Try looking at pixel art when converted to greyscale.
Actually I was trying to specifically avoid doing just this - those sprites aren't meant to be in greyscale; hue is still a necessary element to them. Using those as a reference is more bound to mess things up then anythng else. That is, a direct reference anyway. I decided to look at some Castlevania Symphony of the Night sprites that I greyscaled and I think I've got a better grasp of how to change the shading. Make it a bit more bold and less reliant on "gradients", while not jumping into a 'kiddy anime' style of shading. (Though the edit below won't be much of an example)
The problem I see is that the contrast range isn't very high. Most of it is quite low with a lot of white added to try to add detail. So it looks a little strange to me as the brightness of the pixels doesn't seem very realistic. You could use more dark colours to improve this, but don't just add black and white to add detail.
On my computer it's displaying a lot of contrast for these. The 'wasteland' shot (which I forgot to add is incomplete; there is still sky to be added) on the ground goes from a near black dark gray (with a blue tint) to mid gray to white . Exactly how new is your computer/how bright are the settings set too? One thing I've noticed the game has a tendency to look a lot different depending upon which computer is running and viewing it. That is, the palettes are the same but the computers representation of them is very different.
I agree, your execution is way too blurry. (and think about what it will be like resized, then.)
I agree the execution is a little blurry; I've started to repallette the main characters sprite slightly; removing a useless color or two and upping the contrast and fixing up the shading a little. I'm not sure if you'll really see the differences here, but I'll post the two of them to show anyway. At the end of the post*
Also I don't have to imagine as alongside making sprite and backgrounds I've been programming the engine; those shots up there are in-game. Honestly, it only blurs the edges slightly. In my opinion it looks nice.
Try getting rid of gradients and replacing it with harsh shadow.
This sounds like a decent idea, actually. I'll see about giving it a shot sometime.
agreed about the shadowing and need for strong spot brights.
also, i think you can work more with color. Here's an example of lower-to-middle-saturation that's beautiful and still conveys that grayness you want : [IMAGE]
Actually I disagree entirely, that image is far too warm and colorful and in my eyes completely lacks the atmosphere/style I'm attempting to attain. Though there will be key points with certain effects where color will be slightly more prominent; not majorly so though. Mostly with water and blood and possibly fire.
Also what do you mean by "Strong spot brights"?
*NEW > OLD