Could it be the camera angles that give it some of that feel? I see exactly what you mean in terms of the look of those latter shots, but it seems that if you look at the scene in a traditional zoomed-out 3/4 top-down approach, there wouldn't be the same impression. It would appear that the shots are designed to be cinematic and depict battle scenes when normal gameplay may look and feel very different than this (if you want it to, of course).