The perspective of the hero is certainly something to experiment with. My intuition is that the top view of the character will be uninteresting (you'll see helment and shoulders mostly) and possibly hard to read visually. That being said, once we have a 3D model it'll be easy enough to try different perspectives. I like current perspective though and it's consistent with 8-bit version.
Viewing post in From 8-bit to 3D? An Unexpected New Look! comments
First of all - I might actually play a PC version of the game (especially if looking as beautiful as your concepts do), but only if there is no 8-Bit version.
Secondly, the perspective.... I am not so sure. With the higher details visible in the PC version the inconsistency becomes more prevalent. Top Down map, side-view character. At least that's what I thought when first looking at it. It's not so obvious in the 8-bit version. And maybe it's also less of a problem when that's what... ahem... more mature players unconciously expect. Because that's the way it was and maybe had to be done since the beginning. Or let's say we are more inclined to tolerate such inconsistencies, because with 8-bit computers you have to compromise more often, don't you?
But anyhow - please keep working on the game eagerly awaiting updates!
You are right that in the PC version with higher details the difference in perspective between the world and the player may be an issue. I guess we'll deal with that once we get there.
We can add an option to pitch the camera up/down a little bit such that you can look at the map at the slight angle, not straight from the top. This could help with making the hero read better as you wouldn't see him straight from the top anymore. We'll figure something out :).
Thanks for feedback, we keep working :).