I need your collaborative knowledge in finding the best way to graphically represent a scene in a manner that would suit a SNES-era rôle-playing game. I've chosen to represent the game in what I'm informed is called "cavalier oblique" projection, which is the same sort of perspective employed in titles like EarthBound:
Wherein articles' fronts and one side are shown, but characters face the camera head-on. For as much reason as anything, this is to avoid the "top-down" view employed by 300% of RPG Maker titles. I don't want to look like a "me-too" player.
The scenario
In the title, the player character has their return path blocked off, with the only path to progression being one leading through a series of very tight-fitting caves. The claustrophobia of the area is very important, as it's one of the main sources of suspense to which the player is subjected.
The problem
I can't think of a single way to display claustrophobic, branching caves with dead-ends and very tight holes in the projection I've displayed above. There are a few works-around I can think of that revolve around changing the projection (either to a first-person view, which will be immensely difficult to navigate, or to a side-on view like Dig Dug, which is more intended to show branching paths across a y axis as opposed to an x axis) - doing this risks appearing jarring to the player, however, and I'm aiming for immersion above all else.
I ask you, GD - can you think of any such scenarios from your favourite retro games, and how did they display them to the player? Any reference I can get for a successful execution will be immensely appreciated.