So the prospect of animating those organic characters seemed like I'm biting more than I can chew.
I experimented a fair bit, tried to find a simple and easy to produce style. And I just didn't get it to work.
I found a style that feels appropriate to the gameplay I want. It works for technical stuff, and I still havent resolved the organic enemies yet. I'll probably rather rethink my character designs and make them fit the mechanical style. It's all more work intensive then I'd hoped, but I feel better about it.
Here's what I'll be going for, will be working towards a minimal must-have tile set for now. The mechs are meant to be player vehicles, the legs are placeholders.