Constantly looping is probably unnecessary for a turn-based game.
If the only time something is going to change is when a player moves, consider using setTimeout() or requestAnimationFrame().
Here's an approximate setup:
var player = {x: 0, y: 0};
//to be executed whenever the player moves
function animate(xDifference, yDifference){
var pixelsLeftX = xDifference,
pixelsLeftY = yDifference,
finishedMoving = false;
var xInterval = setInterval(function(){
pixelsLeftX = xDifference > 0 ? pixelsLeftX - 1 : pixelsLeftX + 1;
if(pixelsLeftX === 0){
clearInterval(xInterval);
if(finishedMoving){
continue()
}else{
finishedMoving = true;
}
}
}, 10),
yInterval = setInterval(function(){
pixelsLeftY = yDifference > 0 ? pixelsLeftY - 1 : pixelsLeftY + 1;
if(pixelsLeftX === 0){
clearInterval(xInterval);
if(finishedMoving){
continue()
}else{
finishedMoving = true;
}
}
});
}
function continue(){
//etc
}
