A lot to like here. Swimming felt good, and you got a lot of mileage out of the hook and drift water mechanics. I loved the vibe of the ruins and the soundtrack was superb for getting in the zone. If I were to pick a nit, I might say that the coins were sometimes a bit hard to see against the similar-colored background. On the other hand, that did make it feel like more of a hunt. I can't believe there were 6 of those things! I was pretty thorough I thought, and only found 2. I wonder, did you guys at any point consider doing some kind "hold your breath" mechanic?

A absolutely lovely gem! It reminds me of Ecco the Dolphin for some reason, haha

I really dig the use of dithering in the art style! It really evokes a sense of depth supremely well despite the lack of colors.

Wondrous little details absolutely everywhere; small schools of fish passing by, and vegetation swaying in the depths gives it a real sense of a lived in world down in the depths.

Great pacing too; plenty of time and space for the player to experiment, and new mechanics are introduced over time without excessive overtutorialization.

Super responsive controls, and 100% feels like how it should for underwater traversal. The simple 1 button actions keep it incredibly clear what the solutions might be, so you can figure out a puzzle relatively quickly and get that warm fuzzy feeling in your brain from solving it.

Incredibly stellar job! Keep it up!

SO, there is so much to say here. 'tis game is GOLD. 
Let's start with gameplay. The mechanic is quite simple: you swim and you grapple with your hook. The player is hindered by debris/hard masses and currents. The hook will help them with both: it destroys blockage and keeps them anchored to things to stop the effect of the currents much more reliably than swimming (which won't help if the current is too strong). Currents also vary: they may be fixed or they may slow down or stop for a while. The player must inspect the environment to proceed and strategize to find the best course of action. 
I absolutely loved the art direction. I loved the use of dithering. I think that there was some parallax background. At the beginning it felt a little strange, especially when seeing the dithered background move up and down, but then I got used to it. It was a nice addition. 
I quite liked the ambiance. The fact that the player skeletal remains remained after every death was a nice touch. 
Overall, this was a very thorough game. Keep up the good work! (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) .ᐟ.ᐟ

Really great game! It was really peaceful to swim and collect coins.

This feels like the most "full" game I have played in this jam. Solid level design, easy to learn, pleasing atmosphere, great art, great music, excellent.

Great work on this submission! The audio and music is lovely. The gameplay is smooth with no issues that I experienced. The overall concept and theme is something I enjoyed! Now to my favorite part, THE PIXEL ART! The pixel art is unique and breath taking. Even as a 2D game, there is so much depth within the environment art and I really admire it! It is also like there are multiple layers and it just helps it feel so lively underwater. Good job!

This was a genuinely beautiful game to play, visually and audibly. The control were perfect for what you were trying to achieve. The changing currents do really punish impatience, which can be a double edged sword, but checkpoints were pretty generous so was all well balanced in my opinion.

I personally love low stakes exploration gameplay, which tends to require the art, movement gamefeel, and level design to carry it, and you did an amazing job on all counts (edit: I got so focused on the visuals I forgot to mention MUSIC it's a perfect match, love the restrained vibrato, and the hi-hat detailing did not escape my notice) . I have a bit of commentary about some specifics, forgive me if it gets long-winded. (Also, not intended as criticism, just some subjects I'm deeply fascinated with.)

You used quite a lot of dithering for shading, and I think it worked well in some places but not in others. In the opening cutscene, I think it looked great on the hand and seagull, and while it makes logical sense for sand on the controls / Press Start screen, it makes the text harder to read. In the first scene when starting the gameplay, it is a bit distracting in the sky and ocean surface, due to the ordered and patterned nature of the Bayer matrix. But for this reason, I think it works well on architectural objects like the columns. There's alternative techniques like Blue Noise and Interleaved Gradient Noise that work well to disrupt pattern recognition in gradients, and I wonder if these have potential with the Game Boy resolution / palette limitations. 

That said, the organic shading on the rocks is perfect, and the bricks look great too. I like the wiggly animation of the algae (I think it's algae?), the underwater creatures like sharks and schools of fish are delightful, the bubbles and currents, all these animations really help make the setting come alive. Good use of parallax. The hazards starting in the second stage are easy to read, once you learn what they are. Harder to read in some spots in the third stage due to lower contrast. Leaving corpses behind is a nice touch lol. 

I got partway through the third stage but have to leave it for now due to IRL commitments. I will definitely pick this back up later though, it's really a fantastic entry.

This was fantastic! Out of the Jam games I've played so far, I think this one is my favorite. I'm so impressed with how well you were able to utilize the 4-color palette and resolution to make really rich, dense-feeling areas. The hooking mechanic was simple but utilized well, and it was just the right length. No suggestions from me, great job all around!

This was nearly perfect, in my opinion. The only thing that could've made it perfect would've been a bit more forward with the theme, though I'm not sure how exactly that could be done with the same feel of the game. The old gold, while there, could've been nearly anything else not gold and the game would've been the same, like it wasn't the quite integral enough for 5 stars there.  If you found a way to make it more integral to the game, man, this would've been 5 stars across the board for me. Also 0/10 for realism, I've not found a scuba kit that let's me stay under that long :P 

Great job!

wow. that is really great! i really felt like i went on a journey with it. the art and music are all nicely done and have a very Game Boy vibe!

i really love how the gates open. the animation and that sound effect are just so cool! the coins being collected is really neat too, but it does become a little bit of a pain to wait around for them to all be collected some times.

the graphics are really nice! i love all the texture and so many layers of depth with the elements you go under in the foreground, and the layers of background ruins and fish swimming by. the world has a ton of life and atmosphere to it. however, all that did make it a little hard to read what was a wall and what was in the background. coins were sometimes hard to see, which i felt might be intentional in some cases at least. the biggest negative for me was that the spiky plants were often hard to see and i died several times because i just didn’t notice one. your corpses staying around is a bit morbid, but neat little touch!

i really like the gameplay, but felt the movement was just a little too slow for my tastes. the current mechanic and being able to grapple onto rocks is a really cool idea. i liked the moving blocks also. the downside to these mechanics was also that there was a lot of waiting around for currents to reverse or the block to come back to where you needed it to be to hitch a ride. so i felt like i was waiting around quite a bit while playing. this was compounded in the few cases where i didn’t see a spike and died and had to redo a section and wait more. i actually got stuck for quite a while trying to navigate one section with a bunch of spikes and a strong current before i realized i could also grapple onto them lol.

despite all those nitpicks, i really enjoyed playing. also i’m not sure i deserve a special thanks, but you’re welcome and glad you were able to particpate in the jam!

This was such a beautiful game!  Every asset was so polished.  There was some readability issues.  Coins could be hard to see and sometimes it was difficult to tell if I could pass through something or if it was a wall and the font on the gates were difficult to interpret.  

With that said, I still absolutely loved this one.  It felt like I was underwater.  The various ways you used the current/hook mechanic to build different style puzzles was satisfying and it felt like I was exploring.  I didnt feel forced to go a certain path, which was cool.

This was added to my favorites collection!  Nice job!

P.S. Im gonna pretend like I dont know how cool the death sprite is!

Attention to details. So AHA moment happened when i have to hook to a wall so current does not push me up! Amazing. Sounds on different hook hits, corpse staying at previous location. Beatiful game, awesome job. All 5s from me!

Very nice game! Loved the pixel art, music and tittle screen. The cutscenes were neat too!

Really enjoyed playing this one.

Congrats!!!

These transitions are awesome! Also, the art design harmonizes so well with the music. Really good job on this!

The vibes are immaculate and the soundtrack is genuinely so good - I wish it kept looping or go replaced by some ominous ocean noises (maybe it does later? but it was silent for quite a while for me after the track ended). Really loved my time with this entry and the atmosphere was great. I think the controller fit really well with the feeling of swimming that it created.