Dave the Diver

0:17 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to The Other Castle. The Other Castle, Under the Sea. Yes, my name is Tom. Hello, I'm Andrea. That's offensive, but I am Andrea. I am the other host of The Other Castle, coming to you live from under the ocean. Yes, we are doing Dave the Diver this week on The Other Castle, where we cover the plot, lore and more of video games. That's so cool. You know, that means we cover behind the scenes, how these games were created, and then what actually happens in the games. And I haven't played this, so I'm really excited to hear everything about it. Oh, Dave the Diver blew my fucking mind. I'll tell you what. I'm super fucking stoked. And if you want to hear more about other games where we cover the plot, lore and more, you can check out our website, theothercastlepodcast.com.

1:00 That's the othercastlepodcast.com. It's got our discourse, got our Patreon, it's got our back catalog, it's got links to our socials, everything you can want. And if you have a game in mind for this show that you would love to hear us geek out about, the best way is probably to check out our Discord. And yes, over at the Discord, we have some really fantastic conversations and all sorts of fun discussions and yeah. I think at the point of recording this, they haven't guessed this one. So we have like a wordle fucking puzzle on our Discord where we put up the full season in Xs. So you can't tell what the episode is, but you can see the amount of characters that are in the name of the game. And I don't think Dave the Diver has been guessed yet. Not as of this recording though. But I think we've talked about how much fun it is as a cozy game on there.

1:43 So I'm like, guys, the clues are there. I think it's one of those games people didn't know has a full fucking story to it. I didn't. I've been watching you play this kind of over my shoulder. You know, we have our gaming room set up. So I've been on the PS5 on the TV and Tom's been on his PC next to me. And the music from this is so fucking good. Oh, the music's incredible. Anyway, Dave the Diver is an underwater adventure game produced by Mint Rocket in 2023. I've never heard of Mint Rocket. This is a first game for Mint Rocket. That makes sense. It was originally designed as a mobile game in cooperation with National Geographic.

2:24 What? Yeah, and mega corporation Nexon. Aren't they oil people? That's Exxon without the N. Oh, my brain makes connections in very obvious ways. I think it just did autofill there. My bad. Nexon is a Korean media company that has its hands in all aspects of entertainment. Oh, cool. Not a huge name outside Asian countries, but it has billions of dollars. Oh, shit. So they are a subsidiary of some deep pockets. Yeah, very, very deep pockets. Cool. The idea was to make an edutainment game that explores the many wonders of the ocean. But Nat Geo lost interest in the project and Nexon formed Mint Rocket to continue the idea in a new direction.

3:05 I bet they're fucking kicking themselves now. I know, right? They were inspired by a real life restaurant on a small Japanese island where the owner would dive for fish during the day and run his bar at night. That is so eccentric. I love that. Yeah. That's the kind of shit you'd see in a Hallmark movie though, you know, like, but it's obviously like Whitewash and American in the Hallmark movie where it's like a Maine lobster guy that picks up all his lobsters himself and makes eight lobster rolls and no one loves him until a busy business bitch who only cares about business comes in. Yeah. And he teaches her the meaning of Christmas. That's not what happens in Dave the Diver. That's not a spoiler. Not at all, nope. This became the basis of the game itself where you're going to fish during the day and run a sushi restaurant at night.

3:50 That's exhausting. For the art style of Dave the Diver, they went with an elevated pixel art style. So very 8-bit. Yeah, very 8-bit, but this kept the cost of the game very low, but thanks to modern technology, the pixels could look better than anything that's come before it. That's really cool. So there's something retro and timeless about it because of this aesthetic, but also elevated because it's not of that era. Yeah, exactly. The colors are bright and vibrant. The character models are distinct and individual. They really mastered the pixel art style. They also wanted to maintain that realistic aspect from back when Nat Geo was involved. So they focused on creating as many fish as they could that you could really find in the real world.

4:33 Oh, so they're not just like red fish, blue fish, fucking Dr. Seuss fish. They're like, this is a real ass fish. Yeah, all the fish are real. There were, I have a full sleeve of nautical shit because of course I do. And there were a couple of times where you go, look, that's your friend. Which brought me endless joy. Yeah, I would point out the fish that you have on your body on the TV screen. And you're saying that plural. There were a couple. It happened a few times. They also had to study cooking from countries everywhere that feature seafood to create the hundreds of recipes available in the game. Oh, so it's not just Japanese to speak to source material. It's across the gamut to cover how cooking fish has evolved.

5:14 Yeah, exactly. Beautiful. So I know you come from restaurants. Was the cooking element a fun thing for you to see? I loved the cooking element. I love so many elements. I loved every element except for one of this game. Okay, very telling. Love that. I love that you're getting the buy-in as someone who is a fan of food selfishly in your personal life and then just worked in food professionally and the care it's taking to impress someone like you. And I didn't just work in food. I worked in sushi for a while. Fine dining sushi too, not like get a California roll and go. No, I worked in a very, very high-end sushi restaurant for a while. And I became kind of a sushi snob as a result.

5:57 It's nice as the person that you take to dinner most often. Yeah, right. It has paid off for you. Yeah. No, I have gotten immense dividends from that job. Yeah. No, I love sushi. And so this game, when I heard that it had a sushi element to it, I was like, okay, cool. You have to run a sushi restaurant. I know how to fucking do that. I'm glad that that didn't deter you. Like, oh no, I'm going back to work. Like when we talked about GTA five, you're like, I fucking listened to cat in the morning, and then I turn on the goddamn game, and I'm driving the same goddamn commute, and she's the same DJs are playing, and it's a little triggering. With this, you were like, I'm actually in my element. I got this. Yeah, the dinner service is 90 seconds here, not 12 hours. Oh, fair.

6:40 Well, the appearance of the recipes also were a bit more artistic in nature. For example, shark sushi will have a little fin on top. Oh, that's so cute. And if that were real in the real world, I would eat the shit out of that. Yeah, right? The game released for early access in October 2022 on Mac and PC, then officially on both platforms in June of 2023. During the early access, they focused on making sure the gameplay loop never got boring, adding mechanics and side quests to keep the gamer entertained through the entire story. The theory being, if you were to play one game one day and another game another day, they wanted the mechanics in Dave the Diver to have that feeling all in one package.

7:24 Oh, so it can check off any box for you no matter what you want to do that day, it has you. Yeah, so you could be playing a tycoon game or Overcooked one day and Subnautica the next. Wow. It released to absolute rave reviews, garnering praise across the board. 2023 was such a good year for gaming. It was ridiculously good. It was celebrated for being a cozy game with a challenge that will push any gamer but never break anyone. Getting compared among the greats like Portal very quickly. It's interesting because aesthetically and core concept not similar at all.

8:06 Evil robot torturing you with fat slurs versus, you know, running a sushi restaurant, but okay. It's quirky, scary, funny. Scary. Adventurous, relaxing and challenging all rolled into one. In October, 2023, it released to consoles exclusively through the Switch and it quickly became a best seller. Eventually landing it on the Game Awards nomination list for best indie game. Yeah, this bothered people. Yeah. While it had the appearance of an indie game with the simple gameplay and pixel art style, it was made by a mega corporation despite Mint Rocket itself being a first-time developer.

8:49 So the deep pockets really take away the indie cred. Like when you see an up-and-coming artist and you realize their parents' names are blue on Wikipedia. It was genuinely like the nepo baby of corporations. It's the Jack Quaid of games. And you're like, damn, he's charming. He's very talented. Yeah, dipshit, his parents are Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. Of course, he's goddamn charming. Well, Jeff Keighley, head of the Game Awards, defended the decision, saying, the game has the spirit of an indie game, and that's what landed it on the list. The spirit of an indie game, like, I think it's, God, one of the Hadid sisters that went, my parents didn't give me any Louboutins until after I graduated high school.

9:37 I had to earn it. Or Kylie Jenner being on the list of the self-made billionaires. And you're like, are you self-made? Or are you a Kardashian? Yeah, exactly. Okay, so this is the Kylie Jenner of games. Don't make it sound so bad. This game is fantastic. I fucked with the Lipkitz, okay? And whatever, they didn't win anyway. It's likely due to all this controversy. Oh, okay. This was, again, though, 2023 was a very heated year for video games. It was, yeah. I mean, truly out of the crop of games that came out in 2023, it genuinely is an honor to be nominated, not like in 2020 or 2021, which are kind of rough years that had two good games come out, you know?

10:20 It was like Ghosts of Tsushima, Last of Us 2, and then nothing else happened in 2020. And I will stand by that. Yeah, and honestly, I'd say 2023 gave me two games that will probably go in my top 100 easily. Really? Your full-goated, like, we're gonna hang on to this forever game? Yeah, actually, you know what? I'm gonna say top 25. Two games this year came out in my top 25. Your all-time. Yep, this one and Baldur's Gate 3. Beautiful. Regardless, it's been a massive success, and it has already received its first piece of DLC with the Dredge update. Oh, I think this is so fucking cool. Yeah, Dredge is another video game entirely that was often compared to Dave the Diver for similar art styles with the sea life they both incorporate.

11:07 So the two companies teamed up to create a little add-on to Dave the Diver that incorporates some of that game's creatures, characters, and gameplay into the world of Dave the Diver. In April 2024, Dave the Diver will release on PlayStation 5, along with another DLC in collaboration with the Toho Company out of Tokyo, Japan. They're the sole owners of a little franchise called Godzilla. Ain't nothing little about Godzilla. This is so goddamn cool. Okay, so for the Dredge part, I love that they were just like, I know we get compared a lot. What if we teamed up? Right. That energy is so rare to find in gaming because I feel like these studios work in silos where they're constantly pitted against each other, even if they're both on the same platform.

11:51 For example, Santa Monica Studios and Naughty Dog, right? They both create exclusives for Sony, Santa Monica Studios being the God of War Studio and Naughty Dog doing Last of Us. And they are constantly pitted against each other of who can create the bigger AAA title, and you get all these pieces, and then you get like Ghost of Tsushima who has nods to both in them, and kind of bridges those gaps to do little Easter eggs to show, hey, you know, stop fucking comparing us. We can all succeed, that's the thing. Like there is room for all of us to grow. And Dave the Diver and Dredge took it one step further and said, we're similar boat games. What if we held hands and said, we know what you like, let's have it. It's so satisfying as a fan to see, and as a marketer, all I saw were dollar signs, and especially this Godzilla one.

12:38 I'm gonna tell you right now, the Godzilla people, wonderful to work with on a licensing level. They are easy, they are attentive, and they are very kind in all messaging. I actually really liked working with them on some Godzilla projects with an absolute crate. That's awesome. Yeah, so Godzilla is gonna be in Dave the Diver. Somehow, and I'm so fucking excited. I wanna see, I know this is not how the game goes. I wanna see him with a stupid little fishing rod, pulling Godzilla out of the water in a dinky ship. I know that's not gonna happen, but the imagery cracks me up. I mean, the concept sounds insane, but once you hear what actually happens in Dave the Diver, it won't sound all that out of left field. I'm so stoked. I thought this game was gonna be a simple storyless time killer.

13:21 Instead, I've found one of my favorite games of all time as I was swept away by its engrossing and surprising storytelling. Oh, I love that. How did you pick this up? You know, I got a new PC and the first game I wanted to play was this. That's so funny that the first game you play on this super power gaming PC is a full pixel game. Like when we got the PlayStation 5, the first thing I did, Untitled Goose Game. Right. First thing you did, Tetris. The first games we play on our brand new, hundreds of dollars invested into these machines were like, what's the silliest, most simple shit I can do? Yeah, I just like these kinds of games, I guess. And you're not really a cozy game person.

14:01 No, not too much. You're not an animal crosser. You're not a farming sim. Not at all. So this was kind of one of your first forays into cozy game. Like, frankly, when we met, a lot of your cozy games were Call of Duty, Titanfall 2. We used to do a lot of Overwatch, you know, but you've never had a real cozy game you've connected with. So this really stands out to me as something that broke through to a more traditional gamer like yourself. Yeah, I was really surprised at how much this game kind of grabbed me. Oh, that's so exciting. It's filled with colorful characters, outrageous situations, and a gameplay loop that makes you continuously say, just one more round.

14:42 Oh. Strap on your oxygen tanks and grab your harpoons, goombas. This is Dave the Diver. The game opens with some Hawaiian-inspired ukulele music, and we can see a man laying in a reclining beach chair, relaxing by the water. A little hermit crab scuttles by. The man picks it up and says hello, then puts it back down to go on his way. That must have been traumatic for the crab. Ha ha ha. This man is Dave, the hero of our story. He's slightly overweight, and he has short brown hair with a brown goatee. He's in a relaxed fit shirt with a fedora on his head.

15:22 His cell phone rings and he answers it. On the other end is a man who looks like he'd be retired military but really chill retired military. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt himself, has a high and tight haircut with a nicely manicured beard, and all of his hair is snow white in color. This is one of those games where everyone has a unique sound for a voice, but it's not actual words being spoken. Got kind of a whomp whomp thing. Yeah, that whole situation. All the words are text on screen. And a lot of games I've been playing lately have been that way. You've been reading all your video games lately. Yeah, they really have. I think it's just making translating easier now. That's true, and voice acting can be so expensive. True.

16:03 The man basically just yells sushi at you. Is that a command or a warning? I think it's a promise. Oh. So you smile and nod your head, grab your things and head off. We cut to a bird's eye view of a chain of islands. The music swells as we see a tiny seaplane flying over the water, and the title appears. Inside the plane, we get the opening credits flying by outside the window while you drink down some root beer. You land, and we next see Dave in a diving suit. His round little body looking goofy as hell standing on a small boat. Honestly, no one looks good in a wetsuit. Right, exactly.

16:43 The older man who called you is there too. His name is Cobra. Whoa. That's cool. The boat is floating in a little harbor, and in the distance, you can see a beachside restaurant. You tell Cobra that the water in this harbor is unlike anything you've ever seen before. It appears to be fathoms deep. Oh. You ask him where the sushi is, and he tells you that's why you're here. You need to catch the fish to make the sushi. You are a professional diver after all. So you really just got on the plane with the one word sushi? Just the promise of sushi. You got strapped in, and then you said, okay, now what? Yeah. I love Dave, and I want to protect him with every ounce of my being.

17:24 I want his life that he can just hop on a plane and fly out for some sushi. You want his life where anyone calls you and just yells sushi, and you're like, hell yeah. I'm there. The harbor is called the Giant Blue Hole. I want to make it your mama joke, but your mom is my mother-in-law, so I feel like that'd be rude. She's your mom too. Legally. It's a mysterious spot that has fish from all over the world somehow. It also changes its layout constantly, so you never know what it's going to be like when you get down there. You're in the Bermuda Triangle. Yeah, pretty much. A changing bio means you're in some mythical shit. Well, that makes Dave the Diver a roguelite.

18:09 Don't you mean a trails light? Yeah, right, it's a trails light. No, it's a very light roguelite, but it still counts. Just in the sense that the biome shifts around and you get kind of a dealer's choice bag of different situations that you find yourself in? Different situations, different fish that'll appear, that kind of stuff. Okay, and it's random, so yeah, cool. Some of it is, not always, but yeah, a lot of it is. Cobra explains that he has a business partner who is a brilliant sushi chef, and he recently bought the little beachside restaurant you can see in the distance. His theory is, with this magic Giant Blue Hole, your fishing skills and the chef's cooking ability, you could all make a fortune.

18:52 You figure, what the hell? You love diving for fish, and you do love good sushi. You should at least get a good meal out of this endeavor. Cobra has the energy of someone who thinks everything he thinks of should be on Shark Tank. He's just a serial entrepreneur. Yeah, he's a serial entrepreneur of like, I found all the talent, I'm bringing us together, I'm taking 20%, no one worry about the contracts, I got it. Cobra says he's glad you agree, because we open tonight. Oh my god. He thinks you should come meet the chef first before you head out. So the two of you go to the restaurant in the boat. When you get there, Cobra asks the chef if he's all ready for tonight, and then introduces you. He's not ready, he has no fish.

19:34 Right? The chef's name is Boncho, and he's a bald black man who's so fucking cool he wears his sunglasses indoors. Damn, that's cool. He asks for your sushi preferences, and when you tell him you, like, see your chin and eel, he says you have mediocre taste. He called you mid immediately! Hell yeah, Boncho. Now, I've seen Boncho over your shoulder. I want Tyrese to play him in the movie. Right? I think Tyrese would really give him, like, the cool guy energy, but also be very funny. And he gets to be quiet for most of the time and just say something important. That's what he does in Fast 7, I think. I know Fast 6 is the one where it's clear that they did not write Tyrese into the script, but Tyrese showed up.

20:20 At all. They forgot he was in the movie. He just reacts. He never gets talked to once during the entire fucking movie. And half the movie, he's in shots by himself. If you watch that movie with this in mind, Tyrese just showed up and they went, well, now it's embarrassing if we don't let him in. But I think Tyrese would be like the perfect casting, like bald, a little sexy for him maybe, but it kind of adds to the cool guy energy, but I really think he could pull this off. I agree. He says that sushi combines the soul of the sea and the land. It symbolizes Mother Nature herself. This Giant Blue Hole will give Bancho the opportunity to introduce people to flavors they otherwise would never be able to try.

21:03 As he explains this, an earthquake strikes. Oh, shit. Sake bottles fall, and everyone ducks for cover. The earthquake ends, and the brand new, ready-for-opening-night restaurant is wrecked. Oh, my God. Now, you've worked at sushi restaurants in Beverly Hills. Yes. So I have a sneaking suspicion this was always a danger of happening to you for about a year of your high-end restaurant consulting career. Yeah, that's true. Holy shit, that must be so scary. Well, Cobra says he's out of money, so you can't delay the opening of the restaurant. He's a serial entrepreneur. His money's all tied up and stuff. It's not liquid right now.

21:44 Yeah, people will just have to understand that the earthquake fucked things up. Besides, the only thing that matters in a restaurant is the food. So serve up some good food, and we'll be able to pay for the repairs along the way. Bonsho says that the restaurant will only open for dinner service, which gives you all day to fish. You and Cobra head back out to the harbor, and you compliment him on finding Bonsho. He clearly knows his stuff. Cobra says, yeah, well, he's just never been the same since the incident. Oh, I'm sorry, probably shouldn't have said anything, so just put it out of your mind, get to fishing. It's probably not going to come back later. No. So you dive in for your first time, and you get immersed in the beautiful blue world below.

22:27 The lo-fi beats kick in, and you're swimming in the Giant Blue Hole. You've been a lo-fi fan for years. Oh, my God, for so long. I feel like something you do just, you throw it on to relax, I feel like it, I can see your shoulders go from tense to down at a calm position when you have lo-fi on. I'm not kidding. I used to seek out lo-fi before it came out. Not to be that guy. No, I was like looking for something like that, whereas I was like, I just want something that's just like hip hop beats that play in the background with no lyrics. And like soft beats, not like aggro fucking chopped and screwed shit. Totally. And then, yeah, lo-fi came into existence. I'm like, yes, this is what I've always wanted.

23:08 And then baby girl doing her homework with her cat by the window came through, and our world was changed. But knowing that that soundtrack is essentially variations of this to specific beats, I'm sure has helped get this in your top 25 games of all time. Oh, the music is one of the biggest parts of it. I love that. So you have an oxygen tank as your health bar, essentially. You also have a carrying capacity, as you'll be collecting fish and other stuff you find in the ocean. In order to collect fish, you have a harpoon gun. You'll aim it at your target, shoot at it, and reel them in. At first, you're only able to catch smaller fish, but there are fish of all sizes here, including sharks.

23:53 I love sharks. Being so early in the game, your oxygen tank is small, and your carrying capacity is limited. So you catch a couple fish and head back to Bancho. Now, I've never fished in my life, but you've gone on fishing trips with your family since you were a child. Have you ever used a harpoon gun? Never, no. God damn it, it looks so cool. They have one in Knives Out, and she tries to kill fucking Janelle Monae with it at one point. I'm like, harpoon guns are punk as fuck. Those things are gnarly. Yeah. Well, this will be three quarters of the gameplay loop for this game. Oh. Diving and catching fish is the vast majority, because these guys realize that all games have fishing anyway. Let's make ours the best fishing. How the fuck does every game have fishing?

24:35 It's wild, isn't it? Yeah. You get to the restaurant and give Bonjah the fish. You wish him the best of luck on opening night, and let him know you'll be by later to try the food. He says, I'm sorry, what do you mean? You think Cobra's old ass is going to run this place? No, that's on you. You have to run the restaurant. Plot twist, you're the manager now. Yeah, you tell him you don't know the first thing about running a restaurant. And he says, tough shit, you're going to have to learn. Figure it out. Now, we were just some restaurant managers who did not know what they were doing as well. And one of them looked like Dave. Oh, no, I know exactly who you're talking shit about.

25:16 He wasn't as cute as Dave. No. So the other quarter of the game is running the sushi restaurant. Every day, you will have a morning and afternoon dive. And then at night, you will run the restaurant. With the fish you've caught, you'll also be given a list of your ingredients and the different menu items Bancho can make from those ingredients. So you set the menu, too? Yeah, every night, you'll set the menu based on price and taste level as each dish has a yummy factor. The goal is to make a profitable and desirable menu that will make customers want to order more and more. So you can't just do avocado sashimi? No, that's just literally sliced avocado. I follow a page called White People Making Asian Food, and I've seen it there, and it's the funniest fucking thing because it'll literally show a picture of the menu that says avocado sashimi, and the picture is just avocado.

26:09 It is like, I can't tell if you're doing this in earnest and you're dumb or if you're fucking with us, but either way, this is very funny. Well, during dinner service, you will serve green tea and sushi to customers as they order it. Banjo will make it, and you have to deliver it. If Banjo runs out of wasabi for the sushi, you have to grate some more fresh wasabi for him. There's so much resource management at every step of this. Yeah, also, only order fresh wasabi if they have a shark skin food grater. It's the only way to properly grate wasabi. Otherwise, it comes out all wet and gross if you just use a regular kitchen grater. I love that you are bringing just actual white glove sushi service to this in the real world and just telling people how to order sushi.

26:51 Oh yeah, I'm not afraid to drop knowledge. We've eaten fresh wasabi. It is a different experience than the horseradish paste wasabi that is more common. Most of the green wasabi that is that paste material is mostly horseradish, right? Yeah, that's mostly horseradish. I knew it. Sometimes you will need to bus the tables and clean up as well. And like I said before, it's only about 90 seconds for dinner service, but it's very fun to balance all those spinning plates. It's just overcooked. Yeah. After the first dinner service, you sit with Boncho. He says, you were a little clumsy, but you'll get the hang of it, hopefully. Just try harder next time. Just try harder.

27:33 Don't you love when a game's like, that was okay, but what the fuck? Yeah, you were fine. You say that's damn near a compliment coming from Boncho. The two of you toast to the opening of your restaurant, and the screen fades to black. Well, Boncho at least respects you. He's like, you're trying, but I'm gonna let you know you need to meet my caliber, which is a lot higher. And we're in this together now. Yeah. The camaraderie is nice off the bat. I feel like Boncho is trying to invest in this relationship. Yeah, he is. We next see a small yellow boat, DHL Delivery Yellow, with a bunch of packages strapped to the back. It's tearing ass across the water when it runs into some debris and crashes.

28:13 Suddenly, out of the water, a giant red tentacle comes up and over the boat. The tentacle grabs the boat while the captain shouts for help and pulls it under. Oh, shit. Leaving a few packages floating on the surface. The next morning, you get a call from a grumpy lady. She asks if you're the one diving for Bancho. When you say you are, she says she's surprised. She expected someone more professional-looking. Aren't they on the phone? They are, but it's always video calls. Oh, okay. So she's FaceTiming a stranger, and she's immediately making judgment calls. Yeah. Every conversation you have is clearly through, like, a FaceTime, and sometimes those conversations are underwater.

28:56 Oh. That's great. But yeah, FaceTime works underwater, too. She says she works for the Marine Biology Department for the local college, and she wants you to collect some things for her. This is just a side mission, really, and you'll get a few throughout the course of the game. She calls you unprofessional-looking and then gives you homework. Yeah. She's grumpy because she's not a pleasant person. But yeah, you'll have to find specific plants or animals for someone while you're diving. It really encourages the exploration of the ocean as much as it does the fishing aspect. While exploring the next day, you get attacked by some aggressive fish. Oh, shit. And you have to resurface. Everyone's picking on fucking Dave. Yeah, they do pick on Dave.

29:37 Cobra says that there's some fish too big to use the harpoon on, so you're going to need an actual gun. I'm sorry. We are immediately like, you need to pack some heat. Yeah, you're going to need it. Oh, shit. He says he knows a guy that can help you on that front. He calls a man named Duff. He's a chubby hacker man looking kind of guy. He wears a waifu shirt and has a thick golden neck beard. Oh, he's a weeb? Oh, he's a full blown weeb. I love a weeb. He asks Cobra who the goofy looking guy next to him is. You say that's not really a nice thing to say to a stranger, but hi, I'm Dave. Nice to meet you, I guess. And they're built basically the same. Duff says that he always pictured divers to be a little bit more, I don't know, athletic.

30:21 Duff really is the Duff here. Jesus Christ. He offers to make you weapons, but he'll need supplies, which you'll be finding while diving. So you head back in the water to fish and find some loose bolts and screws to craft a gun. There's no goddamn Lowe's hardware here. Nope. When you bring him the supplies he needs, he says he expected you to die down there. He's impressed you survived. This is not a pleasant person either. At all. He gives you access to his gunshot from here, and when he crafts a gun for you, you get a quick animation of Duff making the guns. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. What's cool is it's always an ode to a different anime, and I'm not familiar enough with anime to know all the references, but they're great little sequences even if you're not a fan.

31:04 I think there is one Sailor Moon sequence where it turns around and stuff. That sequence helped me realize I was bisexual. I'm not gonna lie. I'm gonna tell you right now, she gets up and she undresses through stars and shit, and I was like, I am fascinated by the female body. What's happening to me? And then was like, oh yeah, I'm gonna kiss a girl. And I did. And yeah, that was unlocked. So good on you. I hope Duff unlocks something for someone else. I'm sure he did. You also get the same for Bancho every time he learns a new recipe. It's fun and there's about five different animations you can get for each. Oh cool. One morning before heading out, a man pulls up alongside your boat in a boat of his own.

31:47 His name is Dr. Bacon. That's so good. Off the bat, I'm very happy with his character already. I figured you'd love his name. Yeah. He's an archeologist studying rumors of an ancient civilization that may or may not have sunk to the bottom of the Giant Blue Hole thousands of years ago. It probably did, because we're in the Bermuda Triangle. Right. He wants you to keep an eye out while you dive for any artifacts that may provide proof that this ancient civilization actually existed. I think that's an open call. If anyone is diving and sees artifacts from an ancient civilization, you should turn them in immediately. He goes on to explain that this civilization was rumored to be an underwater species of merpeople.

32:29 Whoa. They had gills in their necks, fins for legs, and they built a vast underwater city. If you could bring back proof that they used to exist, it will throw the entire scientific community into a frenzy. You tell them that's cool and all, but you have a restaurant to run, so no thank you. Dave said, I have a job, dude. That's so good. Then Cobra goes, yeah, he'll do it. Oh, see, Cobra's out here just making deals. He is, to your point, this serial entrepreneur. He's wheeling and dealing. He's taking his 20%. I think he's got a line in every fucking contract here. He probably called the university and is like, I have a diver.

33:14 My commission's 20%. And they're like, honestly? Yeah, that saves our diving team money. You know, we don't have to send the kids out there. We'll get this fucking guy to do it. He's also got an affiliate deal with Duff. And he's like, for every gun you make, I get 20% of the cut, right? Yeah, probably. Cobra is just working Dave like a pimp. He's got his finder's fees all over the place. That's a fucking lily. How do you think he affords all these tight haircuts? Well, you ask Cobra, what the fuck? And he says that if people find out that this is the location of an ancient sea people, then customers will flock to Bancho Sushi to get a seaside view of the merpeople lagoon. He already has someone lined up to sell merch. He's got this in development. It's gonna take three months because it's coming from overseas.

33:56 I see him. He's just, he's a little scammy boy. I like him. Yeah, they won't even care that they're not gonna get to see a merperson. Just knowing that they were there will be a tourist attraction. He has an entire pitch presentation about the Denny's that's next to where Nessie in Scotland is. I assume it's a Denny's, but there's a full deck of like, here's how the traffic will come through. High sharks. And it is an actual shark tank in this scenario with real sharks. And he's just pitching to get his bag. I like Cobra. This is Cobra's fucking game. Dr. Bacon teaches you how to upgrade your equipment to help you breathe longer and dive deeper so you can have more time and ability to look for artifacts. Which, amazingly, you eventually find a small statue of a fish.

34:40 You call Dr. Bacon from underwater and he's thrilled. Then there's another earthquake. And in the distance, the mountain range you can see turns out not to be a mountain range. A single gigantic yellow eye opens. Oh my God. And a massive squid swims away. It's not Godzilla, okay. No, but it's such a good fucking reveal. Not Godzilla yet. It will be. Another mountain range in the distance is just gonna start moving and trampling Tokyo. This freaks you out, and you decide to resurface. You bring the artifact back to Dr. Bacon, and he's excited by it. He says it's incredibly well preserved.

35:21 It almost looks brand new. He wants to take it back to his lab and research it, and asks you to keep an eye out for anything else you might find. You're like, I really don't want to, but I guess if it'll help the restaurant. Dave's like, I have to get my fucking diners up, dude. Well, with the money you made from the artifact, you are able to rebuild Bancho sushi, and it gets thrown back together literally overnight. Good. See, because my boy Cobra has some crazy contractors that work under the table. Yeah, definitely. He's like, I give them an eight ball, and they just get everything fucking done. From here out, you can customize Bancho sushi with different art pieces and better chairs and stuff like that.

36:01 Oh, cute. While the sea people would bring customers to the restaurant, it's still not enough advertising. You ask if Bancho uses Cooksta, a social media platform specifically for food. Oh, what a dream. Can I get on there? Yeah, right? If I could have Instagram and it's only food and I never have to see like sadness, that would be awesome. He says no, he's not really good with social media. So you set up an account for him. Bancho's too cool for that. I fucking love him. Yeah, and your follower account will be used to judge how well you're doing as a restaurant. Is this the one mechanic that works in both the South Park games and this game? Basically, right? I love that.

36:42 Just before dinner service, a woman walks in with a clipboard. Never a good thing when you're in a restaurant. No, she asks if it's true. This is Bancho's new sushi spot. Bancho sees her and says, Miss Yoshi? Miss Yoshi says she saw the name Bancho trending on Cooksta. Oh, shit. And had to see for herself if it was the one she remembers. She's on Cooksta all the time. She then starts reading some of the rave reviews. And you ask if there's any mention of the manager in the reviews. Ha ha. She says no. Oh, Dave. She looks around and says that it seems not much has changed about Bancho, still just doing his own thing when it comes to sushi.

37:23 Bancho is deeply philosophical about his sushi. He considers it as much an art form as it is a source of food. Miss Yoshi says it was that kind of thinking that got him kicked out of the hotel. Bancho interjects saying she judged that dish without ever even trying it. Bancho was about to go off on a tangent, but Miss Yoshi stops him. She says the customer is always right. It's Bancho's job to serve the customer, not the other way around. He needs to stop serving such terrible food. Bancho loses it. Absolutely. And says whole roasted shark head is an excellent dish. Shark head has been used in cuisine all over the world.

38:06 In Korea, it was even used in religious rituals. Wow. Miss Yoshi says, fine, then cook me the dish, and I'll be the judge as to whether or not it's good. Bancho tells you what kind of shark to get him, and Miss Yoshi will come back nightly until you serve her that dish. Bring me the head of a shark. Before heading out for the shark head, Dr. Bacon stops by again. He says that he used the material in the statue to develop a radar that will hopefully lead to more of it. Ooh. He offers it to you and asks you to give it a try. You follow the radar, and it takes you to a cave entrance. It's blocked by some rocks, though, so Dr. Bacon suggests you come up and have a chat with Cobra.

38:47 He's a retired weapons dealer, after all. There it is. Probably knows where you can get a bomb to blow up the rocks. He's not retired. Yeah, you didn't know that about Cobra? How else do you think he knew Duff? That's his protege. Yeah, why do you think the first thought when saying, you need a gun, was you should turn to a back alley dealer? See, I just thought Cobra was a shifty dude. You're like, he was an arms dealer. He was running guns. I believe everything about this. I love it. I love that they've also, as a community, just been like, he's fine. Yeah, he's all right. He's older, he's retired. He's not bringing the mafia here. He's gonna get the fucking nerds to backgalley it.

39:28 He's got his own GTA Lester in this game. Right, he does. No, Duff is full blown the Lester in this game. I love that, but he would be Pierce Brosnan in this live action, to be real. I love it. After Dr. Bacon hangs up, voices begin to surround you, saying something in a mysterious language. Never a good thing. You look around confused, as you can't see anything out of the ordinary. You shrug it off and head back topside to talk to Cobra about a bomb. Johnny topside. Cobra tells you that he totally can get you a bomb to blow up those rocks. Also, I assume he said this without hesitation. Like, I have one right now, dude.

40:09 Well, actually, he tells you he has parts on the way. He was getting ready to restock. Problem is the delivery boat never showed up, and he heard rumor that it sunk to the bottom of the ocean. You wonder if the wreck is related to the giant squid you saw before. If you can find the wreck, you can find the parts you need to make the bomb. It's a bit of a fetch quest for sure, but it's intended to be completed as you're doing your regular fishing routine anyway. Before diving back in, a little orange paddle boat pulls up next to you. In the boat is a 30-year-oldish man. He's wearing a blue vest and a backwards red cap. He's a cool dude. Looking like an out-of-shape Ash Ketchum.

40:50 Oh, he's not a cool dude. His name is Sato, and he greets you saying, Hoppity-hopp. Oh, no. It's so weird because we've met people in real life that have catchphrases. Right. And it's weird every time. Every time. He asks if you're familiar with a trading card game called Mareenka. The way it works is, every time you catch a fish, you'll get a special playing card of that fish on the Mareenka phone app. It's a great way to track all the fish you've seen and all the fish you've caught. Sato says it's almost like a, but Dave stops him from seeing anything trademarked. It's almost a licensing disaster.

41:32 The app's catchphrase is, gotta fish them all. God damn it. I'm actually amazed Nintendo has never done anything about this guy. They're busy with Pal World. That's true. But I do guess he's kind of considered parody, which is allowed. Sato says he'll check in from time to time to see how well you're doing. And with a friendly choo-choo, he pedals off. Choo-choo, and then he pedals away? Oh, this kid got his ass beat a lot. Poor dude. On one of your dives, you'll run into a dolphin. It's a gray dolphin, and it indicates that it wants you to follow. When you do, it takes you to where you find a pink dolphin, and it's captured inside a net.

42:13 Oh, no. You help the pink one and cut it out of the net, and the two dolphins swim in an arc and make a little heart as a sign of thanks. That's so darling. Then the two swim off to leave you to your dive. You eventually find the ingredients you need for the whole roasted shark head and bring it to Bancho. When he presents Miss Yoshi with the dish, she turns her head in disgust, saying it's the worst looking thing she's ever seen. Bancho says that's fine, because it will be one of the best tasting dishes she'll ever eat. She's all, okay buddy, we'll see, and then takes a bite of the food. Her eyes light up, and hearts fill the screen.

42:54 She then has a full blown foodgasm due to the shark head being so delicious. Bancho explains that even though a shark is ugly, the head is full of fat, and that makes it delicious. You have to ignore a food's appearance sometimes if you truly want to enjoy it. Ms. Yoshi says that now that she knows how good the food is, she's willing to offer Bancho her services. She's a recruiter, and she says that the two of you can't run this place on your own. You're gonna need employees. So she sets you up to where you can place an advertisement saying you're hiring. I like this structure. I think that more companies should have to be forced to prove their worth to LinkedIn before they can post job listings.

43:38 Right. As someone who's accidentally been on calls with pyramid schemes presenting as marketing jobs. True. This would be great. Also, having food so good, you feel like you're gonna bust. What a goddamn blessing. Bancho must be just fucking amazing. Oh, I love that. Well, each employee that responds to the ad has different skills. Like, some are better at serving, some are better at cooking. You'll be able to train them up, and then you can kick back and just enjoy the day and let them do the work down the line. About time. By this point, you should have found the supplies and have had Cobra build you the bomb you need to blow up those rocks.

44:18 Before heading back into the water, Dr. Bacon shows up and offers you a camera, just in case there's anything to see down there. But before you can get there, the great dolphin is back. He wants you to follow again, and you realize Pinky is nowhere to be seen. Oh, no. Pinky getting up to some shit. Well, when you find Pinky, they're caught in another net. God damn it, Pinky. But this time, it's a net that is attached to a boat up above. Oh, no. Looking at the boat, you determine that it's pirates, and they're gonna sell Pinky to an amusement park or something. So you cut the rope as the boat tries to drive away, and the pirates shoot guns at you.

44:59 And you finally free Pinky once again. What are the odds that Duff sold them those guns in the first place? Yeah, right? Very high. The two thank you once more with a heart, and you head off to blow up some rocks. They really are Pinky in the brain. Like, one manages to not get caught into shit. One is a genius, the other is caught in a goddamn net again. Yep. So you blow up the rocks, and the doorway beyond has a light shining through it. You ask Dr. Bacon, what if it's a water monster in there? Dr. Bacon says that would be an amazing discovery if there is. He said that would be fucking awesome. With that, you head into the cave. Inside is a giant wall and columns.

45:42 On the wall is a massive mural of what looks to be a merman king. You and Dr. Bacon assume it must have come from an ancient civilization that got swept away by an earthquake or something. This art style doesn't exist in any paintings from any era above ground. The columns also have writings all over them in an unknown language. So you snap some pictures and agree to bring them up to Dr. Bacon so he can examine them more thoroughly. Before heading back, you find some kind of artifact and decide to pick it up. When you do, the mystery voices from before surround you once more. You ask Dr. Bacon if he heard the voices too, but he says nothing is coming over the radio.

46:25 Now hurry up and get back. You arrive at the boat where you give Dr. Bacon all the pictures and the artifact. He says he'll be back soon after he researches them. As soon as he leaves, another boat pulls up. This time, it's a rubber raft, and it's full of commercial fishing protesters. Oh no! They're called Sea Blue, and they heard someone was using bombs to blow up the ocean. Oops. You're like, it's actually a bit more nuanced than that. The leader of Sea Blue is a man named John Watson, and he's UFC fighter buff. Oh shit.

47:06 He speaks over you, saying that their duty is to protect the ocean from human interference. If the authorities won't do something about it, he has no problem putting someone in their place if need be. Damn. He says he has no way of knowing if you were setting off bombs earlier. But if he catches you fucking around, you're gonna find out. Oh damn. After they leave, Cobra basically says, fuck that guy. Sea Blue is a terrorist organization masked as conservationists. There are so many layers to all of this. They claim to be against commercial fishing, but only bother local fishers and never the big guys. Oh, that's shitty.

47:46 Yeah, they're paid by the big guys to take out the locals. So yeah, fuck that guy, but also be careful because he's literal terrorist. Yeah. That night before dinner service, you get another special guest. This time it's two people, a man and a woman. The man is dressed like a Sith Lord, all in black with a coat that is basically a cloak. This dork rolling into a sushi restaurant with a cloak on. Well, the woman is all in pink. The woman speaks first, and she's holding a microphone. She introduces herself as Yui, host of the cooking show titled Star the Chef.

48:26 Oh, it's just like she's really into karaoke. She thinks she's a K-pop idol and walks around with a fucking microphone. This is a tiny restaurant. It seats like 12 people. What are you doing? This is the trouble of K-pop in public. The man with her is Vincent Yamaoka, legendary sushi expert. To demonstrate his prowess, he goes on to explain that while sushi is simply rice, vinegar, wasabi, and a slice of fish, that doesn't mean it's easy to make it good. Facts. Every aspect of sushi matters and contributes to the taste. The thickness of the cut, the angle at which the fish was sliced, the stickiness and type of rice, the amount of wasabi and where it's placed, the temperature of the rice compared to the temperature of the fish, how the fish is stored, how fresh it is.

49:19 All of that and more goes into making the perfect bite of food. I've heard you say this exact thing verbatim about sushi when I've been like, I don't know, I just don't think I've had really good sushi or haven't had sushi that's inspired me. And you've been like, well, here's why. Well, this is also unfortunately why a vast majority of sushi chefs believe that women cannot be good sushi chefs. Now, it's almost entirely rooted in misogyny. However, the excuse given is that a woman's body temperature is one or two degrees warmer than a man's. So that difference in temperature changes the quality of the fish as it increases the temperature two degrees.

50:01 All I heard is I'm too hot to make sushi, so I should buy it. I know that's not the right message to take, but that's what I'm going to grab. Yeah, it's absolute horseshit backward thinking if you ask me. But that is an unfortunate side of the sushi world. Yes, you can find sushi chefs who are women, but they are tragically few and far between. Vincent Yamaoka says that while Bancho has great technique, he also uses exotic fish that is not commonly found in sushi. This is offensive to Japanese cuisine, as it is a slap in the face to all those who came before and perfected the art of sushi. Yui says, well, that's a great segue into this week's episode, because Bancho is competing this week.

50:42 Oh, shit. Bancho was like, was anyone going to ask me if I want to do this? This is a surprise. I'm sure Cobra set it up. He did, and he's making money on the back end. But Yui ignores him and barrels on. She says that Bancho must cook for Vincent to determine if Bancho truly is the next star chef. Bancho says to come back in two days, and he'll blow Vincent's mind with flavors he's never tasted before. Yui is excited to have such a showdown between a traditional chef and an exotic chef, and they agree to return in two days. Bancho tells you the specific ingredients he needs for this meal, which is a live jellyfish, and you agree to get it for him.

51:23 We're taken back underwater without Dave, back in the cave with the Sea King mural. Inside the cave are two merpeople, a man and a woman. They speak to each other in their language, so we don't know what is said. But then there's an earthquake, and the two look around scared. Suddenly, a giant tentacle comes from nowhere and grabs the mermaid as the merman watches in horror. Oh, shit. She gets taken away, and the merman chases after the giant squid tentacle. The next day, Dr. Bacon confirms that the artifact you found does belong to the Sea People, as it's made of an unknown metal.

52:03 Dr. Bacon has been able to attune a radar to find more metal like it, but you'll probably be going so deep in the water you'll need a headlamp to see. So you call Duff to see if he has one. He says he does, but he needs a favor first. The delivery boat that was bringing him the action figure of his favorite anime babe, Liachan, sank. His life is at the bottom of the ocean! If you can get it back for him, he'll give you the headlamp. As soon as you hit the water, you hear a loud noise. That's strange to experience underwater, so you go check it out. It's your dolphin friends. Both of them this time. Pinky in the brain. But they're surrounded by scuba diving pirates.

52:44 Oh, god damn it, they've taken to the sea. Yeah, and they have guns. God damn it. I blame Duff for this too. You fight off the pirates, and somehow don't kill them despite shooting them with your own gun. They swim off with an I'll get you next time, and the dolphins do their heart thing to show gratitude once more. You eventually find the delivery boat again, and see the package with the Liachan figure in it. But just as you go for it, a giant tentacle comes from under the boat and snatches it. They also love Liachan. In order to go after it, you need a special tool to get inside the sunken boat. Once you get it, you let Duff know that you're not exactly thrilled to be going after a giant squid.

53:29 He says that there is nothing more important than the safety of his dear Liachan. It's his waifu, damn it. Do not compromise this mission over a little old giant squid. Little old giant squid is such a funny thing to say. You use the special tool to get into the sunken boat and head inside. Once inside, you see that the boat actually landed on top of a cave, and a hole has been punched through the boat into the cave below. So you swim down until you come to a big open area of the cave. In this open area, you find the giant squid taking up most of the screen, fast asleep with the pink package right next to it.

54:11 Duff tells you to be very, very quiet and to steal the package back without waking the squid. Which you don't, and the squid awakens, taking us into our first boss battle. You say, you can't handle this thing, but Duff says, I'm your gun dealer, aren't I? Use your gun. I know you're packing, my guy. Just fucking aim and pull. So you fight the giant squid and defeat it. Which the boss fights in this game are kind of the perfect difficulty level, if you ask me. It might take you two or three tries, but really no more than that. Okay. The squid dies, and out of one of its tentacles, a mermaid is left behind, badly injured.

54:54 The merman from before comes around a corner and picks her up. He heads toward the exit of the cave, but then sees you and freaks the fuck out. He turns around and takes the mermaid with him off screen and out of sight. You ask Duff if he saw that, but he only has eyes for Liachan. Oh. You need to cut it loose from the tentacle and decide to bring some of it back to Bancho, see if he could use it in a recipe. Hey, I brought you back a piece of giant squid. Is this of interest to you, eccentric chef friend? Right. You bring Duff his doll, and he gives you the headlamp you need. It's not a doll. It's a figure. Right.

55:34 Once out of the water, you realize the tentacle smells like shit and wonder if it's even edible. You call Bancho and he tells you that, yes, giant squid smells awful, but it's crazy delicious. Problem being, it smells so bad you really can't sell it in a restaurant. So he decides tonight will be our night off. Bring the tentacle and we'll call our friends to come hang out and have some delicious, stinky sushi. I want to be on that friend list. Add me to the group chat. Totally. It's not quite a Red Dead 2 party, but you can talk with all the characters you've met so far as they all come to hang out and party. You know, if you ask Cobra the right thing, he'll probably just slip you like a joint or something.

56:15 Easily. Including the local stray cat Momo. He's there to receive lots of petting and any fish that falls to the floor. Momo. Oh, is he like your bodega cat? He's your bodega cat, yeah. Oh, I love Momo. You tell Dr. Bacon during the party that you saw the sea people. He gets very excited saying that the radar he made must be picking up metal from their village. He expected them to be extinct. Now he has a chance to find living sea people, and that excites him. As you sit with your friends and toast to your success, the scene fades, and we see someone is watching you through a set of binoculars as they load a grenade into a grenade launcher.

56:58 Oh, shit, this is on some Trevor Phillips shit. What are you doing? The next day, Dr. Bacon arrives, hung over as shit. He gives you instructions on how to use his radar now that you have the headlamp, but he drank too much and starts puking over the side of the boat. Oh my god, you messy cunt. He says he has to go, and tells you to go down and find that village, with his vomit still floating on top of the water. He's like, I need Pedialyte and a nap, and it's just so bright out here, I have to leave. And you look at it, and you're like, really? I'm supposed to dive in that now? Dive through it, get a couple extra points if you go through the circle. That's horrible. There is nothing worse than being around someone who's throwing up or has just thrown up, because the haze of smoke, it's like the cartoon stink lines are coming off their body.

57:45 Right. That is the worst thing. Well, you do anyway, and you're immediately confronted by John Watson of Sea Blue. Son of a bitch. He says, that's it. He warned you not to mess with the ocean, but now you're puking in it, and he has to take action. He blames you for someone else's barf, which is kind of the most egregious thing he's done so far. He pulls out his grenade launcher and fires at you. This is the most egregious thing he's done so far. Holy shit. You dodge, and he kills a bunch of fish in the process. The irony. He gets mad because that was supposed to be for you. It's your fault he killed those fish. The narcissism!

58:26 You're like, dude, you're the one shooting grenades. You literally pulled the trigger. I catch fish for a single sushi restaurant. I'm far from the bad guy here. Go blow up one of those giant fishing boats that take thousands of fish at a time. So you have to fight John Watson, and when he's defeated, he blows a hole through a wall and he swims through it. You realize that the radar is telling you to go that way anyway, so you follow. As you do, you make your way into some deep caves and eventually come upon a small one, where you find the two merpeople. The mermaid is laying on a table, and the merman is watching over her. When you approach, the merman panics but realizes you're blocking the only way out.

59:10 You call Dr. Bacon to ask if he knows any way to translate, and he says that using the writing you found on the columns before should help him figure out their language. So you head back up to see if he can fashion you a translation device. He's gonna casually Rosetta Stone an ancient language. Yeah, overnight. Good for you, bitch. Cobra is fucking stoked. He wants to tell the whole world about the sea people, so tourists will come from all over to see them and by extension come eat at Boncho Sushi. I was wondering what his angle was. It's like, does he own the lake or whatever? Yeah, it doesn't change much. Now it's just like, no, now they're real. Yeah, the Loch Ness Monster Denny's is gonna fucking crumble at the feet of Cobra's sushi restaurant.

59:53 Hell yeah. Well, Dr. Bacon says it's important we don't do that because we don't know enough about them yet. Facts. These could be the last two of them for all we know. And what if someone were to come hunt them? And covers all but money. Yeah. Dr. Bacon insists this is the right thing to do, and he goes off to make a translator. That night, it's showtime. Star the Chef has returned for your showdown with Vincent Yamaoka. Vincent asks what Bonsho has prepared for him, and Bonsho tells him he will be serving jellyfish sushi. Vincent looks at Bonsho in disgust, as jellyfish is a Chinese ingredient. You don't use Chinese ingredients in Japanese cooking.

1:00:37 This won't be a competition. It'll be a massacre. Bonsho serves him the jellyfish, and Vincent reluctantly agrees to try it since the cameras are rolling and all. Only because the cameras are rolling. As he eats it, he drops his chopsticks in surprise as a wave of happiness overtakes him. He says it's like he's eating the ocean. Bonsho goes on to explain that being tied to the traditional ingredients keeps people from experiencing the limitless potential of sushi. Flavor wins out every time, and if it tastes good, you should use it. Hell yeah! Like, I actually, I don't know if this happens with you, but I get a little deterred when I see, like, fusion.

1:01:19 Yeah, right? Especially when it's a Pan-Asian style thing. When I say Pan-Asian, I just mean they serve every noodle. There's a Pad Thai and a Chow Mein on the menu, and you're like, oh, Pickle Lane. Like, especially with Asian cuisine, it feels very Pickle Lane, but seeing things like this and seeing Bancho's perspective is really refreshing. And the fact that he's actually backing it up with good food, oh, that's rare to find. I mean, this reminds me of a time when we were living in Los Angeles, you had some friends coming into town, and they invited us to come out to a restaurant with them. I know where you're going with this. And they invited us to something that, by the sound of it, I was so offended by. And it was Korean-German fusion. Okay, now I'm white and Asian, ethnically.

1:02:00 So I was like, immediately like, what's wrong with the mix, Tom? Nothing. What you got against the mix, Tom? The food mix was what was concerning to me. And it ended up being some of the best fucking food I ever had while we lived in Los Angeles. Yeah, we went back there a couple of times. It was so damn good. So yeah. Rules and tradition be damned. Yeah. And we went with two of my friends who had immigrated here from two countries that were not Korea or Germany. So they were just like, one girl is from China, one girl is from Mexico, and we're both, we're all just like, fuck it. We are the melting pot. This is the American dream. Well, Vincent goes on to give Bancho an 80 out of a possible 100 points.

1:02:43 The only reason he knocked 20 points off was because Bancho Sushi doesn't offer beer with the sushi. Fuck you. That's like knocking points off of a Yelp review because they had bad parking. Figure it out. That's not actually their fault. You dumb dipshit. That's a licensing issue. Well, had he been offered a beer, it would have been a perfect score. And everyone looks at Dave and they're like, aren't you the restaurant manager? This is your fault. Well, as a reward, he gives you a beer fridge so you can serve beer now. Oh, he solved the problem. That's actually very proactive. Yeah. Good job, cloak guy. After some more fishing, you get a call from Bancho just before dinner service, a day or two later. He says he needs you to come to the restaurant quickly.

1:03:24 There's a customer giving him some problems, and he doesn't have time to deal with it. God, I hope it's Momo. You get to the restaurant, and there's a surly farmer-looking man in overalls, with a straw hat and a scar down his cheek. He's at the bar having a beer and being loud. You tell him the restaurant's not even open yet, so he's not allowed to be here right now. The fact that you got a beer fridge and immediately you have a drunk in the restaurant after hours is so funny. Imagine that. He gets indignant saying that he hasn't been near the ocean in a long time, and he's just excited. He used to be a world-class diver once upon a time. He says that you as a diver know, every diver's dream is to swim with the most dangerous creatures in the world and narrowly escape death.

1:04:07 He actually got shipwrecked here years ago and found himself with nothing and nobody, no way to get back home. Over the years, he just kind of set up a nice little life for himself, so now he lives here full time. His biggest regret being that he left behind a wife and young child. Oh my god, this is, it's not Castaway, this is clearly an island that people are hanging out on, like, and you know Cobra's got a guy for everything, he can get you back into the country without a passport, no problem. Well, he became embarrassed about how long it took for him to get the resources to get back home. Oh, he's been like, it's so long, it would be awkward at this point. Yeah, but that's all behind him now. Goodness.

1:04:49 He's too old to dive now, but he remembers being a child, and he would dive for moray eel so his mother could make eel curry. If you could catch a moray eel, and if Bancho would be so kind as to make an eel curry, he'll give you a gift. The issue being moray eel only come out at night. Fortunately, you now have a headlamp, so you can do some night diving to catch it and even more exotic sea life. And I'm assuming you're able to hire some people so they can work the restaurant when you're out diving at night? Actually, no. If you choose to dive at night, you will lose one third of your dinner service hours. Oh, you missed your shift! Yeah, so you'll miss out on some money that night, but you'll have some exotic fish that are worth more, so it balances out.

1:05:30 I imagine there's a little sign on the door that says, closed for eel hunting. Be back at 7 p.m. Yeah, exactly. You catch the eel, Bancho makes the curry, and the old man has a full-blown ratatouille moment as he takes a bite and turns into a young child. After, he says to meet him out back. He has something he wants to show you. Oh, no. Okay, I've heard this from men in my life. Ladies and men and thems, everyone in between. Don't follow that man into the alley. Well, Dave is the most trusting person in the universe, and the next day goes to meet the old farmer. Oh, no, he's gonna get touched. Out back is a series of docks floating on the water, all tied together in little squares.

1:06:15 Did you say docks tied together? Yeah. Oh, docks. Got it. Sorry. Still shifting from my trauma. Got it. The old man's name is Otto, and he tells you it's a fish farm. He built it last night. Those kind of docks. Yes, floating docks. When you catch live fish, sometimes they'll lay eggs. Here, you can grow those fish, and then you don't have to dive for them, and you can just grow them here instead. Oh, a fish farm. I think that should actually satiate John Watson and be like, you know what? Fucker, fine. I'm going to make my own goddamn fish. Leave me alone, you terrorist. You can also store some live fish you catch here, and they'll fuck and make some more.

1:06:56 Oh, they love each other. Yeah. Also, incubation to full adult is like 24 hours because magic water. Hell yeah. Either way, you don't have to work as hard and can spend a bit more time exploring. Before diving in, Dr. Bacon arrives and says that he and Duff worked together to create a translator you can use to communicate with the Sea People. So you grab your new toy and dive back into the depths. You return to the cave where you last saw the Sea People, and you try out your new translator. You can now read the words being spoken. The Merman is amazed you can speak their language. You also look a little more round than the humans they've seen from a distance.

1:07:38 And you know, swimming is supposed to be a good cardio, but poor sweet angel Dave is eating really decadent sushi every night. Like, I know Bancho is not the kind of person that would skimp on quality to save a couple calories. Oh, no. So he's eaten well. He's eaten good in the neighborhood. God damn. But yeah, everybody's fat shaming like they're glados in this game. I love that so much. Poor sweet angel Dave. He introduces himself as Suwam of the Low Dwellers, or Sea People, as the humans say. He tells you that he is the bravest and coolest male among them. You say, hi, I'm Dave. I too am the coolest and bravest among them. Suwam says, Dave, that means broken toilet lid in my language.

1:08:25 I love that so much. He tells you that the mermaid that's lying unconscious is named Ramo, and she's the daughter of the chief. She needs a special Sea People meal if she hopes to recover. So he gives you a recipe using some things you can find on your dive, and tells you to find a chef to make her this food. Thank goodness you own a restaurant. Right? If he ran into Cobra, they'd be real fucked up. Yeah, right? You collect your ingredients and convince Bancho to make you food for Princess Ramo. You return to the cave and give Sawan the meal. He smells it and says, it's perfect. He swims over to Ramo and says, Ramo, here, I made you some food. I did this.

1:09:08 Yep, he's the bravest one of them all. I guess she woke up while you were out, and she sits up and eats. As soon as she finishes, she is back to full health and is ready to go. Damn, it's like the mom in Encanto just like, I whip this up for you, she's back to normal. And then she's like, oh, fuck, a human. Suwam explains that you're the one who defeated the squid and got her the food. So you can be trusted. She says, good, then that means Dave can escort me back to the village. Suwam can scout ahead and make sure they know we're coming. He's the one who failed to rescue her from the squid after all. Hell yeah, she's calling him the fuck out. She's like, great, first of all, I know your ass didn't cook this.

1:09:49 You burned cereal last week. Second of all, you go first in case there's any danger. This fat fuck is going to take me over. Yeah. Hell yeah, I like her. Suwam is offended, but she's the princess, so he agrees. She tells you you'll have to carry her back and fight off any dangers you may encounter. And you're like, seriously, haven't I done enough for you already? She gives you some puppy dog eyes and is all, but my fin hurts. Please, sir, will you carry me? I'm a mermaid princess. You tell her you'll take her as far as her village, but that's it. You carry her through a long series of fish attacks as she guides you towards her village. You get to a part that's blocked by rubble caused by the recent earthquakes.

1:10:33 You have to do a whole ass thing to clear the rubble by dropping a bunch of other rubble on top of it to clear the path. It takes a couple dives to do, honestly, as you'll need some special gloves to pull it off. But before you clear the rubble, at dinner service, you have a new visitor. It's a little girl and her emotional support puppet. I'm sorry. Did you say emotional support puppet? Puppet. I love everything about this. You try to explain that the restaurant is not open right now, and she should come back later. She just sits in silence staring at you.

1:11:14 You try again, but this time you're interrupted as the girl starts crying and hiding her face. The puppet says, Listen, you fuck, I heard you the first time. And you're all, whoa, whoa, where did that come from? The little girl looks up and apologized and says it's not her, it's the puppet. It's Jeff Dunham's fucking old grumpy man puppet. I'm so sorry. Bancho says he's actually familiar with this. It's a type of therapy offered to children who have suffered great trauma. It allows them to act out what they're feeling on the inside through the use of a doll. And the puppet goes, Doll, I'll kill you. This girl has seen some shit, clearly.

1:11:57 Bancho then says, Or she could be nuts. You ask the girl whose name is Maki what she wants to eat. The puppet says, They want kombu and white trevally okazuki. Okay, that was hyper specific, honey. Kombu being a type of seaweed, white trevally is an Australian fish that eats fucking birds. There are, wait, I'm sorry. Hold the fuck up. It's Australia. Of course, there are fish that eat birds. Okay, that's right. The spiders are the size of like actual soccer balls. But like the idea of a fish being able to pluck something out of the sky. Yeah. And then destroy it for nutrients is wild.

1:12:40 Fucking Australia, of course. And okazuki is a green tea soup with rice. Bancho can make that, but that's a weird dish for a kid to order. Yeah. That's something old men order. Yeah, and it's the kind of thing you order like as a joke. Like that's the put hair on your chest sushi. Yeah, but it's what she wants. So you agree to get the ingredients to make it. She's the little girl from Leon the Professional. Oh, yeah. That was Natalie Portman when she was 12. Yeah, that movie. When she trains to be a hit man. If you're lucky and already have the ingredients, you can make it then and there. Otherwise, you have to die for them.

1:13:21 When Maki eats the soup, they thankfully do not make a little girl have a foodgasm. Thank God. Do they make the puppet do it? They make the puppet do a TikTok dance. She's my favorite character. Maki begins to cry, and when you ask what's wrong, the puppet says the food is too good, you dick. It's too good. Then Maki speaks herself, saying it reminds her of her father. And then she begins to cry again. She's like, my dad was an Australian man that would eat birds out of the sky. She goes on to explain that she's looking for her father. He's a deep sea explorer, and he went missing. Hmm, do we know anyone who's abandoned their family recently?

1:14:03 Hmm. She came here thinking maybe he was exploring the Blue Hole. She came to this restaurant because that is her father's favorite dish, and it's on the menu, so she thought maybe he'd be here. You tell her that you haven't seen anyone that goes by his description, but you'll keep an eye out for him. Then you ask the puppet's name, and she says it's Cleon, which is a type of tiny sea slug nicknamed the Sea Angel because they're very pretty. Huh, also sounds like Leon, the thing that I think this child is based on. She asks if you could find her one during one of your dives. She's never seen one up close before. You agree, and she heads off for the night. Just an unattended child with a foul-mouthed puppet.

1:14:46 Wandering around. I'm not even worried, because I know that puppet's gonna fuck someone up if they ever try to run up on her, but still an unsettling image to see just a strange little child wandering around alone. With a puppet. With a puppet. In the meantime, you have to take a mermaid princess to her village. Ah, yes. You clear the path with your new gloves, and tell her there, I got you to the entrance of your village, now fuck off. She says she needs your help. She came to the surface initially for a reason. She needs the help of a human. You reluctantly agree, and go the rest of the way to the village itself. Dave can't say no to people. I think he should work on boundaries, and just being able to say no is a complete sentence.

1:15:29 No, thank you. He tries saying no, and then people insist, and then he just crumbles. He just gets steamrolled so hard. Yeah. Oh, poor guy. Before you get there, you feel a tremor, and in the distance, we see a gigantic wolf eel swim by, and it's blocking your path. A wolf eel? Yeah. Is that as intimidating as it sounds? Oh, twice as intimidating. Suwam, the bravest of the Sea People, says, Go get him, Dave. I hate Suwam. So you kill the eel, and it opens the rest of the path to the Sea People village. When you approach the gateway to the village, Suwam asks if Ramo has the key. She says, Oh no, I left it back at the...

1:16:11 I'm just kidding. I have it right here. She's funny. I like her. She opens the door, and you head into the Sea People village. It's in a bright and colorful underwater cave. There's Japanese-style buildings all throughout with coral and seaweed covering this mini-Atlantis. At the center is a statue of a great warrior-looking merman. You also don't lose any oxygen here. Oh, wow. As soon as you enter, you are rushed by guards with spears. They say that Chief Tenjin has been worried sick. Did this human kidnap the princess? She tells them to shut up and take you all to the chief, which they do.

1:16:52 You get to Tenjin's home, which is a huge mansion castle, and he's so grateful to have his daughter returned. He asks who the manatee is. Now, you and I have gone swimming with manatees. They are probably eight to ten feet long. They have the skin texture of an elephant. They are weirdly not soft. You'd think they'd be softer being moisturized all the time. They are way bigger than a people are, but he looked at Dave, analyzed this shape and said, that is a manatee.

1:17:34 Well, then he realizes you're a human. Ramo tells her father that it's been two years since the earthquake started. The ice has been melting off the divine tree, and he has done nothing about it. Oh, God, it's global warming. The Sea People's technology is at its limit to fight the melting of the ice that protects them. So she went to the human world to see if they can help. Tengen says that humans can't be trusted. They're the reason the ice is melting in the first place with all the pollution they've created. It literally is global warming. Yeah, it's pretty heavy handed about the global warming here. Greta just starts swimming up with her pigtails, like, I fucking told you. Back in the day, humans even hunted sea people for sport.

1:18:15 Ramos says that you're different. You saved her from the giant squid, and you helped her back to the village. Hashtag not all humans. Yeah, she says not all humans are bad. And you go, um, actually, but you're interrupted by another earthquake. You really were about to sell out the whole fucking species and be like, honestly? We're pretty awful. We're not great. She tells her father that he's out of options, and he needs to trust that Dave can help. Tengen says that it's not just him. The rest of the sea people don't trust humans either. So you'll need to gain their trust first by completing tasks around town. Ramos tells you to come back once you have their trust.

1:18:56 You're like, I never agreed to any of this. And now you have to campaign against a village to win them over with heartfelt shit. That's a lot. And plus, this place is really far down. How am I supposed to get back here every day? The Chief offers you a special mirror. It has a twin here in the village, and you can use the mirrors as a teleportation device. Oh, that's cool. So just keep this one on your boat, and you can teleport to the one in the Sea People Village. That's very convenient. Yeah, it's great because it helps you start, like, really deep in the ocean on your dive, saving you oxygen. And you don't use oxygen in the village, so you can really come out, kiss some babies, shake some hands, you know, just do your general campaigning, and then pop out, grab some eels.

1:19:42 Yeah, exactly. That's cool. Get back to the boat, and it's late at night. Bonsho Sushi is already closed for the evening. So you head back to the restaurant to clean up. While cleaning, Miss Yoshi comes in, saying she just finished up her day and saw the lights were still on, so she thought she'd stop by and say hello. The two of you get to talking, and you mention that you had heard Bonsho had once quit cooking for a while after some incident at a hotel. She says to grab her a beer, and she'll tell you the whole story. I love a bitch that's like, pour me a drink, and I will tell you whatever you want. That is a good friend to have. Right. If it takes one drink and that unlocks secrets, that is my best friend.

1:20:25 Well, she used to work at the hotel with him. The scene fades, and we're taken to the Dugong Hotel, 12 years in the past. That's a Pokemon. It's a high-end, old-as-fuck hotel with a reputation for luxury. We're now playing as Miss Yoshi. Oh, cool. So you actually shift perspectives entirely, not just like a cut scene. The hotel manager approaches you and tells you that you have a special guest tonight. Action star, Lois Crawford. Not Lois Crawford. She's had a bit of a career slump lately, and she's coming to the hotel to reset herself. She's also known for being a huge pain in the ass.

1:21:05 Not only that, but she's a classically trained chef and is very picky when it comes to food. But this hotel has its reputation for a reason, so you have nothing but the utmost confidence everything will go fine while she's here. The hotel has three restaurants, a Michelin-starred French restaurant, an Italian, and a mediocre Japanese spot. The Japanese is the weakest of them three, got it. It's kind of the quick service spot, basically just serving barbecue noodle and rice bowls. You pick the Japanese food for her, because you have an up-and-coming chef named Bancho running the restaurant. He's made a name for himself by bringing out the best flavors in every dish he prepares.

1:21:45 Only problem is, he doesn't really give a shit about what the customers want. He'll make what he thinks is good and will tell a customer what to eat. So you decide to go talk to Bancho to see if he'll be a help or hindrance with this customer. You go to the kitchen, and Bancho is there, much younger with a tight little mini afro. Oh, I love when you see a bald character in a flashback and they have hair, just to show what the time change is done to them. He's working hard prepping for the night. You, as Miss Yoshi, explain to Dave that one day Bancho showed up at the hotel and handed you his resume. It had all the best sushi restaurants in Japan listed, but he never stayed anywhere longer than a couple months.

1:22:31 He just took what he could learn from those locations and then moved on. He's been the head chef here for about a year now. You ask Bancho to please take this VIP seriously. You need him to take her tastes into consideration, even if he doesn't agree with them. He says that he will cook using the finest ingredients and will get the best possible taste out of those ingredients. But he will also make the dishes the VIP wants. Except for tempura shrimp. Is that where he draws his line? That's his line. It's just so boring. Bonsho wants to make tempura shark's head instead. And you're like, please, no.

1:23:12 Just keep it simple. Make her some fucking shrimp. Why can't you be normal? Well, he insists. Shark is perfect this time of year. It's just before winter, so they've stored up a bunch of fat. The sharks are in season. You tell him that Lois Crawford is too picky to be trying something like deep fried shark head. You insist on the shrimp, and he reluctantly agrees. That night, Lois Crawford arrives for dinner. You serve her one course after another, and she is enjoying herself. Then you get to the tempura course, and before the food comes out, she says, please just let it be anything but shrimp. Oh, okay, so she's with you.

1:23:53 She's like, honestly, fuck the shrimp. You panic, and she can tell it's gonna be shrimp. She declines at saying she's had her fill anyway, and that the food was pretty mid-tonight. Oh, Boncho immediately just fire under his eyes, right? Yeah, she's saying it's not bad. It's just fine. Didn't wow her. Boncho comes over and says he's been listening, and he has some things to say to Miss Crawford. Oh my god, Boncho. He says he has failed her as a chef tonight. His job is to blow her away with his food, and he hasn't done that. But if she gives him a chance, he'll make her a dish that blows her mind.

1:24:33 Lois agrees, and Boncho brings out the whole roasted shark head. Lois takes one look at it and screams in horror. Screams at the sight of the shark? She can't believe Boncho would just deep fry an entire shark head and serve it on a plate. Ah! Boncho insists she try it, but she doesn't. Lois then went on to find her second career as a food writer, and her first big article was a takedown piece on Boncho and the Dugong Hotel. The betrayal! Back in the present, you once again have control of Dave.

1:25:15 Miss Yoshi says that Boncho quit the next day, disappeared for years, only to resurface by opening this restaurant. Oh my god, she became the food critic in the menu that fucking tanks a bunch of other restaurants, and is like, oh, that's crazy. No, bitch, those are lives you're dealing with. It's the first place Boncho was for more than a year or two. He's job hopping, he's collecting data, he's understanding his craft, he's really more just like bouncing around to learn different aspects of this one art. And then he finally grounds his roots. Oh my god. But for her to come through and just be the symbol of Boncho's big disappointment that had an article come out, like this bitch transitioned careers to take him down.

1:26:05 And she's over here like, he gave me a fucking deep fried head. I hate this guy. Just a bratty fucking actress being like, absolutely not. And then Boncho having to like leave. Oh, holy shit. And Miss Yoshi just having to come in and be like, hey, buddy. Long time no see. I'm a recruiter now. I moved into HR. Are you okay? We all worried about you in the group chat, you know, like, oh. Whew. Well, she says that you've clearly been good for Boncho. You keep him on the right path by just letting him cook. Good. Because he's clearly mellowed out in the years since.

1:26:45 He lost his hair. He gained perspective. The screen fades as you and Miss Yoshi finish your drinks and head home. Probably with each other, but that's not official. Stop! Let's hope your suit isn't the only thing that got wet that night. Jesus Christ, Tom! The next morning, Dr. Bacon pulls up, saying he didn't hear from you yesterday. He was trying to get a hold of you on the radio while you were diving. You explain that you were in the Sea People Village, and Dr. Bacon shakes with jealousy. I'm sorry, I can't come to the phone right now. I'm in Atlantis. Back in the water, you go around the Sea People Village, helping out the citizens with little tasks, gaining their trust as you do.

1:27:28 It takes a few dives to complete all the tasks, and in between these quests, you get another special customer. His name is Michael Bang, world famous director of the Robot Samurai movies. Definitely not based on Michael Bay. Honestly, they show a poster of the Robot Samurai. It's just a fucking transformer. I love everything about that. He has come up with all his best movies while eating sushi, and the better the sushi, the better the movie. He's having writer's block and asks for a special sushi dish. Boncho says the quality of rice he's been able to source isn't the best, and he's worried that Michael Bang will be disappointed by it. Otto the fish farmer is there as well, and he says that he's not just a fish farmer, he's a regular farmer too.

1:28:13 He says to give him a night, and he'll have a rice farm up and running in the morning. That's all it takes. That's all it takes. Now you have a farming mechanic to balance on top of everything else. There's a whole farm behind the restaurant the next day, and Otto will do most of the work, but you have to pluck weeds daily. I appreciate that the farming mechanic is run by someone named Otto. We kind of set it and forget it and it automatically rolls over. That's really cool. Yeah, they're very clever like that. Then when it's harvest time, you have to do that as well. And time is meaningless in this game, so rice grows in two days. Nice. Back in the water, one of your Sea People quests ends up aligning with a request you received earlier.

1:28:54 They want you to kill a monster-sized Cleon, one of those sea angels. You manage to kill it, and when it dies, it drops a photograph. It's of Maki, the little girl with the puppet. What the fuck? You bring her a small, safe Cleon along with the picture. She takes the picture, which is in a frame, and says there's a button on the backside of it. What the fuck? She pushes it, and a small TV screen turns on. A man in a life vest appears on the screen. It's Maki's father. He says that if Maki is watching this, it means his expedition has failed, and he is dead.

1:29:35 Oh, God. He apologizes for being a shitty dad, always moving her around the world while he chased his dreams. He tells her it's time to chase her own dreams. He knows she wants to grow up to be a world famous chef, and he encourages her to pursue that dream no matter what. He says his final goodbye as the screen turns off. Maki is crying. Yeah. And then looks up and says, Please let me work here. Oh. Bancho loves her spirit, and says that she'll get no special treatment, but that she can train under him.

1:30:15 So now Maki works alongside Bancho, making sushi during dinner service. Does her puppet work with her too? Yeah, she still keeps her puppet around. By now, you should have gained the trust of the Sea People Village, and you can return to the Chief Tenjin. He's impressed you managed to gain their trust, so he'll trust you as well. He tells you that the Divine Tree here in the village is what provides them with all the power and resources that make their village livable. It has special fruit that grows on it, and that fruit gets its power from the geothermal vents the tree sits upon. There's a glacier beneath the village, but the glacier is melting. The Sea People can't take the heat at that depth, so they have no way of getting down there to see what's wrong and how to fix it.

1:30:59 That's why they need human help. Humans have diving equipment that will allow them to go that deep, so they ask you to be that human. You explain that you don't currently have the equipment, but that it does exist, so you agree to help them save their village. Besides, it's probably related to all the earthquakes that have been happening lately. Oh, right. New equipment costs money, so you have to do a few more dinner services to raise the funds. This will bring you to finally making Michael Bang the meal he requested. Boncho is a huge fan of the Robot Samurai series. Hell yeah. So he really wants to impress him. And he really wants a good entry. Michael takes a bite, and a fighter jet bursts out of his chest while the world around him explodes.

1:31:45 I like the subtlety. He signs a Robot Samurai poster for Boncho, and you can hang it in the restaurant like it's a fucking dorm room if you choose. That's really cool, though. It's almost like when they have signed photos of celebrities at restaurants, but he's just like, nah, you get fucking robo fighters. He leaves saying he's off to make his next movie about a sushi chef with a rocket launcher for an arm. And Boncho's like, it's me. Right. While you work to get more money, you head back down to the Sea People Village. You have to find a key to get into the glacier passage anyway, and you encounter some zombie sea people while you're at it. There's zombies now? Yeah, this game isn't done with the amount of strange we're going to encounter.

1:32:27 I mean, the undead merpeople. I think that's where the envelope is really pushed for me. I think this is the first time I've ever seen zombie mermaids. Yeah, you know, they're usually not undead. No. You find the key and say that all those hours playing that one action adventure game where you hunt for treasures has finally paid off. Oh, yeah, that one. Yeah, too bad the movie wasn't that great. Oh, that, it's uncharted. Yeah, it's fucking shots fired on uncharted. Yeah, no wonder it was a Switch console exclusive for the first year. PlayStation was like, excuse the fuck me? Rude. As you're returning to the Sea People Village, John Watson shows up again, saying, now he's caught you robbing graves.

1:33:11 The game is afoot, Watson. He's in like Iron Man armor, since you're so deep in the water. Oh, no. He managed to defeat him, and he has to bail out of his Iron Man suit. Good. He swims to a nearby submarine and escapes. You grab the Iron Man suit, figuring it could probably come in handy if Cobra can get it fixed. Can you fit in it, though? Eh, if Cobra does his thing. You take the key back to Tenjin, and he is amazed to hear about the zombies. He calls them Gadons, and they're sea people who got turned into these creatures over 800 years ago. Whoa, they're ancient zombies? Yeah, he thought they had long since died off. He had no idea they couldn't die. Dave is like, I was asked to run a restaurant.

1:33:57 Honestly, he was asked for sushi. Yeah, I'm sorry. Nothing was asked of him. No. It was just a statement, one word, sushi, motherfucker got on a plane, and now he's underwater fighting ancient zombie Mervin. He thought he was gonna get a free meal out of it at best. He may or may not have inspired a Transformers movie. He's adopted an orphan. You tell Tengen you have the equipment you'll need to dive. You just need to go up and get it fixed, so you head back to Cobra. While he uses the Iron Man suit to craft you a better one for yourself, you go to the restaurant. While you're preparing for the night, a thugged out white guy walks in.

1:34:40 Oh no. He's about to blow up and act like he don't know nobody, kind of thugged out white guy. Oh, it's Riff Raff. He asks if this restaurant serves vegetable sushi, as he's a vegetarian. Of course he is. Bancho says, no, sorry, we don't serve that here. And the guy starts to walk away dejected. You didn't have any avocado sashimi for Riff Raff? Not prepared, no. God damn it. Then he turns around and says, hold up, this song, is that Hot Pepper Tuna? That's the title song from my first album. And Bancho says, you're MC Sammy? Bancho's a huge fan. Oh no. MC Sammy asks if Bancho will please make him some veggie sushi as a fan.

1:35:23 And Bancho tells him to come back in a couple of days and he'll give him the best veggie sushi of his life. There's nothing I find cringier than talented people trying to use their clout for shit. I know. Okay. Okay, so when we lived in LA, there was a long running sitcom, I think it did nine or ten seasons, I'm not gonna name names, but we can play demois if you want to. We walk into our favorite barbecue restaurant, it's now defunct, it's called Barrel and Ash, it was fucking amazing. Incredible. It was on Ventura Boulevard, we went there maybe once a month, we didn't go there enough because now it's closed and I daydream about their food genuinely. It changed my brain chemistry, it was so good.

1:36:05 I come in, I look up, I see this guy who's in the main ensemble cast of this very, very, very popular show. Emmy Award winner for this cast. He won an award for that? Okay, that's fucking wild. I didn't realize he took a statue home. I'm behind him and Tom is there with me and we hear the hostess say, okay, it's probably gonna be like 15, 20 minutes. And he goes, do you watch? Mm-mm. And he says the name of his show. And I squeezed Tom's hand so goddamn hard, I almost popped a knuckle because fuck you. And it ruined the show for me. It really did. This bastard man. Because like a month later, they did an episode making fun of people who do that.

1:36:46 That's true. And we were like, oh, the writers have just been to lunch with this person and seen him be like, can I get a refill? Do you know who I am? Like, the do you know who I am of it all is so obnoxious. And Boncho's just like, well, I actually am a fan. So yeah, this bitch is a hostess in a popular, very good restaurant, Inventura. She doesn't give a fuck. No, we saw fucking SpongeBob SquarePants there one time. Not the Ariana Grande SpongeBob. Please be very careful about that. No, Spyro, Tom Kenny. We're talking about Tom Kenny. He's a great guy. Yeah, no, he was cool. I think we sat behind him, and we were listening, and you heard it in his voice, and I saw your eyes prick up, and you turned around and then turned back, and you went, Andrea!

1:37:33 Now that was fun. That was a definite hotspot, but holy shit, the do you know who I am? Instant cringe. It's so... It's such... It's the worst Ick. I hate it. I hate it so much. Well, MC Sammy Leaves agreeing to return in three days. Boncho tells you to call Otto to see if he can help source some fresh veggies. Otto is stoked to find out you're going to be putting vegetable sushi on the menu and says the customer is good taste. Of course he can help. He just needs a night, and he'll have a vegetable farm up and running. Obviously. Dr. Bacon was at dinner that night, and after service, we actually follow him as he leaves. He goes to his boat and says that the radar that detects sea people artifacts is going off and is pointing to somewhere above the water.

1:38:19 Oh, shit. So he heads toward it. He gets to a small peninsula and sees a cave. Now, you play as Dr. Bacon, and you head into the cave. You've changed out of Dave a couple times now. That's interesting, right? Inside, you find a bunch of murals. It depicts humans and sea people discovering each other for the first time. They shared their knowledge of food and technology of the time, including the fruit from the divine tree. But the fruit wasn't meant for humans. It made them sick, and every human who ate them died. Oh, shit. The humans thought it was a deliberate attack, and they slaughtered every sea person they came across from there out.

1:39:02 Bitch, you can't handle gluten. What makes you think you can handle special underwater fruit? You find a device on the ground, and immediately know it is sea people technology that will allow a person to breathe longer underwater. I love that Dr. Bacon's like, oh, obviously. I know what this does. Then you hear voices coming from outside the cave, so you exit to see what's up. You get outside and find pirates. Oh, god damn it. They shout at you, so you jump on your boat and take off out of there. You have to do the Oregon Trail River Rapid sequence while you avoid getting shot at by the pirates. Just evading rocks and shit while you plumb it through.

1:39:43 Yeah. They eventually wreck, and you make it to safety. Finally, the day ends, and you are Dave once more. Auto calls and tells you that you can now farm vegetables as well as rice. Let's just add some more Farmville to the game. It's actually the only thing in the game I don't care for. Farming is dumb. Okay, so out of everything, you're like, this is the one resource management thing I'm fucking over. Yeah, really hate the farming. Okay. In the village, you go to the Glacier Passage door, and Sawam lets you know that since you've confirmed Gaddons can live for 800 years, then this place is going to be swarming with them. Oh, no. Best of luck to you and try not to die out there.

1:40:24 Sorry, because he also opened up the gates and made it clear and cleared the rubble. Yeah. There's a fucking path now. You go in, and it's an ancient temple. You spend some time doing some really well-designed puzzles to get through this temple, which is one of those special things about this game. It's constantly giving you new elements to experience through the entire game. It's great, too, because these are also new sets. It's not just a new gameplay element of, like, do this puzzle. It's like, oh, here's something that your eyes physically haven't seen before. Yeah. And yeah, the core gameplay loop remains the same, but there's so much variety in this game that goes into that loop as well. You puzzle solve your way through, seeing murals along the way depicting different scenes of sea people doing things.

1:41:05 You take pictures for Dr. Bacon's reference, and it leads you to a room that is pitch black. Except for one soft light source. It's a divine fruit. And something you learned during the puzzle-solving section was that if you hit a divine fruit, it glows. So you give it a smack, and the fruit lights up the room. Yeah, I can see why a human wouldn't be able to digest this. Right? It reveals another mural. And also, a 30-foot tall gadon. Hard no! Oh, no, that's worse than a Rat King garden. You don't want one that's Godzilla-sized. What if it's Godzilla?

1:41:47 It wakes up to the light, and sees you. He butts a hole in a wall, and the current sucks you out of the room and into the hole. Oh, shit. Now the game becomes Flappy Bird meets Little Nightmares, as the gadon chases you through a series of tunnels while you avoid obstacles in its grasping undead hands. The fucking Rapids was just a warm-up for this. That's genius to have that same structure, but just bigger and badder immediately after. Fuck, that's cool. That's just great game design. And in a boss fight, yeah, it's wonderful. Oh, that's fucking great. You manage to cause a cave-in on top of the gadon, and it finally dies. Hell yeah. Sawam was watching the whole thing and was like, damn, you were lucky I was here.

1:42:30 I hate him. The two of you go back to Tenjin, and he tells you that now you've opened the passage, you can get to the bottom of this issue of the Divine Tree getting too hot. But before that, you have to serve up some veggie sushi to MC Sammy. You gather your fresh crops from your new farm, as they grow in just a day or two, of course. Bancho preps it, and MC Sammy arrives, excited to try it. He takes a bite, and is overtaken to the point of writing a new song even. I'm inspired. He asks what the secret is to such incredible veggie sushi. Bancho says he had a little help from a friend. Is that friend bacon grease?

1:43:10 No, Otto walks in. I think it was one of those secret plot twists you weren't eating something vegetarian moments. He freezes at the sight of MC Sammy. MC Sammy reacts the same. Otto says, Son? Sammy says, Dad? I heard a rumor of a man that sounded like you in the area, so I came and ordered veggie sushi because it's your favorite food. Sammy says that he was teased growing up for losing his dad, so he poured his pain into his music, and made himself famous by writing songs about hating his father. But the music ended up healing his pain instead, and it taught him to let go of his hate.

1:43:56 He forgives his dad for everything, and says he's already made millions of dollars. He can take some time off to come work with his dad at the farm. Oh, wait, this is beautiful. What the fuck? Otto is ecstatic, and says that now Sammy is a grown man. The two of them should go grab a beer together, and the two of them head off to reconnect. This is the most darling thing. I mean, I fully bought in to Otto's gonna be Maki's dad. Nah, Maki's a straight up orphan who's developing herself as a chef. This is Otto's kid? Fuck me. From here out, MC Sammy is also at the farm, and you can pay him to take care of everything so you don't have to do the actual farming. Nice.

1:44:36 Oh, see, we're so happy to unlock this and be like, fine. I just come in, I pick up my shit, write you a check, and dip. Literally it. That's what's up. He says that all music is made on the computer these days anyway, so he can make it from anywhere, and decides to just be a rapper who also lives on a farm. He said, I can work remote, dad. Let's fucking do this farm thing. So you were aware you'd need a suit that can survive the heat coming from the thermal vents, but you weren't ready for the cold you'd have to endure from the glacier before you can get to the vents. Tengen gives you some sea people fabrics that protect from the cold, and you take it to Cobra. He says that the Iron Man suit you brought him was really badly damaged, so he can't make you the suit you need.

1:45:19 You know what that means? He just took it to the chop shop, got all the copper out of it, and then said, all right, this is what I got to work with. Well, he says you'll need to go steal one from the terrorists at their home base. Also, can you get me the blueprints of that home base? Because I have some other projects that I'm working on. Probably definitely. I love how shady Cobra is. Now, it's a 2D platformer industrial espionage mission as you enter the terrorist base, which can be accessed via a secret underwater tunnel. Oh my God, the turns this game is taking is wild. Right? Like, I can't put this in any genre. No, none whatsoever. It's like they said. They wanted you to feel like you're playing a different game every time you play this game.

1:46:00 Every turn we're taking, it does feel like that. Like, mission accomplished. You have to sneaky sneak your way through so you can find the parts you need for the dive suit. Being in a wetsuit, you already look like a chubby ninja all in black anyway. While you sneak, you notice they're killing dolphins and prepping them for sale. Once you find the suit parts, you also find a Pepe Silva wall with you and Bancho and all your friends in an office. Oh, no. They've been watching you. As you're looking at it, a bunch of terrorists come into the room. They point their guns at you, and you look around scared. You see a window, and we watch from the outside as you superhero dive through the window and land in the water below with the terrorists shouting at you from above.

1:46:46 Oh, shit. You return to Cobra, and he's worried. You know too much now, and they know you saw everything. He warns you to be careful out there. Otherwise, he gets to work on your new dive suit with Dr. Bacon taking over for the final touches. He makes you feel really bad about it, and then is like, but I'm still working on our shit. Like, this was his idea. Yeah, yeah, he sent you in! Now your dive suit is blue instead of black. You head into the glacier area where you can now survive the cold. There's a bunch of new fish down here. It's also a giant puzzle section where you'll need to solve a large number of them so you can gain access to the Divine Tree control room.

1:47:27 That's where the thermal vents are located, and your ultimate goal. You solve all the puzzles, and the doorway to the control room opens. As you approach it, a small personal submarine shows up. It's John Watson again. God damn it. And he's here to kill you after your little break-in. I'm here to kill you. You try to fight him, but he's in a submarine, and you can't do shit to him. You're gonna kick a submarine? He's in a goddamn sub. Yeah, that sucks. Oh, Watson, why? Just as he's about to get the upper hand on you, a ginormous sea creature comes out of nowhere and grabs the submarine in its mouth. Hell yeah.

1:48:08 It's that dinosaur from Jurassic World that eats the woman being carried by the pterodactyl. It throws the submarine against the wall where it explodes. Ah, fuck you, Watson. Yeah, taking John Watson out once and for all. Oh, that's so good. But now you have to fight and kill a dinosaur. Okay, there's that. The door to the control room got jammed during the fight, and Dr. Bacon sends in a mini submarine with a laser to repair the door. Oh, I love lasers. It's going to take a couple days, so you do some fishing here in the glacial area, as it's full of very expensive cuts of fish for your sushi menu. I love that you're like, I took down a terrorist and a dinosaur. Might as well grab some muscles for Bancho.

1:48:48 Let's see if I can find a nice bluefin for tonight's service. Like, the fact that Dave is doing all this shit, and he still has to go back up and be like, all right, what's the special for today? Yep, set the menu. Yeah. Over the course of the game, Yui from Star the Chef shows up with different challengers, and Bancho competes against them. But on one episode, she has a special guest. Former action star turned restaurant critic, Lois Crawford. No. She looks around and says, it's a pity. Bancho used to work in a five-star restaurant. Now he works in a shabby beachside dive. Were shark heads just not selling or something? Oh, my God, immediately for the jugular.

1:49:31 So cunty. Wow. Dig at his ego aside, she says that her review of Bancho's last restaurant is still brought up 12 years later by people trying to discredit her. No, holy shit. Mad that she never even tried the food. Okay, valid as fuck. They're like, how are you about to be a critic when you don't eat the food, bitch? It even hurt her attempt at a comeback in the film industry. So she's brought her favorite chef to challenge Bancho to a cook-off. I love that her pettiness has brought some of her own destruction. Yeah. If Bancho wins, she'll eat his food. Bancho plans for a shrimp and squid pasta dish and sends you back into the Blue Hole to get the ingredients he'll need.

1:50:13 By the time you gather all the ingredients for the dish, Dr. Bacon calls to let you know that the laser has finished and the door to the control room is open. You can head in anytime. You say, well, in an RPG, it's customary to finish up any side quest before taking on the final boss. You say this to him? Yeah. I love that. And then you also say, and while this isn't an RPG, it wouldn't hurt to be prepared. Oh, my God, Dave. He's really like, I don't want to break the immersion. But to be very clear for the player, this is the point of no return. You better wrap this shit up. So you head off for one last dinner service so Bancho can cook against Lois Crawford's Italian challenger.

1:50:55 Bancho serves up a squid ink pasta with shrimp and squid that absolutely floors Judge Vincent Yamaota. The Italian storms off angrily saying this show is lame. Lois starts yelling at the judge, telling him he doesn't know what he's talking about. Vincent says that both dishes were absolute perfection, but Bancho's use of the squid ink pasta for a seafood dish is what set his above. Lois says that the challenge was Italian food, and there's nothing Italian about it. What does he know about anything? Vincent tells her that he knows what he's talking about because he trained under her father. This shuts up Lois, and Vincent tells her about his time working under her dad in New York.

1:51:39 Her dad took him under his wing when he was just getting his start. He taught him that there are no limits when it comes to cooking, and that flavor is the only thing that matters. And while he runs a megacorporation today, he's sure that his feelings on the matter would not have changed all these years later. I'm glad Lois is getting her ego checked. Yeah, right? Vincent asks Lois to finally try Bancho's cooking, and she apprehensively agrees. It of course blows her mind, as she's reminded of making one of her action movies where she dove into the ocean and swam with a school of squid. She begins to cry, saying she's unworthy of being a critic. She has judged far too many dishes in her career based on looks alone, and has missed out on amazing flavors as a result.

1:52:25 She wants to make it up to Bancho, and offers to go into business with him. She offers to open a branch of the restaurant so more people can try Bancho's food. He is not sure about it. He can't control the quality from afar. Lois says to trust his staff. As long as they've trained under Bancho, they'll be fine. So now you have a second location that can make extra money. It runs on its own, but you have to staff it up. It takes a manager, two cooks, and two servers. And if you put Maki in as the manager, you tell her that her father would be very proud of her for all she's accomplished. I didn't expect this weird little bitch with her puppet to have such a beautiful character art.

1:53:09 She really just came in with a little puppet that said, fuck a lot. And now she's really just finding her own, and that's so beautiful. She's so young and already running a world class sushi restaurant. Get it, bitch. But now that all your side missions are finished, it's time to head into the Divine Tree control room. It starts out with some puzzle solving and maze work, really putting all your skills to the test as you wind your way through this ancient chamber. Eventually, you find a portion of the root system of the Divine Tree covered in strange looking eggs. They hatch, and a dozen little angry shrimp-like creatures emerge. They were created the same time as the Gadons, and have been breeding and growing down here for hundreds of years.

1:53:56 But they're babies, so they're easy to kill. In the next room, there are hundreds of eggs. You use an ancient sea people weapon that uses the power of a Divine Fruit to create a laser so you can kill all the eggs in the room. Once they're dead, you continue deeper into the root structure and find the Divine Tree's energy source, the heated core. It's covered in those tiny shrimp creatures, and they're blocking it from venting and cooling off the Divine Tree. That's why there's been earthquakes and the Divine Fruit isn't as strong anymore. So you kill all the little shrimps, freeing the power core of the tree. The temperature stabilizes, and you give a sigh of relief, hoping this means there won't be any more earthquakes.

1:54:43 Then there's an earthquake. Oh, God damn it. From beneath you, in perfect Dave the Diver fashion, a gigantic version of the little shrimp creatures emerges from the ground below. Who did you think was laying all those eggs? Yeah, there's gonna be a mother shrimp. Dr. Bacon's mini-sub comes puttering in just in time, and Dr. Bacon says, Holy shit, it's a yaoi. I love the name yaoi. An ancient beast of legend, but it was always described as being much smaller. This thing is like a huge underwater centipede. Mythical shrimp. Dr. Bacon says that the divine tree can't truly stabilize until that thing is dead.

1:55:24 You tell him, you can't kill an ancient myth. Just on principle alone, the morals aren't moraling here. He says, you killed a dinosaur 10 minutes ago, you'll be fine. Okay, that was a different situation, my guy. You tell Dr. Bacon that you don't even have any weapons on you. Duff chimes in and says that he equipped the mini sub with tons of weapons, of course. Duff tricked out the mini sub, that's so cool. It can also manipulate time, so you can dodge its attacks. Of course it can. Yeah, it's a pretty cool feature. Grab on and use it to kill the yaoi. Should have started with this kind of sub, but whatever. Well, actually, you do call out Duff for that, and Duff says, what, you can't open with the closer?

1:56:08 Duff goes, we're in a narrative, you dipshit. So you take the mini sub in your arms and have an epic final battle against the mythological beast. It's reminiscent of an old school side shooter like Contra. You wear it down a bit, and it tries to escape by crashing through a wall. You can't let it live, so you chase after it. The battle becomes a side-scrolling space shooter as you chase this ancient crustacean firing bullets and lasers. The two of you continue to go back and forth, chaser and chasey, until it corners you at a dead end. It tries to ram you against the wall, but you dodge using the time device, and it crashes through the wall instead.

1:56:49 It ends up getting tangled up in the roots of the divine tree and becomes trapped. Dr. Bacon says, This is your chance. You can kill it here and now. But the mini-sub's weapons are busted as you crash through the wall as well. There's a large version of the Sea People's laser weapon in the corner, but it's so big you can't move it on your own. At that, a door opens, and Tenjin enters along with Suwam, Ramo, and two soldiers. They were worried after you hadn't returned when the tree stabilized. He goes, Holy shit, is that Yaoi? He's gotten so big! You tell them about the laser device, and they all help you aim and fire it.

1:57:30 The Yaoi's face melts into a puddle of South Park level gore. Ah, it's like the end of fucking Raiders of the Lost Ark. That's so cool. Yeah. Suwam celebrates, saying, I did it! Okay, you helped. He has big kennergy. The group returns to the village, and they thank you for everything you've done. The temperature of the water has stabilized. The divine tree is back to its normal self. The earthquakes have ceased. You are now Dave, friend and hero of the Sea People. You head back to the surface, and night has fallen. You go to the restaurant, where you find all your friends having a get together, waiting for you.

1:58:14 Except Duff, who's there as a hologram. No one in this game, to this point, has utilized hologram technology. We are introducing this in the final moments of the game. Yeah, it's just Duff. I fucking love that. Bancho closed the restaurant because Dr. Bacon said, you had some amazing accomplishments today, where you saved the Blue Hole and the Sea People. You celebrate with your friends, as fireworks explode in the sky. Out in the harbor, Ramo and Sawam surface to see the show. We get a time lapse showing the restaurant thriving. Maki getting approval from Bancho on a piece of nigiri.

1:58:54 The Sea People building a statue of Dave in the town center. They used a manatee as their base. And you, Dave, laying down in bed after a grand adventure that took you to places you never imagined possible. You fall asleep. And as you do, your house begins to shake. We see an exterior shot. The house becomes a spaceship and blasts off. I'm sorry. What the fuck did you just say to me? You wake up, floating in space, in a spacesuit. The credits fly by, and you can shoot the letters as well as some aliens. The credits end, and we get a picture of Dave with all his friends saying thank you for playing.

1:59:37 The end. What the fuck was that? That was Dave the Diver. No, you do wake up the next day, and like, you just tell Cobra like, man, I had a crazy dream. Oh, Jesus Christ. And he's like, oh, that was the mushrooms I slipped into your fucking food. You're welcome, by the way. It gave it that umami flavor. Okay, off the bat, now I understand why Godzilla is a licensed partner of Dave the Diver. Yeah, right? That fully tracks now. If we're fucking with mythical 30-foot mermaid zombies, yeah, of course Godzilla's probably gonna show up. That was...

2:00:17 That's far out of left field. Yeah, no, it's pretty in line. Like, the dredge one made full sense. Yeah, you're both spooky boat games occasionally, but what the fuck, Godzilla? Nah, Godzilla fully makes sense. The Godzilla was probably done in the storyboards. Like, we could probably get this done, right? Like, ah, give us another year. Holy shit, I didn't know there was so much narrative. Right, it is a thick ass game, isn't it? She thick, and I really thought it was just cozy, like, resource management, but the diving was fun. Right. I over your shoulder saw some of the merpeople, so I was like, okay, that's coming. I didn't realize it was like, we're dedicated to these merpeople, you're in with the royal family and this one dipshit who just keeps inserting himself, and assuming he's the hero, like, in his head, he's, I'm Suam the Diver, like, he really thinks it is.

2:01:07 I love the idea that Boncho is so focused that Dave will kinda come in and be like, I killed a giant squid, and he's like, yeah, whatever, I need a shark. You know, in my head, Boncho cares, but he's so focused on his craft that he kinda doesn't give a shit what Dave's doing. I love that Cobra is the slimiest motherfucker. Ironically, he's more of an eel than a cobra. That dude's doing shit. We reunited a heartbroken rapper with his estranged father. Holy shit, okay, Mint Rocket, keep going. No, like, you used to say, like, what is Dave the Diver? And I was like, it's everything. They go to space. It's literally fucking everything.

2:01:48 And it's such a wonderful game. And yeah, the gameplay loop after that is just, you know, diving and serving up sushi, you know? Yeah, and then it's just the day to day maintenance and management and resources and everything, right? Yeah, yeah, you're building up your empire after that. And that's just satisfying, I'm assuming. It is. And again, the music just brings you back every time. Oh, no, killer soundtrack. I think we've fallen asleep to it once or twice. Like, yeah, it's so good. That was amazing. Thank you for taking me on that fucking ride to the moon. What the fuck? I love that it ended in space because they were just like, fuck it, we're going to the space. We're doing everything.

2:02:29 It's a video game. We can do whatever the fuck we want. Duff's the hologram now. He always was. Thank you so much, Goombas, for listening. I hope you enjoyed that. If you did, make sure you like and subscribe to our show. If you enjoy our show also, you can visit our website, theothercastlepodcast.com. That's the othercastlepodcast.com. That's got links to our Discord if you want to talk to us. If you want to talk to other Goombas about Dave the Diver and what a crazy fucking ride that was, because holy shit. Who saw that coming? Not me. I thought this was a fishing game. The fuck? Over there, you can also sign up for our Patreon, where just for $2 a month, you can get monthly episodes that include during the off season.

2:03:14 The first seven days are free. And the first seven days are free. And speaking of our Patreon, we want to shout out the members of it right now. That's Berserk, Andrew, that Chonky boy. AJ, Paul, Omar. Erin, Cyrus, Unuseful. Molly, Krisha, Molly Muck. Jackie and Ellen, thank you for helping make this show happen. We appreciate you very much. Yes, thank you all so much. Thank you, Goombas, and we will see you in the Discord. And in the meantime, this is Tom and Andrea reminding you. Don't eat 30 minutes prior to swimming. And don't skip the cutscenes. Bye!