Do you prefer more realistic or more over-the-top battle animations and why?

[Slumber]

The GBA games always had my favorite battle animations. Every class had unique, memorable basic attack sprites, and ridiculous and iconic criticals. Something about that flash and over-the-topness was charming.

The Tellius games kinda continued in this vein, but there was less variety. Units, but and large, just ran up to the enemy and hit them with whatever weapon they had. There were no jumping Brigands, weight flinging Myrmidons or dual wielding, cross-up Pirates. And then the criticals. Some were cool, but most just had louder sound effects and faster animations. We didn't get the spinning top Warriors or shield tossing, front-flipping Heroes.

Same deal with the SNES/Jugdral games. There were only like, 4 battle animations, and the ones that were there were fine, but yeah. There were like, 4. I did like how dynamic they were, though. If a ground unit crit'd on the first hit, they'd basically flash through the opponent, but if they crit'd on a counter-hit, they'd just crush the opponent. And the way the battle animations just flowed was a lot nicer than the way they've done it since. Rather than attacking and running back, once a unit got in the face of the enemy, they stayed there, and there were different animations for attacks/counter-attacks. Made the battles seem more like they were happening in real time, rather than just two units taking turns. But the animations were still too few. And crab-walking axers will always be silly.

The Awakening animations annoyed the shit out of me, since most units just jumped at the enemy, and criticals just amounted to a character's portrait popping up for a second, with the same animation following. I don't remember if Fates did anything different, but I remember being completely unimpressed with them. Seeing units hit once, then just run away back to their arbitrary starting position also irked me to no end.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Slumber

[Thor Odinson]

I kinda like a good mix--I liked that the SNES sprites don't just stay in 2 pre-programmed locations and keep jumping back and forth, but I do like the flashiness of the GBA ones for the most part. P sure fates does that, though I don't usually play with animation on to be sure.

[Cute Chao]

The GBA will always be my favourite animations, maybe due to nostalgia. But some are hilarious. I'm pretty sure the nomad (or w/e Shin's class is called) actually spins round the horse they're on during a crit xD

 

...I need to play the GBA games again. It's been too long :O

[KoimanZX]

After looking up stuff about HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), I must say that I have a deeper appreciation for realistic combat. I picked Radiant Dawn as it has animations that are still somewhat dynamic while being somewhat more grounded in realism for the most part (there is the spinning that is a terrible idea, of course, but there is not quite as much jumping as there is in later games). I also must say that Ike wielding a longsword in one hand is not that impressive, as it really is not hard to do. A properly made sword is not that heavy, which the Ragnell is certainly not (remember swords are meant to cut and stab, not smash and bludgeon; swords are not maces). Using one hand just makes wielding the sword incredibly awkward due to how the weight is dispersed, which means one makes slower and more awkward swings and thrusts; that is no good. It also gives the opponent more leverage against the wielder as the sword can more easily be used as a lever against the wielder. I know I went off topic, but I cannot help but be a bit anal about fantasy (and fantasy is immune to all scrutiny due to it being fantasy).