The VG Resource

Okay, so

see these sprites??

tSR, I need some help right now.

See, I'm finally getting to the point where my motivation is slowly returning, and I'm thinking of trying to make some game happen in Java or something, idk

anyway, point is, I made these sprites a while back, and I revisited them today and made some Castlevania-esque sprite revisioning and etc.
I realize that I've been gone from this too long and I have pretty much lost my ability to choose viable colors

My problem is that, for the game I want, the really solid-color, essentially unshaded, hunched over sprites are pretty much what I want for this project, mostly because I want to challenge myself and see if I can't make a dynamic sprite shader to happen while this game is in action (hence the bottom-right sprite set).

Only issue is, if I seriously take off on this project, it might be going with or without the dynamic shader. So, essentially, I'd be using the top row of sprites if the shader falls through.

However, the last thing that I would ever want is for people to look at these sprites and say "lolol retro". I'm trying to avoid that with this project. And, the more I look at these sprites, I don't have a motivation to continue them since I'm afraid that it's going to be seen as generic retro shit.

I just wanted to check in with you guys before I push along with this. ASSUMING I DO NOT EVER GET THE DYNAMIC SHADER TO WORK (I'm afraid of it taxing internal memory too much), would the top row of sprites be acceptable, would the Castletroid sprites be used instead, or should I try and begin from scratch again?

There's a lot happening here and I apologize if I'm not explaining things in enough detail. I just want some advice before I push along with this, because I'm fond of the original sprites while also not liking the original sprites. I'm torn about it

wait, so what do you actually want, do you want us to pick the best sprite or what? I'm kinda confused

Honestly, I don't see any problem with the top row despite your concern being valid. If you really want to avoid the 'simple, retro' style going on the top sprites, go for the bottom right sprite, but with better colors.

The shadow colors don't look dark enough; it's just desaturated, but not darker, making it look realy weird. Like that brown againt the red. It doesn't look like shading, but rather brown details or dirt. Same with the pants. The actual pixel placement is fine imo; all you need to change is the colors.

I'd also change the sprite a little to make a more balanced stance, but that's it. Sorry if this is not exactly what you want :/

Nah, nah, that's actually kind of what I want!

Sorry, I was writing all of that at 5 in the morning in the midst of sleeplessness (my eyes were really messed up last night, so much so that I couldn't even keep them shut), so I apologize if I wasn't entirely clear with what I wanted

See, I wanted some form of justification with what sprites I wanted to go with. I was debating using the top row of sprites because I was actually pretty fond of how they turned out, but as I've said: I'm trying to avoid any semblance of a "retro" style if I get this to actually take off. I just sat down and listened to my suitemate and his gamedev buddies complaining about the retro crutch, and my suitemate commented on how the top row looks ""8-bit"".

I'm still toying around with the sprites (gonna fix up the things you mentioned to fix); I just wanted to see if I could justify keeping the top row for now, or if I should scrap them and try a different look for this.

Thanks for the crits and comments, though!

I really do like the ones on the top-right, though across the board the shades of blue you've chosen are rather sore on the eyes.

I'd say keep the top row, but decrease the contrast and saturation a bit.