Although I'm glad we're getting this game, I wish developers would stop this trend of placing low resolution sprites on top of 3D environments with photorealistic lighting.
These are pretty far from "low resolution" sprites, but either way, the "2.5D" visual design of Eiyuden Chronicle is what the game was first pitched on. It's an evolution of the visual style of Suikoden (for obvious reason, given Suikoden's Yoshitaka Murayama is its producer/director.) Those who have invested interest in and backing of this game do not find it ugly.
Whether or not the 2.5D (or "2D HD" in some Square Enix projects) is ugly is up for discussion. The garish use of lighting effects can make characters stick out despite its intention to ground characters in the reality of the world, and while modern sprites (or vector graphics) can look detailed and expressive with enough money applied to the design and animation, there is still always going to be a limitation of animation frames where characters moving off-axis or being rotated around just cannot enough assets to remain sooth in motion (and so far cannot be blended with any technology to tween the difference, probably never will since 2D poses are specifically designed for the visible plane.) You can perspective-correct, you can apply shader effects and depth-of-field to apply 3D reality to elements of a 2D surface, you can add extra animation sequences to accommodate unusual angles, but it's still going to sometimes seem choppy.
To me, when controlled well, I find the look more pleasing for its flaws since I can see the human touch put into the art. Furthermore I enjoy 2.5 experimentation as it pushes beyond the limitations 2D has run up against since the PS1/PS2 era where full-resolution paintings could be used as background assets. (And that was when budgets were sky-high for that kind of art; now, that kind of manual production work is difficult to afford.) 2.5D has its issues, and designers have overdone the effects work at times, but there are some fantastic examples of 2D and 3D being merged well IMO.