Blend Tree Workaround

public bool walking; // Toggle to check if player is sending input or not.
public string facingDirection = "null"; // Starts null to idle, but later stores the direction last input for animation processing.

void Update ()
{
        #region > Walk Toggle Check

        // Used to check if player is sending input or not.

        float movementInputX = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal");
        float movementInputY = Input.GetAxis ("Vertical");

        // Used to hold last known direction faced for their
        // respective axes. Used to play directional animations.

        int faceDirectionHoldX;
        int faceDirectionHoldY;

        if(movementInputX != 0 || movementInputY != 0)
        {
            walking = true;
        }
        else
        {
            walking = false;
        }

        #endregion

        #region > Get Directions

        if(walking)
        {
            // Process incoming input and store it for
            // use later by the animator. Useful in
            // that it toggles each axis' direction
            // allowing for diagonal movement.

            if(movementInputX > 0)
            {
                // Right
                faceDirectionHoldX = 1;
            }

            else if(movementInputX < 0)
            {
                // Left
                faceDirectionHoldX = -1;
            }

            else
            {
                // No Horizontal Movement
                faceDirectionHoldX = 0;
            }

            if(movementInputY > 0)
            {
                // Up
                faceDirectionHoldY = 1;
            }

            else if(movementInputY < 0)
            {
                // Down
                faceDirectionHoldY = -1;
            }

            else
            {
                // No Vertical Movement
                faceDirectionHoldY = 0;
            }

            #region > Process Walk Direction to Animatior String

            // Take previously stored input information and
            // translate it to a direction by checking which
            // axes are active and in what direction(s).
            // Assign facingDirection a string which corrosponds
            // to the appropriate direction named in the Animator.

            if(faceDirectionHoldX == 0 && faceDirectionHoldY == 1)
            {
                facingDirection = "n";
            }
            else if(faceDirectionHoldX == 0 && faceDirectionHoldY == -1)
            {
                facingDirection = "s";
            }
            else if(faceDirectionHoldX == -1 && faceDirectionHoldY == 0)
            {
                facingDirection = "w";
            }
            else if(faceDirectionHoldX == 1 && faceDirectionHoldY == 0)
            {
                facingDirection = "e";
            }
            else if(faceDirectionHoldX == -1 && faceDirectionHoldY == 1)
            {
                facingDirection = "nw";
            }
            else if(faceDirectionHoldX == 1 && faceDirectionHoldY == 1)
            {
                facingDirection = "ne";
            }
            else if(faceDirectionHoldX == -1 && faceDirectionHoldY == -1)
            {
                facingDirection = "sw";
            }
            else if(faceDirectionHoldX == 1 && faceDirectionHoldY == -1)
            {
                facingDirection = "se";
            }

            // Play animation using facingDirection string to point
            // to the name of animations in the Animator Controller.

            anim.Play (facingDirection);

            #endregion
        }

        else
        {
            #region > Play Idle Animation

            if(facingDirection != "null")
            {
                anim.Play ("idle " + facingDirection);
            }

            #endregion
        }

        #endregion
    }