"Battle direction" is something I'd like to implement. Add a bunch of methods to check if you're
- facing towards
- facing away
- facing from side
Then you could have apply damage bonus based on direction. Won't be able to use the sideview sprites cause they're designed for left/right only though, might have to switch to map character sprites for that just to test.
There should be an option to have characters face diagonally because battle sprites tend to look better at these angles. I think it looks good even though the grid is orthogonal rather than isometric. This is how Live A Live handled it and I thought it was interesting. Personally I think diagonal strafing in all 4 directions looks a lot less awkward than making 90-degree turns and walking in straight lines like in FFT, and it would look pretty stylish in a game with more sprite animation than Live A Live.
http://zsnsk.sakura.ne.jp/livealive/battle_system.html#rear-or-side-atk
