I've wondered this myself, cause there are so many pixel art games being made now, I could see the market feeling over saturated with them. But I'm really excited for Hyperlight Drifter, which has amazing pixel art.

Gods May Be Watching was a really interesting game with pixel art. It has a level where you're tortured, that would have been very difficult to get watch with hyper realistic art. With pixel art, it felt brutal without being completely unbearable. I'm considering doing something like this in my next game. Not similar gameplay, just the mix of simple art in a brutal world.

I see where you are going, but that is down to what you show of this brutal scene in the more realistic version. A scene can transport the full horror and brutality without really showing anything directly. Clever use of close ups of faces, sound and scenery, as well as symbolic images will do the job just as well (altough this is highly culture dependant, not many people outside of Japan or without knowledge of the culture will get what falling cherry blossom leaves mean for example).

Pixelart might be another way to make the brutality less direct, but to me at least, it is a much more clumsy way. On the other hand, you actually need to work harder to make the player getting the same sense of connection to the characters, as they are often devoid of human emotion and subtleness without some helpers (like emoticons or close up images of their faces conveying their emotions while they speak in some RPGs).

Especially for a title that should convey a story that should resonate with players, a pixelartist has to work a little bit harder than somebody who can use realistic 3D graphics. Just a little bit, because even on video, conveying emotions and storytelling in a believable way is not as easy as some movie directors make it look like.

I think the best rule of thumb is to just to use any art style within your means that interests you.

There's a vocal (I'd like to think minority) in the "ugh.. another 2d pixel art game" camp, but mostly what people want is a game that's just fun and has some kind of compelling experience. There's also a section of gamers that avidly adore pixel art, as long as it's good art.

In my experience, most people don't care about an art style, as long as the art is good, and even that's not always a deal breaker if the game is good.

So, I think only madness lies in trying to preempt complainers, rather than just following your own interest and letting that fuel your work.

It's also much more important to understand good color theory, sense of space, and visual design than it is to stress over the methods you deliver those things in.

A scene can transport the full horror and brutality without really showing anything directly. Clever use of close ups of faces, sound and scenery, as well as symbolic images will do the job just as well

Close ups of faces and symbolic images imply a markedly non-interactive style, similar to the refined artwork found in comics and film. Doing this sort of things with pixel art means doing it with one's hands tied behind one's back.

Pixel art is much more appropriate for interactive animations, e.g. platformer characters jumping around, where it can represent things and look good without the burden of conforming to a sophisticated concept.

A scene can transport the full horror and brutality without really showing anything directly. Clever use of close ups of faces, sound and scenery, as well as symbolic images will do the job just as well

Close ups of faces and symbolic images imply a markedly non-interactive style, similar to the refined artwork found in comics and film. Doing this sort of things with pixel art means doing it with one's hands tied behind one's back.

I think that Gian-Reto was suggesting clever shots and symbolic images as an alternative to pixel-art for the purpose of directly showing unpleasant sights--and thus showing that pixel-art isn't the only way to depict brutal scenes without showing too much directly-disturbing imagery--rather than suggesting doing such things in pixel-art.