Most natural isometric character movement

I have been looking around at various games and trying to figure out what the most natural feel is for moving a character in an isometric game that deliberately accentuates the isometric blocks:

A. Moving the character relative to the isometric angles.

B. Moving the character relative to the screen’s north/south/east/west.



Moving the character with the isometric angles feels good with the Arrow Keys but feels strange with the WASD keys. Combining the keys is allowed, so the player can technically move anywhere, but its more about determining what makes more sense when single keys are pressed.


Would love to hear some thoughts.

 

For actual grid based movement use the first option (with options to change which way is up). For a more free movement use the second, but also have diagonals align to the grid since proper isometric is usually closer to sixty degrees than forty five.

 

Thanks, that's helpful!

 

Unless your making a turn based tactics game that absolutely needs your character locked to a grid I would go with the second option as a unity3d character controller in a 3d world with a fixed camera and billboard sprites if you want hand draw 2d art.

 

nobody said you can't try something new!

 

Would it be a silly idea to rotate the camera ever-so-slightly so that the up and right directions are more distinguished?

It might be impossbile if you're using 2d art but could work in 3d.

 

Definitely make the movement based on the viewport. The only game I can think of with the first control scheme is called Snake Rattle and Roll for the NES and it was brutal largely because of the controls.

 

Definitely B, relative to the camera