Is MZ what I'm looking for?

Hello game makers,

I've found myself with some time and wanting to get back into Rpg Maker as a hobby. I was pretty familiar with RM2k3 and was thinking of making the switch to one of the newer ones.

But I have a few questions before I'm sure it's what I'm searching for. I'm thinking of making an old school Dragon Quest like game.

So I really dislike the look of the newer RMs, and would like to use a 16-bit style. I hears the tileset tiles are 48x48, would it look decent if I took 16x16 tiles and just upscaled them by 3? How hard is it to import a simple 16-bit characterset?

Second, I'm not familiar with the new scripting language, how tough is it to pick up? How hard would it be for instance to add a bar, during combat, at the top of the screen that fills up when the player is hit? Is it worth picking up over say just using rm2k3 and making a custom battle system using events and pictures?

Yeah, that's about it. Thanks for reading.