New Pixel Artist, need help with 16 bit-ish style

[Nightblade]

First post here and here I am, asking for the helps rather shamelessly.

I've just started pixel art for the sake of the next game I'm making, a 16 bit style RPG. The characters themselves are sized about the same as FF4 and Live a Live Characters.



I still have a long way to go, and am still practicing tirelessly but any advice or criticism would be very appreciated. Thanks.

[FRAWG]

I would advise a bit less noise in some areas, it seems a bit crowded for a background piece. Perhaps if the tan tiles are meant to be sand, they could be more smooth with a few rocks and extraneous bumps here and there. As for the plants, I would advise looking at some references on the site. A lot of the ones that I seem to find most interesting have more individual clusters of pixels as defined leaves, rather than stray pixels to represent leaves, if that makes any sense.

Hope I helped somewhat

[Decroded]

Have you tried constructing a mockup with these graphics?
It looks like the perspective of your trees and rocks is off, more like frontal view than top-front.