The way I have seen this commonly solved is to draw each item from back to front (highest Y value, assuming 0 at bottom of screen and >0 at top). But every item

The way I have seen this commonly solved is to draw each item from back to front (highest Y value, assuming 0 at bottom of screen and >0 at top). But every item is the size of one square, or is in fact multiple items the size of 1 square which make up the larger object. It just seems like a simpler and more efficient solution and you don't need to worry about cycles.