Character Portraits When Characters Talk

Yeah, same thoughts here.
If they could fix the actual dialogue animation, that would be great, but I don't think that's a realistic thing to expect given what we've seen.
2D portraits seem like a pretty optimal solution.

I think the general consensus I have seen all over the internet over different forums (4chan, reddit, youtube and here) agree that portraits are a better option for presenting the dialog. I personally would love still pictures showing different emotions Persona or Fire Emblem style. Completely onboard with the idea.

I just hope one of the commanding members here sees this and tells IGA and team, if they'll even allow it.

I'm a little surprised character portraits didn't make a return here, considering they've been something of a reliable fixture in IGA's games. Of course, it's entirely possible that character portraits were always planned but just not implemented yet, but in either case, I certainly hope to see them.

As you may have seen me mention elsewhere on the forum, we're doing official beta feedback threads here on the forum again so this (and all things like it) will be heard and collected to present to the team. One of the main focuses of the beta backer demo is to gather feedback from the backers to be presented to the team, like the 2016 one.

This particular item has been quite popularly mentioned already, on many busy internet discussion outlets besides our own, so no worries on this specific thing being heard.

This'll be something we can report to them as feedback when we get into the Beta Backer Demo, I'm sure.

The 3D models are really bad. Portraits would look much better, since the art already looks good. I'm thinking a few static images (standard pose, thinking pose, happy, shocked, etc.) Not many, but it wouldn't draw as much attention to itself as the poor 3D models. It cheapens the look of the game.

It worked really well in Order of Ecclesia, and I'm sure it would be the same for Bloodstained.

I'd rather they stick to their intention/vision and fix what they've got. It may also be a bit harder of a change to "just do portraits" than we think it is (namely, they don't have Inti Creates' artist to draw them).

They have Mana, of course, but her role has been stated expressly as promotional materials only. I'd be down for hers in-game, but that's yet another art style changeup that they'd have to kind of somehow match Natsume's with (and honestly, probably too much work on her lol, she's already doing like 5 jobs).