Lack of animations not addressed in live letter

[OJtheLIONKing]

Gameplay's more important than an (admittedly very nice) little turn animation. I'd rather avoid a wipe than have a nice little turn that slows my character down every time. This kind of focus on graphics and style over gameplay and substance is exactly what FF and JRPGs in general get criticized for.

[Hulan]

Gameplay's more important than an (admittedly very nice) little turn animation. I'd rather avoid a wipe than have a nice little turn that slows my character down every time. This kind of focus on graphics and style over gameplay and substance is exactly what FF and JRPGs in general get criticized for.

In the case of turning animations at least, this is something that they can safely improve without endangering gameplay. The animation could be calibrated to take a small amount of time (I'd estimate a 0.25-0.3 second animation would be more than sufficient) and by making the "launching step" on the turn move the character slightly more than usual, the animation can appear to take time, but actually be a null sum.

Sever and client store your position as absolutes for the sake of damage and ability calculations, while the animation plays client side as graphical sugar.

Honestly, during combat, I'm more than willing to forgo a little realism for the sake of smooth gameplay. For instance, after activating a WS, if I slide a bit when I move as the animation completes, that's a price I'm willing to pay. On the other hand, smooth turning animations, pivots, jumps, running; these are things that can be greatly improved from where they are now without impacting gameplay.