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Why not go for just 2d sprites on a staggered isometric plane? would be much easier to implement.
old beat up games (think Double Dragon) were sprite based.

create a test map in tiled.

import using STI library.

the just run a simple sprite over it using anim8.

Later add in collisions via Bump.

Tweening can be done by using flux or Hump.timer

One way to do that is to scale down the image of the object when you press the up key and scale it up when you press the down key, that will give the illusion that the object moves away but in reality it's just shrinking