This is awesome, love the diorama, and the direction you're inspired by. I searched this game and found what I hope is a representative image: This game looks really cool, great inspiration! It's important to note that this uses lighting and post-processing to change the "look" of the assets. I think they are using PBR…
No it is, it's pattern recognition in the brain. That's the cut and the dry of it. Colour is just more subjective, because our eyes are such inaccurate instruments.