How's controller support?

[Ronin-XIII]

Hey was thinking of getting this for my steamlink setup. How good does it play with a controller?

Also, heard anything about how good the ps4 version?

[RCL]

Tested with a Dual Shock 4 controller connected to the PC as well as with the PS4 version.

It shows the controller mapping in each loading screen which is nice. PC with controller and PS4 with controller seem to be exactly the same regarding the controls, interface and feeling.

When using a stick or a button on the controller the games interface switches to the controller version (shows button bindings in UI dialogs) and if you use the mouse or keyboard again it switches back. There are icons for the DS4 as well as for the Xbox controller (the first time I used the controller in the PC beta it showed me the Xbox icons, but never since).

The performance of the game on the normal PS4 isn't that good, I noticed lags, micro lags and frame drops on 1080p and the loading times are a lot longer compared to my PC (well, ok, it's unfair to compare a € 300 console to a € 3500 PC, but I didn't installed the game on the SSD). I'd advise to use a PS4 Pro for smoother gameplay, but it's not unplayable.

---

Outside of battles I prefer the controller, because it creates a better immersion when you control the character directly.

I also prefer the dialog options navigation with the controller, because the keyboard's arrow keys don't navigate through the options (you have to use the mouse or press the number keys).

For one area of interest in the adventure section of the game I noticed that it wasn't selectable / reachable with a controler, only with a mouse. [PC only, I haven't played that far on PS4 yet]

---

Inside battles the controller lacks some tactical options.

If you pause the game you can plan where to go (not as directly as with the mouse, but it's good enough) and what skills to use (and abort them if you did something wrong), but what you can't do is order which specific enemy to auto attack (you can do that with the mouse), so the AI is deciding this for you.

You only see the HP of the enemies when the enemies are targeted by you. So you have to select a skill, and direct the skill's preview box toward the enemy to see its HP bar. Which means it's limited in range to those enemies near you (the mouse always shows the HP bar when you hover over an enemy, no matter where it is).

It remembers your last used skill and if you press the attack button it uses that skill again (if it's a skill that doesn't need to select a target). For skills where you have to choose the area of effect / target / place to land / etc., you have to press attack a second time, but I still managed to die a few times because of it (running from a cliff instead of using an attack skill).

Biggest tactical downside:
You can only command to execute an enemy that lies beside your character. So, you can't command your heroes to go to an enemy on the ground and execute him directly (which is possible with the mouse), but have to order them to go there and press the attack button once they are there. (Yes, I said attack button, the same one that is performing your last skill again, so you have to be very careful not to waste action points.) If there are several enemies on the ground you can't say which one to execute (the icon that is shown can not be trusted, I've seen the hero executing other enemies than the one with the icon when pressing the attack button). Because of all that, if you throw down several enemies at once with a skill, you can't pause and precisely plan which of your heroes shall execute which enemy.

---

These are almost all things that could be patched / made differently, but changing the controller bindings / layout after the release? I don't think that will happen.

[Ronin-XIII]

Thank you for such an extensive post. I appriciate the help.