When the first version of Terraria was made, possible resolutions were already much higher than what the game actually used. This was a conscious choice from the start to follow a "charming low-res pixel-art" theme, I assume. Since T: OW is supposed to be a spinoff and not a sequel, keeping the same art type seems fitting and really helps connect both experiences along with conveying the whole Terraria-ness.
If you are in dire need for better graphics, I suggest you keep your hopes up and high for Terraria 2; we don't know what it'll be like yet
Just to be clear, I'm by no means saying I want sprites made for 1:1 resolution on 4k monitors or anything close to that. Rather, I'd just like to see Otherworld's sprites get increased resolution to match the increased scale of today's displays. Like, let's say, just for hypothetical simple numbers, that the average pc monitor of today is twice the resolution of the average pc monitor when Terraria first released. In that case, I'd like for the character sprites to be made at twice the resolution as the original Terraria sprites. It'd still have the pixel look that way, which is totally fine by me, it just won't have even huger blown-up pixels, which in my opinion, lose their charm when they get too big. On which note, as far as I'm concerned, four real screen pixels per blown-up in-game "pixel" is about as big as I like to see them, pixels bigger than that are too... pixelly, for lack of a better term. Original Terraria fit into that ratio when I first played it, thus nailing the "charming low-res" look, and all I'm asking is for Otherworld do the same on current hardware. And of course, fitting more detail into the character sprites would be nice too, if not just as important as avoiding overly huge, cheap-looking upscaled pixels.
Now with that said, I realize good sprite work takes time and skill. Having done sprite animation for a far, far simpler game myself, I definitely appreciate the work involved. But we know Otherworld has an actual budget to work with, so I think they can afford to hire a couple artists as opposed to having it pretty much done by one guy like before. There are definitely people out there like me with pixel art skills in need of work who would do it, no doubt about that. The only real question is what sort of visuals Re-Logic wants and how much they're willing to spend on them.
I have to agree with Loud Donovan. Low res pixel art can be nice, but even the emoji in your response is of a higher resolution then the assets in Terraria. Nobody is saying it needs to be modern sprite work, but we're are dealing with character models with a similar pixel count to 8-bit Nintendo characters. Higher resolutions will not kill the connection between the games. If anything "charming low-res pixel-art" has been done to death thanks to the indie games boom. Quality higher resolution sprite assets would do a lot to set the game apart and draw in more interest.
Yeah, as far as I can tell, your standard Terraria character is roughly 24 pixels tall. There were SNES games with player character sprites bigger than that. Personally, I have ZERO nostalgia for 8-bit tier presentation to put it mildly, which is why I have such disdain for so many indie games. Presentation-wise, Terraria was always kind of skirting that look, but it's also a great game and the first project from its creators, so they deserved some slack for making it on a shoestring budget. (Plus, the market hadn't been nearly as flooded with cheap giant indie pixels when Terraria initially released, which helped.) But at this point, between having an actual budget to work with and technology being even more powerful, at least hitting late-SNES presentation quality would be reasonable, and I doubt people wouldn't recognize Otherworld as a followup to Terraria simply by virtue of having 48 pixel tall characters. However it would sure stand out even better from the sea of cheap indie garbage with such a level of presentation. I don't think that's too much to ask.