Does anyone have a json file or an explantion for how the movement was coded in Resonant Tale? It's tile based movement but with intermediary animation somehow added in as the player moves from one tile to the next, basically like Pokémon on the gameboy. It seems like this is a way to get smooth movement without having to use a fakeplayer?
They almost definitely used some manner of fake player. But it doesn't have to be a totally fake player.
You could just have the actual player move like normal but on the move trigger (in the update function compare player.dx and player.dy to player.tx and player.ty to make sure they didn't bump into anything) animate them moving into their new square and have a fake player in the spot they came from that animates leaving the square. you just need to track the frames with some variable (just reset a variable each time update is called and progress it each time draw is called) and then if your move animation is 8 frames, after that counter gets to 8, turn off the fake player that lived in the player's previous spot and stop the player's animation so it doesn't look like they are entering the cell over and over.
You'll have to make 8 sprites (and they should all be player sprites so they have transparency) two for each direction because one is the animation into a square and one is the animation out of the square.