Sorry for the late reply. It seems that I didnt get an email indicating that you left me some feed back.
as far as 8 way movement, it can be done, the problem with that right now is that I am picky with my art. I just can't allow 8 way movement and not have the animation to go along with it. Although it can be done, but it will eat up the animation back very quickly. I do four frame movement for walking cycle. Adding that to 8 way movement you can see how the bank will feel up quick. Just because it's a nes game doesn't mean I want it to move like a nes game in terms of animation.
I can see this achievable if I was able to get the games engine to be built from the ground up, but working with nesmaker I basically have to work with double the limitations. One is the nes itself and the other is with nesmaker. Sadly I'm no coder. Yet at least.
The slow downs is due to having only 4 monsters per screen. Start adding projectiles and you can see the limits being reached. That is one of the nesmaker limits and even so, we try our best to prevent those slowdowns.
Nonetheless, I am happy that you enjoyed the game for what it's worth. It's not exactly how I imagined it but it's a mile stone to get to were I hope future projects can grow even further.
I am working on an actual full game which will be the start of Jins journey (prequel). So hopefully you'll look forward to it and hopefully you'll see some improvments.
Thanks again,
-FJ