Multi-directional animation

In my game, I would like it so that an NPC that the character controls can move and look in any direction freely (i.e walking backwards while looking forward). The default R16 animation only walks forward. Is there any way I can have backwards and sideways animations running?

could just use shift lock to lock the camera so the characters always facing forwards

edit: or you could make a custom camera

The camera is fixed overhead like Dead Ops