Let me just say that I know absolutely nothing about animation, but I wanted to add my two cents.
I really dislike the newest version (in fact it's my least favorite of the three sprite sets I've seen so far). Jake's limbs seems oddly angled and too flexible (rather like Plastic Man), his face lacks detailed features, and his beard is too bright of a yellow to be a realistic shade. It looks like a quick animation test rather than a finalized sprite.
I personally rather liked the sprites posted at the start of this thread. The style was charming and cartoony, while at the same time full of detail and life. I loved Jake's squint, an animated version of the classic Eastwood look.
The old sprites are good as well: I wouldn't mind seeing them in the game, either. Of course, they appear to have had scaling issues when placed in the backgrounds, so I can understand why you wanted to make new ones.
If I had to choose between the first two sets of sprites I'd go with the ones you posted a few days ago. As you said, their cartoony style matches well with the backgrounds, while the original sprites were more realistic in nature. (The comparison reminds me of FoA and CMI: neither game would look "right" if its backgrounds were combined with the other one's sprites.)
I do realize that the second sprite set was finely detailed and would've taken intensive effort to produce en masse, so I understand why you switched to the new style. Still, I think if you do draw the sprites in the manner shown in your latest post, you should work to include more facial detail and avoid excessively rubbery limbs.
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