content is included under the big story framework of solving the big problem in the Fish People Village. As you progress through the quests and unravel the story, you'll continue to see new content one by one.

The same goes for the area. Instead of a simple unlocking method of upgrading your equipment to go deeper into the sea, opening up new areas, and unlocking new species, we used a much more dynamic and memorable method through quests and stories.

This can also be seen as a great advantage of Dave the Diver. You could also say it's clever. By placing adventures that connect to the story in the build-up section each time a new area is opened, the game has become much more diverse and voluminous.

It's not just diverse, it's really diverse. In some sections, puzzles are heavily placed to give a very mysterious feel, in some sections, you have to avoid 'something' terrifying chasing you, giving a very urgent and terrifying feel, and in other sections, you can enjoy the fun of strategy through continuous boss battles.

And the parts that could have felt cluttered due to the mixing of too many atmospheres and contents were well-blended through a story that could be fully understood and the unchanging protagonist, Dave.

The reason why we sometimes have wondrous, thrilling, and mysterious adventures is all to solve the problems facing the Fish People Village, and our Dave is the kind of person who can't easily refuse requests.

In the process, new areas are opened up very 'naturally'. It's not forced because the narrative has been built up enough. All the contents are connected naturally as well.

Instead of roughly saying, “Okay, upgrade your wetsuit and oxygen tank to go below 150m deep sea, 350m glacier, and 500m hydrothermal vent,” you go on a clumsy adventure to go to all those areas, sometimes solve puzzles, sometimes run away, sometimes fight, and in the process, you get new equipment and upgrade that equipment.

Instead of “Okay, upgrade your wetsuit and oxygen tank to go below this area,” it became, “Okay, you meet this friend to solve this problem to solve these and those incidents, and in the process, you upgrade your equipment. Oh, and a new area has opened up?”

In other words, all the contents such as area, equipment, combat, and atmosphere are organically connected through the story, creating a truly rich adventure.

However, Dave the Diver is not a game that is all-in on adventure.

Thanks to the elements of the tycoon that focuses on management while simplifying the part of running a sushi restaurant, this game has become a more interesting genre of game, rather than just a marine adventure mixed with B-grade humor.

Of course, diving and sushi restaurant operation are conducted in completely different ways. Diving time is a time when you can enjoy adventure and collection freely and leisurely against the backdrop of a vast sea, while sushi restaurant time is a time when you can feel speediness under a fixed space and fixed operation.

The two elements are clearly in the same game, but they have completely different genre characteristics. However, here, the characteristics of Dave the Diver, the organic aspect, are revealed once again. The two elements of completely different genres, adventure and tycoon, are intricately woven together with detailed contents.

It seems that they made it so that you can't play the game with just adventure, no matter how fun the adventure is. On the other hand, even if you are interested in the tycoon side, you must go out to sea and experience various adventure contents. Because the core parts of tycoon and adventure are all connected, you can't do anything carelessly.

To enjoy more adventure elements, you have to go deeper, but to do that, you need to upgrade your equipment. But upgrading costs money, and that money has to be earned by running a sushi restaurant. And to run that sushi restaurant, you have to go out to sea and collect ingredients from various areas.

The basic game cycle is designed to play adventure and tycoon alternately. And to weave this together more smoothly and intricately, the game utilizes stories, strictly speaking, characters.

There are two major story lines that run through Dave the Diver. One is about the Fish People, and the other is about Bancho Sushi. And even though these two stories deal with different contents, they feel like connected stories by inserting a few of the same characters.

The two stories have no connection to each other when viewed separately. The Fish People side is a story in which Dave is the main character and Dr. and the Fish People appear, and the sushi restaurant side is a story in which Bancho is the center and Dave plays a supporting role.

However, in the middle of the story, characters from both sides, who seem to have nothing to do with each other, appear like licorice, making the entire story seem to be connected as one. For example, Bancho makes food for the Fish People, or Dr. comes to Bancho's sushi restaurant.

So, even though contents of completely different genres are connected, we don't feel it awkward at all.

However, the only thing that is disappointing is that, unlike the adventure section where you can spend an unlimited amount of time in one dive if you solve the breathing-related part well, the amount of tycoon feels small because the business hours are fixed.

The cutscenes, mini-games, and unique storytelling methods that appear can be experienced without being biased towards either adventure or tycoon, but the difference in the amount of time you can play can only occur depending on whether you adjust the amount of time you can play.

This is felt more strongly in the second half when the basic amount of adventure increases. The main is adventure, and the tycoon is like it's there to change the atmosphere. Of course, to overcome this, the tycoon side is constantly adding new stories and contents by utilizing VIPs. By adding types of drinks or opening branch stores.

And ironically, the proportion of the two genres tends to be similar after all the main missions are over. In the case of adventure, the proportion decreases rapidly when the main quest and story are over, but in the case of tycoon, the most important element of running a store remains even after the story is over.

In fact, the most surprising thing about Dave the Diver is the amount of content. No, I've played the game this much, and there's still new content coming out? There's so much stuff. It feels like I've passed the middle of the game, but something else is coming out.

To put it simply, it's a game in the 20,000 won range, but I wonder how much they've packed into it. There are even contents that are included only for the sake of fun, even though they have nothing to do with the actual game progress.

Mintrocket has implemented a smartphone game in Dave the Diver, matching the concept that all contents can be checked with a smartphone app. When Leah's Run, a jumping game featuring characters that our reliable friend Dirt likes, and Gyaos, reminiscent of Tamagotchi where you can raise cute whale friends, were first introduced, I was even embarrassed in a positive way, saying, 'No, it's not Inception, it's a game within a game'.

Not only that. A farm where you can harvest rice, a fish farm where you can raise the eggs of marine life that you have carefully brought, and then a field that is added when you get used to the rice paddies, and a chicken coop that is added when you get used to the fields. The content continues to be added and added.

In addition, there are biological collection elements, things you can experience in the Fish People Village, and parties where specific species appear. There is so much content that you would think there is no time to be bored.

And 'quests' appear to prevent players from getting confused by so much content and from feeling overwhelmed.

There are basically several types of quests in Dave the Diver. But if you divide them broadly, you can divide them into main quests and sub quests. If the main quests lead the adventure side, the sub quests are mostly tailored to other contents.

Of course, the main quests basically show the important flow of the game, so they deal with not only adventure but also other major contents. However, since such core contents are gathered on the adventure side, it naturally leans in that direction.

On the other hand, in the case of sub quests, they are tailored to introduce and experience other elements that may feel lacking if you only follow the main quests. It's not just a one-time introduction, but it helps you to re-experience and get used to the many different contents.

And in this process, interesting characters and unique B-grade emotional cutscenes are added like seasoning and spices. This is one of the biggest advantages of Dave the Diver. They created stories for not only the main contents but also the sub contents, placed characters, and provided cutscenes and mini-games, making the entire game feel not boring at all.

In particular, I felt that the developers put a lot of effort into it, seeing that there were no overlapping mini-games and that they were inserted into parts that could have been passed over normally.

Even the ending credits include a mini-game! And the mini-game played in these ending credits is transferred to the smartphone game, so you can continue to enjoy it even after the main story is over.

Personally, I really like tycoon games. From orthodox management games that require you to take a stance and play seriously, represented by RollerCoaster Tycoon, to simple tycoon games that I have been enjoying since the feature phone era, and Kairosoft's games, I buy tycoon games as soon as I see them.

And how much do I like adventure? If you ask me what my favorite game genre is, I would say that I have been playing adventure games steadily as well, second only to management simulation.

Is that why? Dave the Diver, which has blended the two genres very appropriately, preserving the advantages and characteristics of each genre without overdoing it, was a game that I was able to play very happily from the early stage to the review version.

However, I hope that the minor bugs that appeared while playing the review build will be fixed before the release. There were times when I played the boss battle twice because the boss I had caught didn't show any movement, and there were times when the boss suddenly stopped in place and I just easily beat it.

Dave the Diver, an endlessly vast sea, but a sea that is not heavy but has appropriate lightness and humor, and is full of as much diverse content as that vast sea. I've already played for over 30 hours and seen the ending of the main story, but there's still a lot left to do.

Dave the Diver and Bancho the Sushi King, two completely different stories, two completely different genres of games. If you want to experience them properly without any shortcomings, I don't think there is a better choice than this.

8.8

데이브 더 다이버

DAVE THE DIVER

• Perfectly combined adventure and tycoon
• 정말 지겨울 틈 없는 다양한 미니 게임
• 도대체 이 콘텐츠 추가의 끝은 어디죠?
• 개성 넘치는 캐릭터와 흥미로운 스토리

• 멈춰버린 보스는 어떻게 해야 하나요
• 쓸 데 없이 너무 큰 어인족 마을

리뷰 플랫폼: PC(v0.6.1.869)

metacritic

opencritic

웹진 인벤김수진 기자
2023-06-27