First of all, welcome to Pixelation!
I started messing around with this edit and seem to have missed what you said about details and realism
I think there are still some points to be taken from it, even if you're not aiming for something as detailed.
Your character belongs to a tribe, what kind of tribe is it? Are they a nomadic desert tribe? Do they live in the jungle, the mountains?
By your character I think we should be able to get a glimpse of the culture he belongs to. At the moment I'm getting a few different signals from yours. To me it reads a bit as a 'pirate' at the moment, with a dash of barbarian to him. You need to think about what kind of tribe this is. Especially things like that sort of steel sword seems unfit for a tribal approach.
Your design reminded me a bit of the Dothraki from Game of Thrones and I pushed my edit a bit in my direction( perhaps a bit too far). But I do think you could add some elements to help him read as belonging to a unique culture, the pants and belt for instance could be traded for something with tribal patterns or made from animal skin.
Also while I see where you are coming from with the muted colors, it is a bit hard to read at 1x when they're all so close in contrast. If it's hard to read now, it might be even harder in game. You don't want your character to disappear into the background.
My edit might look to much like a Khal Drogo/Kratos fusion but I hope it can give you some ideas!