I've no problem with liberties in the end as long as it's a good enough work. And those sprites, while better than SSFIITHDR's, just lack the class of Japanese designs -- manga-style or not. The new facial expressions / personalities for the enemies are annoying to a point indeed. And I won't even mention the font.
This is not like the Boy and his Blob case [ > ], where the original was so bad that the remake, with all the liberties and whatnot, shines despite having an average visual design. My problem with Toki 2009 is that it's just cloning Juju Densetsu with less visual quality. So what's the point.
Anyway, I'll admit that the animation, 'cept for some situations, is slightly better than what I expected:
http://golgothstudio.com/devblog/genera … rst-video/