So I recently started playing pic related. I wanna like this game so much, but the controls are so freakishly bad, it's so frustrating.

I get that it's an isometric game and that there are only four directions you can go. That's fine, but why do the buttons always change way your character is moving?

For example, when I press up I move up-left. When I press left I also walk up-left. when I press down or right, I move down-right. So basically the main four directions on the control pad only move my character in 2 directions. Only when I press in a diagonal direction my character moves in that direction. Why? Why aren't up/left/down/right on the control pad up-left/down-left/down-right/up-right respectively? That is just stupid, because the Mega Drive gamepad makes it hard to move diagonal.

Also the input direction always changes: When I hold right on the pad and my character moves down-right, as soon as I enter anothr room suddenly right makes my character move up-right. What the hell?

Are there any tricks that I'm not aware of? The platforming in isometric games is frustrating as it is, but with the controls it's almost impossible. I don't understand why the game is praised so much when the most important thing, managable controls, is so fucked up.

I considered playing the game on an emulator and just mapping the four main directions to diagonal directions, but then again I wanna play Dark Savior, too, so I wanna get used to this kind of controls. But it's just so frustrating and just not fun :(