What is a good fightstick for ps4 and pc?

[Uncle Jon]

What is a good fightstick for ps4 and pc?

[jaywolfenstien]

Depends what you want to spend.

Qanba Evo Drone ~$120

Qanba Obsidian ~200

Razer Panthera ~200

Victrix Pro FS ~350

Qanba Dragon ~280

These all use Sanwa Daishi parts, feeling more authentic to old school arcades. Evo Drone is really really light, kinda feels like a toy as do all the cheaper arcade sticks such as the vanilla "non-Evo" Drone and the Mayflash sticks (they work fine, but compared to their beefier brethren, feel like a toy in comparison.) The Panthera, Victrix, and Dragon (but NOT the Obsidian) are all customizable (you can open it up and replace the stick / buttons, etc).

The Obsidian, Razer, and Victrix are all comparable in size and weight with the Obsidian being a little wider than the other two.

The Victrix is designed to be portable for tournament play. You can easily detach the stick, pop it open, and store it and there's a handle built into the frame so you can carry it like a suitcase. Cord is completely detachable. Nifty, but not worth the hefty price tag.

The Dragon is a big fat heavy beast. My laptop can almost fit inside it. It's too big, too heavy, and the secondary buttons (like R3/L3, Start, Select) have a stupid layout IMO. All arranged in a tiny little square at the top.

I prefer the Panthera for its size, general feel and weight, and secondary button placement (like the position of the start button on the side, and the smaller L3/R3 buttons you can identify by touch alone) and the option to customize it.

The Obsidian is a close second. It has all its secondary buttons lined up along the top, so it's a little harder to tell by feel if you're hitting the R3/L3 to reset ... or the button that changes the LED behavior. Minor annoyance.

HORI makes the RAP4 Pro for ~140. It has a different feel from all of the above, as it doesn't use Sanwa Daishi parts. The generic RAP4 doesn't have a R3/L3 (RS/LS) button (the equivalent to pushing the analog sticks on pad) which can be kind of an annoyance since SFV uses those to reset Training/Trials so you have to go into a menu to reset the position. I think the Soul Calibur VI special version does have them. My experience with HORI sticks have been hit and miss.

Then there's cheaper sticks. Qanba makes a plain vanilla Drone for ~$70 , which is the exact same thing as the "Evo" Drone above minus Sanwa Daishi parts. It feels different, but the layout of all the buttons is identical.

Mayflash makes some universal arcade sticks for, I think, $50 and $70. Like the Drones, they're really light and really small (An Obsidian is about 3X bigger). I play using the arcade stick in my lap, and so prefer them to have a bit more heft so when I scramble to combo into super and am hitting quarter circles hard, the heavier stick doesn't try to go anywhere. Lighter sticks want to twist with the motion. But your mileage may vary.

It's really what do you want? Something small, cheap, and light? Mayflash or a Drone. Something heftier to fit in your lap? Obsidian or Panthera. Want something inbetween the Drone and Panthera? HORI RAP4. Want the entire arcade cabinet in your lap? Dragon.

Other than that, I'd say look all these up and see if there's closeups of the secondary buttons (not the main 8). The Start, Select, R3 and L3 buttons and LED control button and maybe even turbo / assign whatever else there might be and decide if that layout is something you're comfortable with. If you're going to spend $100+ on the damn thing, you don't want something that's going to drive you crazy.

Also: Hit Box is out there. Not a fan, personally, weirdly enough because I feel like I'm going to break it. It has a piece of fiber glass or something on the top with (relatively) sharp edge and feels really fragile to me compared to other devices. Purely aesthetics, purely preference, I know. Hit Box isn't for me, but it is functional and it is option so...

HORI also makes excellent pads with 6 face buttons (Fighting Commander). There's a PS4 and XBox variant, the PS4 one is superior anyway. If I'm feeling lazy and don't feel like breaking out the Panthera, I use the Fighting Commander.

[Catratio]

I have a Hori Rap 4 Kai. Mine does have the L3/R3 buttons, but it's on the side. It's the only stick I've ever owned so I can't speak for how good it is compared to the others jaywolfenstien mentioned, but I like it a lot and it was only $120 a few years ago. It's the PS4 version but works natively on PC as well.

[jaywolfenstien]

Originally posted by Catratio:

I have a Hori Rap 4 Kai. Mine does have the L3/R3 buttons, but it's on the side. It's the only stick I've ever owned so I can't speak for how good it is compared to the others jaywolfenstien mentioned, but I like it a lot and it was only $120 a few years ago. It's the PS4 version but works natively on PC as well.

I'm glad you said that. I forgot to mention, mine's an XBox model, but I knew HORI made a PS4 version too. I've noticed HORI tends to give the XBox variant the short end of the stick. My Rap 4 Kai (the black and gray one) does not have the L3/R3 (LB/RB) on the side like yours does.

The PS4 Fighting Commander (a pad) by HORI also has some features the XBox version is inexplicably missing. There's a switch on the top that changes the functions of the shoulder buttons.

In both cases, both versions are functional, don't get me wrong. They do what they're supposed to. It's just weird that the PS4 gets an extra quality of life bell and whistle on top of everything else.

[Ematok]

I own the HORI RAP V4 PS4 , it has all the buttons same as the DS4.
also I reset at traning with the touchpad.

I can strongly recomend it.

[shingomouri]

I think a fighting stick that has an intermediate cost and quality components is Hori RAP4 for PS4 / PC (around 140 U$). As it is a Hori arcade stick, its components are made by Hori itself, however they owe nothing to Sanwa components. The Hori RAP4 comes with the Hori Hayabusa stick, and the buttons can be Hori Kuro or Hori Hayabusa depending on the model year of manufacture. It is a very robust stick, has reasonable accuracy, and a beautiful design.

If you want a slightly more professional tournament stick, then the most cost-effective model is the Qanba Obsidian. Many well-known Japanese pro players use this fighting stick, among them Bonchan, Tokido and Fujimura. The components used in Qanba Obsidian are Sanwa.

[Burgundy]

I use an obsidian. I like it but i will say one thing. There are 6 screws on the top and 2 of the black plasticy sticker covers for the screws came off. There is still a smooth white plastic covering the screw under the black sticker piece but still kinda sucks for a $200 controller.

[Vyllis]

i use Etokki Omni because i like Namco Noir like layout, small frame but strong because all metallic.

It using Brook PCB make it one of the fastest out there and can be plug on anything.
Also the USB cord is a common USB so there is no problem to replace it when your cat chew it.