First Person VS Third Person RPG

[Kriven]

A character-status hud that popped up with a button press would probably satisfy players like myself so long as the character icons (is there a party system?) were expressive and brimming with personality.

Edit: Looking at Star Fox for just a moment, which I understand is outside both RPG and FP parameters... but it's a game where you only see the characters in cutscenes and when they're speaking to one-another... but look just how popular those characters are, how many people get their nostalgia all tickled when Slippy's face pops onto the screen, how many people want a new game just to spend time with these characters. The games would be mere footnotes in the grand scheme of things were it not for those little transmissions with the character faces flapping around.

My point in talking about Star Fox isn't to reiterate that in-gameplay faces are required, but that even when the faces show up for only a moment they can have a huge impact on the way players relate to the game.