I've adopted tags for threads in here, to make it the Larian dudes & Lynn (not forgetting any lovely ladies am I?) little easier to asses the nature of the thread.

Seeing Xanlosh's and the Trailer I found the animation for the polymorph into a dragon a bit simplistic. Nice shader effects but its still just

"hello I'm a man"
*poof!*
ROAAARRRRR

I can see how really morphing into a dragon can be very hard to accomplish. So I'd suggest to give it a little more than a *poof!* . For instance the hero could start running, bending over in jerking motions to all fours, then leap like a fourlegged creature would do and then poof into a dragon. Vice versa something similar, maybe a little confusion how not to break your neck when you drop out of the sky realising you ain't got no wings anymore.

All this should also look agonizing, It's a curse so it shouldn't look like a walk in a park. A scream here and there, few jerking motions etc...

That would be really nice the first time around, maybe even the second and the third. But after a while I think I would prefer to just do the 'poof' thing and not have to wait until the animation completes.

Yes, I think the first time would deserve an in-game cinematic sequence, but after that it might get tiresome watching a drawn out transformation, especially if the polymorphing between forms happens frequently.

I kinda agree with you, it would probably look much cooler but what about gameplay?
What if you're in a critical situation and want/need to morph to survive? Do you really want to waste your time watching a 10 seconds (or more) long animation (and die in the end), not being able to do anything?

And that's just an example amongst many other possible scenarii. What if you have to morph quite often? Would it be frustrating? And what if you're falling from a cliff? etc...
I think it's mostly a game design decision. But I'm justs guessing.
From an artist's point of view, it should be possible (even if it might be tricky) to make something more complex, more dramatic but I'm pretty sure Lar or any designer here could give you many reasons on why it was made this way.

And who knows, maybe that's how it happens the first time you morph, to introduce the curse. I don't know...


PS: Using tags is a really good initiative. Well done!

Well as a compromise: The movie where the hero first turns (if it is a movie) you can shiow it in all it's details. But in the game world it stays *poof*.

Hm, maybe the animation could be there only on special occations ?