My worry in making the game isometric is that you will be putting your game back into the "Diablo clone" sub-genre. Which means your game will be judged on how faithfully it reproduces Diablo's formula, much as the original DD was. This might be especially bad considering D3 is due out within the next year or two, so if your game is also isometric it will invite the inevitable comparisons to Diablo.
I like how ED did the 3rd person action game type camera. It allowed you to introduce some platform elements that were not at all annoying or frustrating, the action was more intense, and combat was more interactive. Isometric games become insane click fests and it seems like you are so far from the action all the time.
I'm not a big fan of food/water mechanic. I get annoyed by those in games. It's like a gameplay tax.
