HORI Fighting Commander OCTA - Tournament Grade Fightpad for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC - Officially Licensed by Sony

The media could not be loaded. I bought this controller twice (one for a backup). I waited before reviewing to break in the controller and test it.Pros:The Dpad Input. The inputs for the Dpad are extremely accuracte. Circular movements are consistent. I play tekken and Korean Back Dash, Wave Dash, Side step cancels and other movements are very consistent. It feels like it goes to neutral a bit faster than the ps5 controller (my opinion).The Six button layout feels great. Very similar to mouse clicks.L3 and R3 shoulder buttons.On this controller the L3 and R3 are the left shoulder buttons. Some six button layouts don’t have this option. Be careful though, because some fighting games like Mortal Kombat 1 do not allow you to map to L3 or R3 so the shoulder buttons will be useless in that case.Very light.Some peope may not like the fact that this controller is light. However, I prefer a lighter controller because it’s easier to hold the controller for long periods of time when playing claw style if you do not use your lap. If you are rough on your contollers this device can feel a bit fragile and may not be for you.Cons:The feel of the physical Dpad.The physical dpad feels horrible when your thumb is not directly in the concave section of the pad. I have callouses on my thumbs already from playing fighting games and it was tearing my skin on the edges. After sanding down the dpad edges and corners to my liking using 400 grit sandpaper, I sprayed a clear coat over it. Afterwards, it is literally the best dpad I’ve ever used. For people not willing to crack open the controller to do this, it is a HUGE con.No L3 R3 switch.In the Playstation 4 Version of the fighting commander you were able to hit a switch that will change your bumpers to be used for L3/R3, L1/L2 and R1/R2 etc but now you are no longer able to do that. I wish that feature was available.Summary:This is a great controller and I strongly recommend it. The feel of the dpad is a huge con for me but after sanding it down to my liking it feels great. It would be cool if Hori offered different dpad options. Great product!

I already have a fight stick and a fight pad but the form factor of a 6 button controller has been my jam since the Genesis days. The micro switches are clicky and responsive, and the Dpad is perfect in my opinion. The stick is also good, as it’s made me realize my bqc on analog has always been sloppy. The lock switch on the back is a great addition; I had to use it within the first 5 minutes of labbing. Looking forward to seeing how long this controller lasts me. Definitely would recommend 🤌🏿

When you first use the pad, it feels crisp. VERY crisp, almost too snappy. A few hours will get it nice and comfy, though, and during this period I absolutely loved the feel of it. The pad is shallow and precise. The buttons are stable, clicky, and take only a light press. It has a unique feel when compared to Hori's older FC4 and Fighting Commander models, but still retains that lineage. I will also say that it's definitely the lightest controller they've made, and not necessarily in a good way. It could stand to weigh a few more ounces for stabiltiy.After many hours of use (maybe 200-300?) I noticed some directional input errors that didn't feel right, so took a closer look. It turns out the thresholds were developing some looseness, so the slightest leftward pressure would make my down inputs flicker between down and down-left. Obviously no good for a fighting game.This problem would be game over for any other controller, but Hori makes a companion app that allows you to tweak the sensitivity of every input, so I reduced the sensitivity of the diagonals by about 20% and the problem disappeared. It's set and I can play Tekken completely normally again, no input errors. Pretty awesome, even if the app for the PS5 controller is a little strange: the Hori website links you to a Google drive, of all places. It's the real app and it works, but it seems... weird. They host the Xbox version of the app on their own site.I feel like $60 was worth the controller I got, even if it has had a few small issues. If you've bought fightpads before, you know they don't last forever. It's just plastic, and we do tend to punish them. The Hori Octa is an economical way to enjoy your favorite fighting games with a better-than-normal controller.

It's a really good controller for the price point. It's flexible, has a lot of nice features such as a headphone jack, ps5/ps4/and PC compatibility, etc. The way the buttons and triggers are laid out feels real nice and is good for modern fighting games that seem to require more buttons.The one knock is I tend to want to replace them every 9 months or so, but they get hundreds of hours of use in that time. Sometimes the Dpad can start to fail to read diagonals properly after enough time. I still like it enough to just replace it, and I'm on my 3rd one.For $50 it's hard to be too critical of that, and I think they might be working on a revised model in the future that might alleviate that concern. I'm very interested in that when it gets announced.I like it way more than the PS5 dual sense, more than the DS4, and it's got some pros and cons compared to the older Fighting Commanders they used to make (which are harder to find).The main alternative people go with is the Victrix, but that's roughly $300 more.