I agree with what the previous two said. I like the blue and gold more than the black and white. Wouldn't it be hard to play chess at this perspective? Side view I mean, I always imagine chess as a top down thing. If not please explain how this is going to work out because I'm really interested.

just because you used the pencil tool on ms paint doesnt make it "pixel art"

and pixel art is not "cartoony"....

pixels mean very much, they have great power.

Pencil tool doesn't mean it's pixel art.
Pixel art can be cartoony if it feels like it.
Pixels do mean very much and they do have great power.

Pixel art is the careful placement of pixels, sometimes in pixel art an entire eye is just one pixel. Careful placement of that pixel is required other wise the eye can be too high or too low.
Pixel art is cartoony, it's also not cartoony. It can be as realistic as life or as unrealistic as Popeye.
Pixel art is a pretty awesome and powerful thing. You can do this:

or this:

I didn't touch your work at all, I merely played with the palette.

That aside, philliptr is right. Your light source is very inconsistent. I thought it was from the top but then she has a shadow on her back. You might want to go back to the line art and fix the anatomy and then goof around with it.

EDIT:
Here's an ugly ugly guide:

I shouldn't have used photoshop but I did. Lighting is pretty accurate. ignore the hands, they're goof.

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.

Thanks to everyone who took their time to make a comment.

@Zeid, as you can see I'm about to start playing around with the grass a bit, I think a highlight was necessary. I'll keep referencing yours as I work on it.
@Junkboy, I tried to take care of that lack of connection thing, looks a little better. Still suffers, from lookslikeacarpetitis but maybe varying the grass tiles will hide it a bit.

Thanks for your help so far I'll throw a mockup together soon enough.

This was intended to be cut up into tiles, is there anything I should keep in mind when making tiles?

EDIT:
The "health icon".
 Playing with the grass.