Dave the Diver Actually Helped With My Thalassophobia

Since it came out in 2023, Dave the Diver, an action-adventure scuba diving game that combines harpoon fishing with restaurant management, has received almost universal praise from critics and fans alike. Despite its unique premise and cute pixel art, I didn't purchase the game until the end of 2024. The only reason behind my reluctance to try Dave the Diver was my crippling thalassophobia and megalophobia. However, new year, new me. It’s time to overcome my fear and, to my surprise, it worked better than I imagined.

Honestly, I thought most people have thalassophobia. "It’s not irrational or ridiculous or something I need to work on at all," I thought. Have you ever looked at how vast and dark the ocean is, and realized how small we humans are in comparison? The idea of being trapped underwater while God knows what lurks around you in the murky depths is terrifying. And speaking of which, don’t even get me started on the creatures that live down there. Whales are friendly, I know, but they’re so big. What if it swallows you by accident? Fish don’t need to be big to be scary either. Some look like they’re the bastard children of Lovecraftian horrors and Satan’s nightmares. Of course, that’s when I remembered that marine biologists and scuba divers exist in real life. So maybe it’s not as normal a fear as I thought.

My fear of the ocean (any large body of water, really) was so bad that I freaked out while on the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at Tokyo DisneySea. The Fishdom ad, when it shows that giant fish about to swallow all the other fish, makes my heart beat faster. A trailer I saw of Subnautica once scared me so badly that I had to exit YouTube. Yes, I’m aware of how embarrassing this is and how weak I seem, but I can’t help it. Since even clips of Subnautica look far scarier than any other horror game I’ve ever seen, I decided that Dave the Diver is the safest place to start from. I mean, how scary can it be?

In Dave the Diver, you play as a dude who dives for fish, which you then give to sushi chef Bancho. At night, you also need to help out at Bancho's restaurant. The pixel art is so cute, and the gameplay loop sounds relaxing. Surely, I can see that the ocean is a lovely place full of friends, and that'll curb my fear with this. That optimism didn’t last long. The moment I had to travel to the depths and a huge shark appeared from the dark, I wanted to turn off the game. All the tunnels full of tubeworms and hostile jellyfish, as well as the sheer scale of the ocean you can see in the background, frightened me.

But you know what? My idea actually worked. I was right about how the game's visuals make it approachable. I won't lie and say the depths didn't scare me at first, but after a while, I stopped hesitating to dive down there for fish and quests. Subnautica features a much wider space, and it forces you to see it from a first person perspective. Since Dave the Diver's level design is more compact, and you view it from a third person perspective, it's not so bad once you play more of it. The designs of the fish aren't that realistic thanks to the pixel art, and you see them from such a distance that even species I'd normally scream at look fine.

There's something soothing about the grind, too. Focusing on finding coral or looking for a specific fish to hunt keep my eyes and mind busy enough that I don’t notice the dark environment anymore. The game constantly forcing you down there for quests, as well as the rather static layout, makes the depths more familiar, which is another way of alleviating fear. The pixel art really softens the visuals when it comes to the scarier looking marine animals, too. Riding the high of the confidence boost, I checked out some Subnautica clips and had to back out before even seeing the Leviathan Reaper. So I have a real appreciation for the overall design in Dave the Diver.

Gaming therapy is a real thing, and it’s something that’s gaining some real traction from its first use in 1980. Different cases require different games or genres. Relaxing games like Flower can relieve stress, while some therapists use more open-world games like Minecraft to help children with autism. For better or for worse, games are a more mainstream hobby now. Sure, there are some people now who still believe games (like anime or cartoons) are specifically for children. But, that seems like a minority opinion nowadays. So it makes sense that as games become more common in our everyday lives, different fields and industries will employ them for their own purposes.

Saying that Dave the Diver helps me with my real-world phobia is like saying a Band-Aid helped me with a broken arm. Toss me into the ocean, away from land, and I’ll definitely have a panic attack. But at least while I occupy Dave’s body and paddle around the pixel waters of Dave the Diver, I feel better about my fear of thalassophobia. I can at least watch that silly Fishdom ad with a normal resting heart rate now. Maybe one day in the far future, I’ll work myself up to playing Subnautica.

Dave the Diver is available on the PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC, and macOS.

The post Dave the Diver Actually Helped With My Thalassophobia appeared first on Siliconera.