We've already raised the question of how many usable 'item' slots we need. I don't think I have an immediate opinion on this, except that I think Kai is right to say that two is too few. By the same token, having more than four or five slots would also be bad, particularly if the UI needs to fit into a 640x480 footprint. I'm also not quite sure where I'd put them.
One thing I did notice, however, which might be relevant to future character design, is that while the vitality bar is obvious, the willpower power bar is almost the same color as Kezular's shirt. I looked at the image a few times before I realized the bar was even there.
If we don't want to wrap the character portrait in a border, it might be necessary to choose a pair of colors for the bars and make sure no character wears those specific colors.