umm, well I think I could possibly add more frames, it would make the programming more tedious. My main reason is i'm very lazy when it comes to animating pixel art lol.
One thing to keep in mind with animation is sense of motion compounds very quickly with each new frame you add. Going from 2 to 4 frames is a huge increase in motion, from 4 to 6 even more, 6 to 8 more, etc. Just an extra 2 frames can make a massive difference. If you want to approach animation you just cannot get lazy, or you won't get a good motion. Don't think about it as painstakingly filling out the details over and over, that's not the core of what the animation process involves... it is simply communicating the motion of bodies through various key frames, or poses. This can be done largely irrespective of detail, especially for fast animations.
Try examining some of the 4-frame attack animations in
this thread, you can see the convincing motion that can be achieved with such a small frame count and not much detail.
Approach it as fast sketches of each key frame, then when you have the motion looking right, add detail where its going to matter. Done.
I see what you mean about the shoulder, i'll work on that. as for the jeweleater boss, it doesn't really seem to have much of a paw swipe animation. it looks like a jump and a lick lol.
The player sprites are about the size of fenrir's head. and the game has more of a darker atmosphere.
I'm pretty sure he was referring to my suggestion on how to render the fur, rather than the animations. Note the shift in concentration of shadow and light tones across the overall form of the subject.
If the game is going for a "dark" feel, that generally means heavier shadow, which SD3's sprite obviously doesn't involve so much. But the exact principle will still apply: shade according to the subject's form... yours would just play up the shadows.