In my opinion, this animation lacks the fluidity, energy and realism of your other animations.

Obviously this comes down to preference and what kind of gameplay you have in mind, but I think I would do one of two things.

A: If the point is to make the character move underneath objects or incoming attacks while moving forward, I would do a slide instead of a roll. Yeah, it's kind of Titanfall / Mirror's Edge and was super cool 10 years ago, but I just think it's more fun and dynamic. Crouching down and then rolling in a tight ball on the ground like a kid at gymnastics class or like a slow Sonic the Hedgehog would not be my first choice. You can do a sprint straight into a slide and get some really good 'flow' for the player. Something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9_17IULPlw&t=234s&ab_channel=SuperDukes666SuperDukes666

B: If you can afford the tiles and you want a more realistic and dynamic roll, I would do something like Unworthy (EXAMPLE) or like a judo forward roll (LINK), where the character isn't first crouching down and then tucked into a tiny 8x8 cannonball, but rather hurtling forward in a huge arc, rolling over his shoulders while legs are relaxed and slightly extended, instead of tucking the knees under his chin. Looks more appealing and feels better in terms of gameplay, I think.

Sorry if my feedback comes across as unhelpful or harsh, I guess this is a pet peeve I didn't realize I had. Crouching and rolling in 80's games. But at least you're not doing the crouching bunny hops of Prince of Persia. God help you if you do that. 

PS: I'm not doing an edit because I'm a bit pressed for time and it may be pointless if your reaction is simply: "Yeah, no, I prefer the way I envisioned it". Which is entirely your prerogative, needless to say. 

Some examples you may find helpful, if you're not already familiar with them.

https://pixeljoint.com/p/61711.htm




http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/130816.htm
http://pixeljoint.com/pixelart/139814.htm

It's possible to use the some of the same colours for near and distant limbs and/or keep a very restricted palette.

I'll leave it to the others (like SeinRuhe) to explain it, I just like to imitate other people. 

Phew! Once again, thanks for taking the time! Here's what I've got:



- Tried to improve the pennant and get the whip action going. I may have gone too far? But I think it's ok.
- Didn't want to do the ripples because the perspective of the foreground is kind of a bit funky and I didn't want to draw attention to it. But now that I've done it, I actually like it and I feel like I learned something from it. So thanks for encouraging me. Unless it now looks ugly, in which case FML.
- Still need to fix the ripples.
- Great edit of the cheese chest! I immediately felt really stupid when I saw your edit. How did I not think of that, when I'd been looking at wood panels as a reference? Anyway, I love your edit and I think I've come as far as I can without 100% copy paste. Hard to avoid when there are so few pixels.
- Thanks for feedback on sword and gauntlet. I forgot all about that gauntlet.
- Softened the highlights on the top of the chest.

To do:
- Fix the trees.
- Fix the water ripples.
- Bring back the golden animation on the chest. (Btw, reference HERE  )
- Double the frames from 18 to 36 again in order to even out the knight's head movement. He looks really nervous now. Which is funny, but not intentional.
- Sleep, at some point. Maybe.

EDIT:

No sleep for me. Check, check and check. Trees are still a bit cartoony, but better.



EDIT2:

And here's another female commoner. I'm kind of struggling with how to do complex fabric folds at this scale without making it too noisy and harsh, and having too much banding. There are so many not-quite-parallel lines of shadow and highlight running down her dress to make the folds and layers. It ends up being either banding or noisy, I think.
Any advice, pixel smiths?

Ah, that's interesting! Thanks for the detailed explanation. It'll probably make it easier to understand where you're coming from.

I'm not sure I'll ever want to work with such extreme (by modern standards) restrictions, but I suppose it will be very rewarding when you finish this. Did you already find the basic gameplay parameters that you're happy with? Movement speed, attacks, jumping height, etc? Are you playing the game already in a 'white box' stage? Might be difficult to adjust certain things if you've already done the animations.