How Goddess of Victory: Nikke and Dave The Diver came together for one of gaming's most surprising crossovers
Dave the Diver and creepy fishing sim Dredge? Sure. That's a collaboration that's easy to understand – they each have boats in them, for starters. Dave the Diver and sci-fi RPG shooter Goddess of Victory: Nikke? Well, that's an altogether more intriguing pairing.
"Nikke and Dave the Diver are both developed in Korea," explains Nikke's director Yoo HyungSuk. "Because our [development] team loves creative games and we enjoy playing Dave the Diver, we discussed collaborating. Its gameplay and diving mechanics make it an excellent fusion [with Nikke because of its] different gameplay styles.
"Many of us in the team play Nikke, so when we received the collaboration proposal, it's fair to say we felt both anticipation and concern," adds Jaeho Hwang, the director of Dave the Diver, reflecting on Nikke's suggestion to pair up for a special summer crossover event.
"This is because the platforms and art styles of the two games are quite different. Previously, Nikke collaborations have mainly focused on storytelling and characters, but we were curious about how this collaboration could integrate Dave’s gameplay into Nikke."
Dave isn't wrong about Nikke being "quite different" from indie darling Dave the Diver. But given RPG shooter Nikke boasts over 25m downloads since its release in 2022, it's perhaps no surprise that it has all manner of partners lining up to collaborate, including Japanese manga series Chainsaw Man, Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World and fan-favourite Nier: Automata.
And it's constantly evolving, too. For its first anniversary, Nikke introduced a survival minigame. To mark its eighteenth-month anniversary, a tower defence minigame was added. For Dave the Diver's arrival, players will be able to control three Nikke characters who can dive into the depths, complete with their own guns, catch fish, and scavenge ingredients. They can also run a sushi restaurant in the Nikke world with Banjo.
The Nikke team hopes this update – which can be accessed via PC and
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