How do I make the movement on my game more "snappy" or responsive and less floaty?

I'm currently using the 8 direction behavior for player movement and default acceleration and deceleration.

I made the game for ludum dare 42 and am now trying to resolve the issues people consistently had with it and a big one was people didn't like the movement.

This is the game:

justinsix.itch.io/progression-degeneration

The movement is the same right now in my build and that build, but I've already removed the ridiculous amount of particles I used and taken out the slowdown on the start of new levels.

Is it just that my animations are bad? Any advice on implementing and creating better animations to make movement better?

Or any advice on how to make the movement feel better?

Give it a much higher 'deceleration'

Thank you! that seems to have helped :) If anyone has similar problem just increase deceleration... not sure how I didn't think to try that