My opinion of graphics in games is pretty simple. If it doesn't look right don't use it. Pre-rendered graphics in games usually look a lot better than their 3D counterparts. Granted, there are a few drawbacks with prerendered sprites. Rotating, is one of them, zooming, to an extend as well (although Settlers 4 proved otherwise). But then again, do you really need rotating? I hardly ever use it in for example Warcraft 3.
I suppose it depends on the game, but in a turn based game, I doubt it. If I had to choose I would go for better/nicer graphics.
This is of course true, but for a 3d character, things don't get much easier either. Although you don't have to render it for a specific camera angle, you do need to export the motions. Not an easy task either.Lastly i found that working with it is annoing.. For example if you have to change a little on a model to get it better, you have to render all the model again. If you have to do it multiple times to get the right results, it's going to take a lot of time.
Also, the use of multiple weapons per character seems easier to do in 2d than 3D. If I'm not mistaken, Diablo used a technique where multiple sprites where drawn on top of eachother.
My experience with 3D isn't that much, but I can't think of a way how to do it in 3D, besides changing the model with another or have it use other textures.
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