Battler Woes

So one of the big problems with bringing my game to life is the limitations of the "battlers" provided by RPG Maker VX Ace. ("Battlers" are the graphical images of the enemies that appear on screen during combat). My number one complaint with the battlers is the vast proportion of humanoid enemies to the exclusion of a better selection of animal-based enemies (which are, unfortunately, the focus in my particular game).

Out of 74 total default battlers, well over half of them are humanoid in nature, many including a male and female version of a particular class (Cleric, Dark Elf, Grappler, Hero, Paladin, Thief, Warrior, Wizard - oh, and God/Goddess). This is great, I guess, for games where people fight other people, but this is RPG Maker, not Tournament Fighter Maker. Anyway, going through the battlers, here are some of my specific complaints:

* Ok, before I get into my complaints, there are some good boss battlers in the set, even a few that would make good final bosses (particularly Darklord, Demon, Evilgod), so that's a plus. I would still welcome some more variety, though.

* The elemental battlers (Earthspirit, Firespirit, Waterspirit, Windspirit) leave something to be desired for me, graphically.

* There are two wolf-like battlers, but one of them is a Werewolf and the other one is Cerberus ("Kerberos"). Unless you want the wolves in your game world to be part-man or have three heads, there's no basic "wolf" battler.

* The Spider, Snake, and Scorpion battlers are all huge! I prefer the smaller snakes and spiders and scorpions of Final Fantasy 1. They're dangerous because, in spite of their small size, they dangle the threat of poison in front of you. They're not the type of enemies who rely on strength and size...

* There are no horse-based battlers (I'm sorry, but I liked the MadPonys and NiteMares of Final Fantasy 1).

* There are no crocodile or shark battlers. There is a Jellyfish, which is good (though no giant squid for a boss), and even the "Gayzer" (remember OddEye?) from Final Fantasy is replicated (despite, to my knowledge, not representing anything that lives on this Earth). There's a "Sahagin" battler, which is a fish warrior, but other than those, there's not a whole lot of other sea or water-based battlers.

* There's only a single Dragon. It's a pretty cool dragon. But there's only the one. Sure, you can adjust its hue, but my game requires 13 dragons, and so a little variety is pretty much required. One of the coolest things, for me, about the classic Final Fantasy games (even going back to the very first one) was the great diversity of dragons you encountered. I even dedicated a web page to it once! And the 8 Legendary Dragons of Final Fantasy VI was obviously a strong influence on my desire to make an RPG with a focus on a pantheon of powerful dragon bosses. But with just the one dragon, I'm honestly at a loss as to what to do...

* There are no robot battlers. I understand that this program is designed to make fantasy games, not sci-fi games, but even just a single robot-based battler would have been nice. Robot enemies turn up in a lot of the classic Final Fantasies (WarMech anyone?), which, despite being fantasy-based, often take advantage of the opportunity to have at least one dungeon in the game be all futuristic and sci-fi-y (e.g., the Sky Castle, the Tower of Zot/Tower of Bab-il/Giant of Bab-il, the Magitek Research Facility).

* They have a number of undead battlers - including Zombies, "Ghosts", Vampires, and even Death itself. This is good, even though I'm going to have difficulty working any of them into my game. But yet not one robot battler...

* They only have one bird-type battler (not including Bats and Gargoyles), and it's a weird cross between a Cockatrice (which it is apparently trying to be) and a chicken. It's fine enough on its own, but if you want some different kinds of bird-type enemies, you're pretty much stuck. Good luck trying to pass a chicken with a lizard's tail off as a "raven" or somesuch. I tried making it a raptor once, since there is a lack of reptilian battlers (do snakes count?) and no dinosaur battlers to speak of, but that's obviously a stretch. There is a tengu warrior (Garuda), but it's pretty extravagantly decorated and has the same problem as the Werewolf if you're looking for more animalian creatures.

There are some good battlers - don't get me wrong - and it's a good hodgepodge of RPG classics. But honestly I really wish there were just more variety. I'd even be willing to pay extra for a bonus pack of battlers drawn in the same style (and comparable quality) to supplicate the ones that come with the program, but I've seen no such thing. I'd be willing to buy a complete set drawn by someone else, provided they were good quality, meshed well with the graphics already in use in the game, and covered all the basics that the default battlers already cover.

So far, I've seen nothing available in the fan community (for pay or for free) that is of a professional quality, and not narrowly shoehorned into some particular alternative play style (rather than the "generic RPG" style that the default battlers assume). Picking and choosing battlers here and there is not an attractive option for me because I really think cohesion of style is important for a game. It's the primary reason I haven't broken down and just nicked a bunch of sprites from Final Fantasy to use in my game (well, that, and the fact that Final Fantasy uses a side-view battle system and RPG Maker opts for the front-view battle system like Dragon Quest)...