Jamuk's Sprite Thread

[Jamuk]

Hello again tSR, long time no post.

So I've been working on a load of top-down Zelda-inspired stuff recently, looking for some constructive criticism on them and I'd be interested to hear any thoughts.
Mainly I'm thinking the player looks a bit odd from the side, but also I'm having some trouble time-wise; this style takes a long time to do, so if anyone has any tips to speed up work, I'd be grateful.

Player:




Sword swing (to be overlaid onto player):


Items:


Effects:


Tiles:




Mockups:

[Koh]

The walking animations are a bit weird. For the Up and Down animations, he's waddling like a penguin, and for the left animation, his head is moving way too much. Also, the sword swing animations for him are too stiff. The body should flow with the movement, rather than be statue-esque.

[Jamuk]

How do I make the up/down ones look convincing and non-waddly?
Also, adjusted the sideways animation to minimise head bobbing, edited the legs slightly, changed up rhythm and added a quiver to the ranger.

[Kelvin]

The problem I have with Zelda-style tilesets is the way they're from directly above, yet the characters are seen at an angle, so it makes it look like everyone's leaning to the north (which is actually true, as seen in A Link Between Worlds). That's not to say they're not well-made, just weird.

[Quotient]

That's not to say they're not well-made, just weird.

I'm not sure what the point of this post ^ was then.

Anyway, your walk cycles look very odd. Specifically the side walk cycles look as though, well, their feet never really move. The characters don't appear to have ears from the side. The shades of red don't fit together too well and some of your colors are too saturated.