Honestly, your fish idea sounds a lot more fun and enjoyable than what you posted above...  to me anyways.   

Is that a challenge?   

Instead of BMP, use PNG.  It's compressed.

GIF is good if you have less than 256 colors or if you want to animate it.

I've made my fair share of games in the past, so let me give you my opinion of your RPG so far.

It's a highly derivative work taking elements from many early RPGs.  The character motivations are odd and melodramatic.  I have the feeling you worked out an entire backstory and you are determined to put it into the game.

My first suggestion is keep it simple.  It's good you, as the author, know everything about the world.  The player doesn't need to know everything.  Keep some stuff to yourself.

My second suggestion would be to keep the melodrama and heavy character devices to a minimum until you reach a climax in your storyline.  (Many RPGs have several climaxes, as they are designed as epics with several chapters or sub-stories.)  Anyways, I would start the game out without the player knowing his brother died, and start the game at the start of the main character's journey.

My third suggestion would be to not get carried away.  You don't need to make a 20 hour RPG.  A 30 minute to 1 hour RPG is fine, and a good way to practice making games.  You'd be amazed at the amount of content you'll need to keep the player interested for even 30 minutes. 

Squaresoft took 3 years to make games like Final Fantasy 3.  It also took a team of dedicated artists.  You do not have 3 years, nor a team of artists.  Design your game around your abilities as well as limitations.  Don't try to fight the limitations, but use them to enhance the game. 

Also, your storyline seems pre-occupied with death.  I would play down death in favor of violence or conflict.  I think a falling out with the main character's brother would be much more beneficial to crerating a colorfull character as opposed to his death (which creates a gloomy, 1-dimentional character at best.)

EDIT: As a final piece of advice, if you're looking for a more original and deep game, take something you're interested in , and then make a game about that; choose the genre to fit the theme.  In other words, don't choose a genre first.  For example, the most recent game I'm working on is about dreams and the subconcious.  I'm making it a platformer because I want it to have action, and I want there to be a focus on the enviroment, which you don't get from a top-down view from an RPG.

By choosing the genre first, you're basicly saying that you want to make a clone.  By making a game about a subject you're interested in, you're making something that's going to be more original and meaningfull. 

How far are you in programming the game?

Can we see some of your or your partner's previous projects?

What are you using to make the game?  (C / C++, or a game engine like VIRGE?)