Can you give Samurai improved Animations?

[Vallerie]

Id love to have some deeper insight into how skills are actually designed and planned. for example how do someone decides that "gekko" has a moon animation?

This is easy to answer, Gekko (月光) translates as Moonlight. Same thing with Chaos Thrust on Dragoon, if you ever wondered why does it throw cherry petals everywhere, it's because the Japanese name translates as "Cherry Blossoms Blooming Out of Season"

As for your other gripes, well, if you ask me, this game is actually pretty well animated. They generally don't reuse animation just with different coloured trail (I don't count Tsubame Gaeshi skills, because they are supposed to be repeats of the Iaijutsu), skills are wonderfully flashy and generally fit perfectly with the theme of the job they belong to. Some might look silly when you go frame by frame, like Heated Shots on Machinist, but I think they look wonderful in motion and make the game feel more dynamic than it is when you're just using GCD skills.