It's a slide because you have animated a walk and is using it as a run. For a run to work the feet needs to touch the ground only for a couple of frames.

I think the animation is a good start. I would animate it differently but you should definitly go for your own style.

A couple of pointers:

The arm shrinks when it goes back. This is because his shoulders does not move.
I'd say that there is too much foreshortening on his left leg.
It looks like the character is floating on his step. This would work if it was a run but it doesn't look like he's running, it looks like a walk.

This reminds me of the grandaddy of every FPS, RTS and Hack n' Slash: Gauntlet!!!
Don't make it into a Final Fantasy clone, I'm terrible tired of that estetic.

I've now taken Helms advice, or rather just multiply the foreground tiles with 58,105,139 to get a background palette with a blueish tint.
I suck at picking out colors manually so I'd rather trust automation to pick colors for me.



While going through my files I found the setup file I used for creating the tile grid that I've used. I figured someone might find it useful.



Step 1. I first started drawing the layout of the screen at 1/8 the size before resizing it to 256x192.
Step 2. I then created an area 6 pixels smaller from the edges.
Step 3. After that I created an area 8 pixels even smaller.
Step 4. Finally I applied a 8x8 grid on top of the whole screen.

With this setup I could get a quick start and continue drawing the actual tiles in Pro Motion with the Auto Tile Completion tool.

The plan is to create most of the map using a simple bitmap and have a translator create the final map file.

Much better, they look more consistent in that last grid.
I like the new position of the eyes. Now they are distinct from the ears.

Is that just a template that you will use for different characters?
If they are let us have a sample of how they will look too. Clothes, hair etc.

Looks like it would have the same force as a super soaker, not a fire hose. But I think it's fine since things needed to be exaggerated here and there. I hope the "shot" looks different, I guessing that's a fill in.

What do you mean? You think it should have a longer range?
Explain what you think is wrong.

I had in mind something stronger than a super soaker, for all we know it's an electrically powered acid-jet.
Perhaps I should have made it fire at least twice as long.

You've got some crazy mad dittering skills. I think the 2ndary light source does a lot for the demon skull.

I guess it's just a matter of how you work but I like the effect you got now having part of the skull in high detail and other parts out of focus.

I would try and keep some of that and not make the entire skull in focus.