Wow... Such an original and actually great made idea...
POV in 3d engine and 2d style chars works awesome with such sinergy.
Honestly, I think 3D models would work better, cause then I could let the player tilt their head to look around during the action.
One of the reason I haven't done something like this again, is that every time I tried, I think to myself: This would be so much better if I can 3d model worth a damn.
Of course , the downside of 3d model is that morphing and destruction are much harder to do. That's not a problem for none gore related work, so I been hoping someone else with 3d model talent would make a POV game like this.
Maybe even in VR. Imagine being able to look down and look behind you during action scene naturally with your head rotation. I can't afford VR equipment, but I still like to imagine what it would be like.