I totally prefer portraits.

DA:O is actually a good example why. Freakingly ugly character models hogging the box. It WILL be even worse in D:OS2 since characters are (logically) lower detailed than in D:OS since they are made for isometric view rather than 3rd person.

If one can choose beautiful handcrafted portraits or butt-ugly 3D face I know what I would choose. Or you may think this looks great;
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=485312084

Let's all imagine looking at that for your 100H gameplay. No thanks.