I completely understand. But I do hope more people see your submissions and try imitating low-poly games in future pixelart competitions, at least if the palette limitation [or lack of] allows for it.

You are completely correct, about the dark area not being true to what would be rendered on hardware and I didn't quite pull it off:) I had a massive problem trying to work out that particular area with the 8 colours.

A fun challenge, but like the pixel stereoscopic experiments I attempted in the past - I don't think I will be doing this again!

Strong differentiation between the player and boss in terms of colour ratio, smart choice in framing the character thanks to the wall behind them and the boss' pose helping it almost act as a framing device for the wall itself. Interesting and smart choice in the dominant colour of the boss' lower leg being grey, to distinguish it from the upper leg and the hand. Not sure what's going on around the pelvis, whether it's vague on purpose or some polygonal z-fighting or what, but importantly it's distinct from both the boss' leg and the belt just above the pelvis..

The boss' right arm being drawn back explains it being relatively darkened compared to the hand that's closer to the camera. The right pectoral area being darkened is one of those artist concessions to avoid infighting with the chest and the raised leg, the kind of concession that an old piece of hardware rendering a scene wouldn't make. It's one of those 'damned if you do' scenarios where you pick between conveyance of what's going on, or accuracy to the (hypothetical) system limitations.

Have you ever heard of/played Silpheed on the Sega CD? It's a shmup where the backgrounds are low-colour FMV to resemble that low-poly Star Fox look, with some extremely cool setpieces for the time, like attacking the core of a space station. Unfortunately the general gameplay suffers somewhat with how enemy bullets and enemies can get lost amongst the background detail.

i love this style it's so unique

i think you real managed to nail third person cover shooter here. real impressive