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There’s only three weeks to go until Dave The Diver gets yet another round of unlikely crossover DLC, with Ichiban Kasuga of Yakuza/Like A Dragon fame joining the rotund fisherman out in the waters of the Blue Hole. First revealed last month with a broad ‘April’ release window, the latest Dev Dive vlog from very-not-indie studio Mintrocket finally reveals the precise release date for Ichiban’s latest misadventure— April 10th—along with a few revelations and some fresh gameplay footage, all of which you can see in the video below.
In the vlog, Dave’s director Jaeho Hwang reveals possibly one of the least surprising things about Dave The Diver: That the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series was one of its primary inspirations. The minigames, the hanging out with a cast of loveable oddballs, the endless pursuit of esoteric progress bars and numbers going up? Yeah, that checks out. He’s a huge fanboy, and even takes time out of the video to show all his favourite signed Like A Dragon goodies.
As for how the crossover happened, Hwang got to meet patriarch of the Like A Dragon dev-clan Masayoshi Yokoyama at the Tokyo Game Show, and they almost immediately agreed that the two games should meet up. They then went and exchanged bento boxes, which is just adorkable.
As for the DLC itself, there’s some more underwater action for Dave, but the meat and potatoes of the expansion looks to be a Streets Of Rage-inspired raid on a pirate hideout. Dave, being a good boy, sits this one out, letting players choose to play as either Ichiban or Cobra in a side-scrolling brawler segment. Tragically there’s no co-op, but you can tag between the two heroes, with the other one being controlled by AI.
As a fan of the genre, I must say that the fighting shown in trailers and this vlog does look a bit on the slow side. Probably a good introduction to the genre for newcomers, but it seems unlikely to dethrone Streets Of Rage 4 from my playlist. But, of course, this being Like A Dragon, there’s also a karaoke segment where Ichiban gets to sing his post-brawl frustrations away, and a few more cameos from Ichiban’s pals, including the return of purple-haired granny Etsuko and the musclebound brawler Chitose Buster Holmes.
The one thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet is whether the Ichiban’s Holiday DLC will carry a price tag. So far, none of the crossover packs (including Dredge, Balatro and that time-limited Godzilla DLC) have cost anything, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if it’s free. What is more likely to cost money is the upcoming Into The Jungle DLC, due later this year, and the first one to send Dave away from the Blue Hole and off to pastures (or at least waters) greener. If any pack is going to finally charge players extra, I’d bet on that.
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Kurt Indovina
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