Easier Fishing Controls

This is a quick guide to show how you can use Steam Custom Controller Settings to make simple control changes that will make fishing easier. This should be especially beneficial for those of us with difficulties mashing a button a lot, especially for the more difficult fish in the game, and when trying to farm. In addition, this game makes much more use than prior ones of the extra fishing difficulties with hitting other buttons and using the analog stick all while mashing the button, so this helps to better focus on those extra objectives.

Overview

Steam's Custom Controller Profiles can be hugely beneficial in many games not only for making them more playable than they were, or for adding controller abilities where they did not exist, but also it can make some games more accessible by remapping controls via Steam rather than the game, or by making use of nifty features like turbo settings.

I will give two options below for how to do this for fishing in this game, but you can obviously use these steps to assign it how you see fit. These are just two ways I would personally do it. I also cannot recall what the default fishing button is, but in my game it is X (Playstation controls), or A (Xbox controls). So I will focus on that.

My approach makes use of a DualSense, so depending on your controller and how Steam supports it, your results may vary.

If you've run into issues, I will show you at the bottom how to reset it.

Where is Steam Custom Controller Settings?

There are two ways to get there.

First, in your Steam library when on the games page before starting the game, you can find it here. Be sure that your controller is plugged in and Steam detects it, otherwise you won't have this icon.

Alternatively, you can access it while playing by pressing the Steam Guide Button (on a Playstation controller it'll typically be the PS button, unless you've changed it). You can also do Shift+Tab on the keyboard. This brings up Steam Overlay while playing the game. Again, if you have disabled it or changed Steam Overlay, then you won't have this option.

Option 1: Button Chord

Once you're in the Controller Settings, go into Edit Layout.

Then Buttons, and then we will modify the X (Playstation controls), or A (Xbox controls) button, since that is the button I use for fishing.

If you're unaware, the X button you see on the left in my screenshot below is the button that exists on my actual controller. The button selected, or assigned to it, on the right side is the result that outputs when I press that button. So this is basically Steam saying "when the player presses the X button on the DualSense, send a signal to the game of an Xbox A button having been pressed." That is how this stuff works in Steam Custom Controller Settings.

In Buttons, go to the gear icon for that buttton.

Then select Add Extra Command. We're doing this because we don't want to alter the original function of the button. So we are going to give the button an extra command that will trigger differently than the normal push of the button.

It should bring you to another screen where you can select a button or command. Go to GAMEPAD and then select the same exact button.

Now it has assigned the same button as Command 2, however it currently operates identically. Let's change that. Go to the gear icon for the newly added Command 2 for this button.

In the settings for this, change Regular Press to Button Chord as seen below. This will change how this command triggers, requiring it be paired with another button to execute.

Now it'll return you to the same screen, but you'll notice that Command 2 is labeled as Button Chord. Go to the gear icon for it again.

This time into Settings.

Here we will assign the button that this button needs to be chorded, or paired, with. Select it to change it from None to Right Bumper. That's what I chose, you can choose a different button to chord it with if you like. What this now means is I am going to have to push Right Bumper + X (on my DualSense) together for this A button (Xbox controls) to output from Command 2.


A note about doing this in-game: I find that pushing the Chord Button Right Bumper slightly before the X button seems to work best. So in-game, when I do this, I begin pushing Right Bumper and then a second later hit the X button while holding the Right Bumper. Doing both at the exact same time wasn't always working, and doing X slightly before Right Bumper wasn't always working. So it seems best when doing Chord Button and then original button. It doesn't seem as bad as it was in Ys VIII, but it still seems to apply somewhat.

Then back in the settings, turn on the Hold to Repeat (Turbo) toggle, and then change the Repeat Rate all the way to the left, reducing it to 10.

This means it will repeat as fast as possible. What this means is that holding this Chord Button combo of Right Bumper + X on my DualSense will output an A signal to the game every 10 milliseconds, simulating to the game that I am mashing the button required, when really I'm just holding it.

Option 2: Single Button

Alternatively, if you're using a Dualshock4 or a DualSense and you'd rather assign the trackpad to do this, that is possible as well. Rather than messing with the X button in option 1, instead go to Trackpads and then:

• Set Right Trackpad Behavior to None
  
• Set Left Trackpad Behavior to None
  
• Set Center Trackpad Behavior to Single Button
  
• Set the A button (or whatever you're fishing mash button is) to Click or Touch, whatever you like.

Then repeat some of the steps from Option 1 to go into the gear icon for this A button and into the Settings to turn on the Hold to Repeat (Turbo) toggle, and then change the Repeat Rate all the way to the left, reducing it to 10.

This way you can just hold the one button rather than a button chord. You can also assign it to any other button you want, just be cautious as lots of other buttons are required for other gameplay elements.

Reset Default Controls

If you've made errors or decided you don't like it, you can reset the default. Go back into the controller settings as previously described, and then select the Current Button layout as shown here.

It will take you to a menu with templates to use. Most games have a default one that shows here in the screenshot below. Highlight it and then hit the correct button to Apply the layout. It will override your entire controller layout.

There are other layouts in there that you can browse if you want.

Have fun fishing!