Hey, man! Thanks for the feedback!
The characters so far are meant to fill a certain role, gameplay wise. Though I was mainly putting ideas down (so stuff likely will change), but I'm thinking I need characters that do ranged attacks, characters that do up close attacks, it has to have your light melee characters, your heavy melee, as well as light ranged and heavy ranged. Faster characters, slower characters, that sort of thing. Also projectiles that come in a straight horizontal line, others that come in an arc... Things you can defend against, things you can't and need to dodge...
I still have to go look for actual references of the type of setting/look/style that I want, that would be like those comic books from the 70s, maybe early 80s, which is important not just for the characters, but the environments as well... (and that's gonna be a headache, I'm not used to drawing environments).
But I hope I'll pick something up from that, and that it'll help me come up with more types of characters, which I feel I need. Although there's still a few that I need to draw. Maybe groups of characters... Hmm. I may need to sketch up some environments, and think about the areas our protagonist will go through to see what kinds of characters there could be in those places.
(the good thing about coming here is that while I talk about the game, ideas pop up in my head, and that does not happen when I'm not trying to explain it to someone else! xD)
Alright, enough of that, let's get to the crits.
The thing with a main light source is that the enemies will not be always facing left or right. So lighting will not look consistent if I don't do either like it's right above every character, or go for the cartoon look and just don't do any shading (at least I think those are the only options). I think I could light them from the top, although I like having them lit from the front... If the environment seems to be lit in such a way so that the center of the screen is brighter and edges are darker, then it would make more sense.
But yeah, good point.
If I keep the lighting as it is now, then I might need to change the shading on that wolf.
The big guard types look a bit stocky, don't they? I wanted to make them wider and had those construction worker guys from Megaman in my mind the whole time while I was drawing them (although now another character comes to mind, those big burly shield guys from Shinobi *takes note of that reference*).
Oh, right, his leg looks like it's broken!

I drew that pose thinking he would be bracing for an attack (while also preparing to deliver one of his), so one foot needed to go back... But I guess I didn't fix (or didn't think of fixing) his hip... armor... plate... thing.
I'm unsure about the wolf too. I'm thinking I'm going to just make him shake his back and head a bit (?!), maybe lower his head some more to indicate that he's going to attack, rather than trying to make him snarl (also because I tried to do that and failed!

), but he may have to be in profile for the actual attack animation. I don't know.
(the dog from the other Shinobi game, Shadow Dancer, came to mind now, I'll have to check that out too.)
The bright blue guys are some characters I had in mind for a while now. I wanted something that would look magical, so having at least one of them have a helmet with a hole in it and no eyes seemed to fit that bill. I'm not sure if they'll make the cut, though, because they may be too weird (?!) for that type of setting. Or maybe that's a good thing, I don't know. Things are in movement, still, changing all the time.
The 3/4 angle comes a bit from Street Fighter, where your characters are not in profile the whole time (or ever!) and I think it helps in describing the character better, whichever it may be. You're right about the shield, and I was conscious about the lack of shadow behind it in one of those, which is why I introduced a fourth color... yet I didn't remove the blue highlight, which I should. Probably. If I don't have any palettes and sprites to spare.
Drawing with just three colors is much tougher than I thought it would be.
I like the way you did the shield in the middle there, a bit more rotated towards the attacker, and the shadow in the third guy too... I think I'm going to incorporate at least one of those two things.
And yeah, the girl does look like that girl from Game of Thrones!

That absolutely wasn't intentional. But like with the barbarian, I think that that portrait will have different areas of color, so I could change her hair color, at least. Or maybe I could make her skin paler and have the hair be darker... I'll experiment a bit with that.
Again, thanks for the feedback, help, opinions, pixel-overs, all that stuff! And helping me make the gears on my head turn some more!