I love the graphics rework in general, its much more engrossing.
With the understanding that this will change, I am not fond of the “stock” starting character setup at present, I really, more than ever want some sort of control over creation… or a return to a subset of random characters.
MY MAIN POINT:
The animations – I would slow them down, and deepen the sounds to make both impacts and misses more “meaty”… at present its sometime hard to tell of there was an impact or not. Have you thought about playing a metalic sound alternating with an air swish for a miss?
If you slow down the animation 200-250% the whole turn-based joy will unearth itself a bit more… at present it feels a bit “slapstick”