There's exaggeration and there's overexaggeration. Style points are valid reasons for keeping something provided it does not interfere, but the breasts do. It isn't necessarily because of taste, it's because they look too incorrect:
realistic level : wow, realism. I'm impressed by the subtle movement, but not excited.
less realistic level : wow, this looks great and the movement is exciting!
totally unrealistic level: wow, I wonder what's overdone? I think it's the movement...
The perspective issue has nothing to do with your design, it has to do with your perspective. The face and upper torso are more front-on and the waist and skirt is more overhead.
I guess I just don't see it that way, but I'll see what I can do. I'm not sure if I'm going to implement running animations - to be honest, I find animating tedious and difficult - but if I do, I guess I'll have the movements down - breast-wise and otherwise.
For the sprite on the right, his perspective is almost uniform excet for the belt (which could be dismissed as being loose) but his feet are attached to his knees.
His legs always bothered me, but my sprites have generally stubby legs in a deformed, almost chibi-sort of way, so I've always put off editing it. That, and he's fully-animated in four directions, which would make him a pain to tear into. I'll probably do that after a demo release; I'm trying to finish up to a certain point before I go back and nitpick everything to death.
EDIT: The comparison - the waist-down issue has not been addressed yet. Ignore the flickering shadow and odd foot placement on the breasty model:
-and, for good measure-
I honestly prefer the impractically thrusting chest motions on the sprites, but if it's really that bad I'll find it in myself to part with them. Especially on Rave (the red/white haired one); but he's much more acceptable as such because of his eccentric nature (it's explained in-game - he's a kind of village idiot in armor). And the hair. All of my friends have said that the movement helps, not hinders. Maybe I just watch too much anime, in which hair bounces at the slightest movement.
On a different note, how can I make Suna (the one on the left) a little more exciting to watch within reasonable realism? Right now she's much too stiff for my liking.