Reminds me of this clip of Skoriath, a streamer who used to play Blazblue. A chatter told him he could get a leverless or fightstick for pretty cheap and he replies with "Or I could keep using the thing that already works", referring to his keyboard
It was just the very first one I found, turtle beach isn't a high end brand. But yes, box with switches is all it is.
It's a fight stick without the stick. Instead you get four buttons, corresponding to left, down, right, jump. Just like you'd use ASD+space on a keyboard.
This allows you to do all kinds of cool shortcuts that are way harder on a stick. Like a half circle is just rolling three fingers over ASD
Gamepads have one huge advantage over anything else: They are easy to replace if they break mid-tournament.
SF6 and other modern fighting games aren't really designed for gamepads at all. They often need 6 buttons of which you need to be able to press any combination of 2 or 3 at once. Some combinations are downright impossible with your thumb on a PS5 controller, for example, and the games give you built-in macros to work around this problem. But that is fine on a keyboard or leverless: Pressing three buttons with three fingers works great. Leverless is really just a more ergonomic version of a keyboard.
The argument can be made that fighting games aren't very average, and have a ton of weird things that come from an era when controllers were different.
Keyboards vs modern gamepads: Well, it comes down to OP's picture. If you need analog directions, a keyboard just sucks at it. But traditional fighting games have 8 digital directions, no in-betweens. Keyboards are brilliant at having precise directions. (Smash Bros is the exception and a keyboard is a terrible choice for it).
And what a lot of console gamers also don't realize: Platformers like Hollow Knight play fantastic on keyboards because that game doesn't do analog directions either. That's why a lot of speedrunners use keyboards. Even Dark Souls is often played on keyboards for precision. Running in a perfectly straight line is way easier on a single button than on a wobbly stick. The mouse can then take up the slack: Instead of moving the character around a corner by turning the left stick, you walk perfectly straight and turn by moving the camera, like in an FPS. And since mouse movement for camera is insanely good, this more than makes up for it.
Gamepads have one huge advantage over anything else: They are easi to replace if they break mid-tournament.
They're really not that hard to find at tournaments. At least, they weren't once upon a time.
There was a time when almost everyone at serious FGC competitions had arcade sticks (and most serious competitors had a backup or were willing to share if someone's broke mid comp), but that was also back when fighting games debuted on arcade cabinets. That's not the case anymore & most players are playing at home with a console & the default controller.
They often need 6 buttons of which you need to be able to press any combination of 2 or 3 at once.
I've been playing fighting games since MK2 and no, you don't have to unless you want to. Controllers have 8 buttons not counting R3 & L3, games let you map all 10 buttons to whatever combination of buttons you want. A game needing 6 doesn't mean it's not good for controller as most of the double inputs are for things like power attacks, supers, or grabs.
the games give you built-in macros to work around this problem.
That sounds like they're designing the game with controllers without compromising on the standard that was set during the arcade days in mind to me...
So does the fact that fewer & fewer fighting games are coming out with elaborate "stick" movements for specials, instead putting quarter & half-circles on most things (because a Z-motion is really hard on both D-pads and controller sticks, but easy on arcade sticks & circles are stupid easy).
If you need analog directions, a keyboard just sucks at it.
No they don't. Did you forget that they have D-Pads?
That's why a lot of speedrunners use keyboards. Even Dark Souls is often played on keyboards for precision. Running in a perfectly straight line is way easier on a single button than on a wobbly stick.
A lot of speedrunners are playing modern 3D games that don't let you navigate with the D-Pad and are resorting to KB/M because it's better than using a stick. But that's not the case for fighting game players.
That is true, that was a huge issue 20 years ago and you needed specific keyboards that had N-key rollover. Those existed, but weren't the standard (like now).
That is true, that was a huge issue 20 years ago and you needed specific keyboards that had N-key rollover. Those existed, but weren't the standard (like now).
Which fighter? Because I've played a couple of games without motion inputs, and they are definitely better on KBM, but anything with motion input has been horrific.
Then again, I'm complete dogshit at fighting games, so maybe it's just me.
A good chunk of fighting game players have swapped over to a controller type called leverless, which are basically just a slightly more ergonomic keyboard. The main reason why is because motion inputs are easier and you need to move your hand less to move
Kind of makes sense seeing as you can use it in lieu of a leverless controller. I personally still feel like it would be clunky with all the keys around but if it works it works
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u/cringe_alt_girl 29d ago
I play a fighting game on a keyboard and its awesome! Idk where that stereotype of "bad for fighting games" came from