Prerendered 2D graphics are my favourite style of game aesthetic and western isometric RPGs were the king of it. Part of the reason I enjoyed Pillars of Eternity 1 (I never played 2, it looked gay).

From a tech standpoint, the fact that you could rotate the camera in 90 degree increments in Commandos 2 (and freely indoors I think?) blew my mind at the time, back in the day. But I'm honestly not sure if it improved the game overall. A fixed perspective forces the dev to make a singular vision for the environment and removes camera from the question of balancing difficulty. I echo everything fauxgnaws says.

EDIT: if you want an example of another beautiful 2D game game which supposedly used 3D models transposed to 2D, King of Fighters 13 is in the mix. You can't talk about 2D game art without mentioning SNK. Although at the same time I think it's become a bit of a meme to say 'AKSHULLY KOF13's graphics are 3D' - I have my doubts as to whether people have misconstrued the story there, and whether the 3D models were simply used as reference material by the 2D artists.

Prerendered 2D graphics are my favourite style of game aesthetic and western isometric RPGs were the king of it. Part of the reason I enjoyed Pillars of Eternity 1 (I never played 2, it looked gay).

From a tech standpoint, the fact that you could rotate the camera in 90 degree increments in Commandos 2 (and freely indoors I think?) blew my mind at the time, back in the day. But I'm honestly not sure if it improved the game overall. A fixed perspective forces the dev to make a singular vision for the environment and removes camera from the question of balancing difficulty. I echo everything fauxgnaws says.