Watching Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night's demo gameplay and I noticed something: when Miriam's moving forward in whatever direction and the player decides to move backwards, Miriam doesn't suddenly turn around, but she does a little backwards skip kind of like pre-SFV Charlie and
Guile's back walk. The whole time she's doing this, she's still facing in the direction she was moving before turning around to move in the direction the player's currently inputting. First off, the way it flows from her run forwards, skip backwards, turn, and run in the opposite direction is so smooth. The game itself looks so fluid and pretty. It also fits since if you're facing danger, you kind of would want to keep an eye on it to see what it will do before running away. The main thing about it to me is that it's one of those little things that happen as games evolve. Maybe it was hardware or software limitations, maybe the people didn't know if it should be there since it's a game and not real life, maybe people didn't care, I don't know.
These little things, these little animations that are easily missed, are pretty awesome. The stock idea is that it adds realism which it does since things don't suddenly change directions and even things that do, still have a slight pause or something that shows there's a change in direction. Another idea is that it makes things flow; in Ninja Gaiden, when Ryu Hayabusa draws or sheathes his Dragon Sword, you actually see that. He could be drawing it really quickly, but it happens. Most of the time, though, you will see Ryu sheathing his Dragon Sword or any weapon; he'll do it running if he needs to. Even when there's no sheath like with Dante in DMC, if you stop a moment during any of his attacks with Rebellion, there is an animation of Dante sheathing it from different positions fitting the attack he just finished. Growing up and seeing games change over time, it's really cool to see stuff like that. More animation, more stuff that makes things flow, and makes things seem natural. Also, reminds me of this video showing the difference between NBA Live '07 on the PS2 and the PS3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9BFBlxyBKw.
The only problem with this is if they interfere which in most cases, usually won't be a case unless it's justified. So, in the old days of the PS2, in Sly Cooper 2 -- pretty sure it was Sly 2 --, where they introduced a sprint, if you decided to sprint in the opposite direction, Sly or any of the other characters will just turn and go. In Sly 4, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, that doesn't happen. Your character will stop and then move. Not really a knew thing since probably N64 games had it too like probably SSB64. It makes sense even if it slows thing down a bit since things in motion do have to slow down if they want to move in the opposite direction. Now, if it was an attack or jump or something else and you were forced to go through an animation that seemed weird, but made sense, then yes, that's when more "realism" isn't good. In most cases, that doesn't happen. You don't have to sit through an idle animation of a character taking his glasses and wiping them. Nope, those glasses will wipe themselves and put them back on him, so feel free to run, jump, or beat up your local mook. In some cases, they might not affect anything. Back to Bloodstained, it doesn't really look like Miriam moves any slower while skipping backwards. Same speed, but different animation to add to the game.
Still animation, but not really about the wall I posted: Seems like Miriam might be a fan of Juri.