Thanks for the kind words everyone!
I'd like to see the greys appearing less 'pure' - I know it fits with the Ultima vibe, but I'd prefer to see a little colour theory applied (maybe a tint to the grey, or bluish shadows, or yellowish highlights perhaps?)
Hee, hee! You seriously overestimate my skills! The lighting is an uber simple per-tile bit twiddling. There is no per pixel modification. You can see in the screens that the highlights on the objects make no sense in terms of light directionality. I've experimented with some hue saturation so that torches cast red light and magic spells cast white light, but the results look pretty bad so far.
also please make a PC version with a higher resolution and mouse interface I beg you

many of us have no interest in iphone\android games
My first goal is a phone game, but I plan on releasing a creation suite for Mac/Windows in the future, so people can release their own levels/campaigns and modifications.
Please start calling it isometric, because 2.5d requires some 3d.
From what I see this game is only 2 dimensions... ^^;
Final Fantasy Tactics is a 2.5D Isometric game, but thats because the world is 3d.
Which allows for you to rotate the camera around the selected character.
Oh, sorry. I wanted to emphasize that there is a Z coordinate signifying levels of depth. Most isometric games I see around are flat.
By the sounds of "meet friends" I take it you will eventually control more than just one character? or is it single character driven? Like Diablo, being that it's an adventure game? or will you eventually control more than one character?
Yeah, you'll meet and control others along the way. Right now there is a bug in the party following code so the screens only show one character. I want to have you play one character who recruits others to follow them, but the additional characters have their own motivations and may betray you if you piss them off. I guess some allies will come and go as the story progresses.
Anyways, thanks for the encouraging response! I'll post more info and screens soon.