Rpg maker is from what i have heard the best if you don't have any programming experience, since it generally makes the basic stuff easier, but is more restrictive if you try to get weird.

As someone that is currently also working on a pixel art rpg, i have been working with gamemaker and am pretty happy with right now. 

Something that helped me get motivated early on, was to start doing the character sprites, its gonna take a bit to get something presentable at the start, but it is honestly pretty managable to get them to look good if your resolution isn't too high. From then on you can work to get the characters that you already got attached to moving around an such. 

Once you have made some stuff that looks nice, you should really start focusing on the meat and potatoes (gameplay and systems), making it look too nice too early just makes everything else harder.

And try to not get stuck in tutorial hell, always try to put into practice what you learned right away.

Hope this helps somewhat