Yeah, I noticed this today. The animation lock is a terrible idea. You sacrifice efficient and skill based gameplay, for looks. It's an unnecessary RPG element that hinders the fun of the game. I respect the idea behind it, but it's only superficial and it gets old fast. Maybe SE will read this and do something about it. It would be nice to see if they are willing to sacrifice their need for style to give us a better experience. Games like this are about the players and what we want, what is fun. It's up to them to decide which is more important. If they ever want to add any impressive tactical fight mechanics, they'll need to make the game more precise. Precise and skill based gameplay> style and animation appearances.