I think the concepts for your characters have a lot more life in them, the sprites are all pretty much generic mannequin stances. RPGs are a very old and slow-growing genre and there are a lot of conventions that are simply taken for granted with them since the very first Dragon Warriors and Final Fantasies - such as giving all the characters that same tired "soldier-standing-at-attention" type pose. Chrono Trigger briefly challenged these ideas, look at how energetic those character's poses are! But for reasons beyond me that game's artistic innovation was tossed by the wayside and completely forgotten. But there's no reason to submit to these ancient restrictions unless you're using an antiquated engine that demands it. Either way I don't think it does justice to your character designs, although the pixel work is fine I'd love to see some of the energy from the original concepts.
I couldn't agree more with what both you and miascugh are saying about how this particular stance is rather idle and doesn't contain much emotion. I have two responses in that regard. The first is probably obvious to the both of you, this is just a simple template I've used to make sure the proportions of the subject are accurate. By no way assume that this will be his actual idle stance in the game. I'm attempting a more simple, vibrant cartoon aesthetic to shift the focus unto animating as much about the characters and their environments as possible, things will become very alive in due time. Secondly, I've pondered this idea of vibrancy as opposed to dry rpg conventions in game for some time now. My solution is that exploration will be 'traditional', but actual object and character interactivity will be more cinematic nature, ala zelda.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNZlW15uZ9Ua random video, but it conveys the idea. when interacting, things will get more cinematic w/ zooming in/ camera editing, etc, just imagine it in an animated sense.
Anyway, this is diverging some from the actual pixel art, but I just remembered I have the WIP larger sprite of another one of the characters I can post. I was having a bit of difficulty with army jacket pockets, maybe you guys can help me out. (this is about a week old, I won't touch up on it)
I'll post in next to the smaller sprite.
Also, @ lollige, those sprites would be displayed @ 320x240. A lot more readable at that resolution.
Edit: While I've kind of given up on using the smaller versions, I'll keep at them anyway. Here's a new edit.