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The story
On 5ch’s Hardware & Industry board (Gaming Hardware), users have raised a string of complaints about the official Pro Controller for the Nintendo Switch 2 (Pro Controller 2), claiming that pressing the D-pad diagonally often registers the wrong direction. Some reported repeated move-input mistakes while playing “Dusk Blood,” and others recommended switching to third-party pads like 8BitDo. Meanwhile, other posters shared image guides on the “correct” way to hold the D-pad, sparking a broader discussion about workarounds.
What people said
Same here (literally me).
When I was testing Dusk Blood, I meant to press left but it registered down, so I threw a Molotov at my own feet and took damage.
I bought an 8BitDo Ultimate 2 as a replacement and honestly prefer it — it's all I use now, on PC and Switch alike.
Re: #9
Right?!
Those clicky, separated D-pad buttons are easier to press and harder to misinput.
I like the Xbox controller for the same reason — I wish more pads did it that way.
So that means you've moved on to Switch 2 and aren't playing on the original Switch anymore.
Quite different from the barrier of not buying a PS5 or a PS5 Pro.
You're actually playing on a Switch 2?
Show me the Pro Controller.
If you're going to run a smear campaign, you should change your ID (5ch's daily poster tag) — you're bad-mouthing Nintendo in other threads too.
I'm not Re: #3 posting under a different name or anything.
All I'm saying is, if you're playing Dusk Blood, the Pro Controller is absolute garbage.
It's obvious Nintendo never designed for intense games where you work the left stick and the D-pad at the same time.
Even now that FromSoftware has joined the Nintendo family, the hardware foundation for core gamers just isn't there.
It's impressive that you don't feel anything off about that one.
Are diagonals and fine adjustments really that easy and natural on it?
For diagonals you'd just use the stick, no?
You operate it with the pad of your thumb.
Given the drift issues, they should've switched to a contactless stick design.
I haven't really heard about drift issues with either the Joy-Con 2 or the Pro Controller 2, so I think it's safe to say they properly fixed that.
This is the correct thumb placement for the D-pad.
PlayStation's directional buttons are split in the middle, so if you operate them with the pad of your thumb, the corners dig in and it hurts.
Re: #49
Like this — you rest your thumb joint right on the center.
The only thing you'd even use it for is Tetris 99, right?
I use it constantly in Dusk Blood.
Plenty of Soulslike games use it regularly.
Call of Duty and Battlefield use it heavily too.
In hectic PvP games, the 'Monster Hunter claw grip' (holding the pad with fingers wrapped to hit face buttons and D-pad at once) ends up being essential.
So in the end the PS default layout is the way to go —
competitive scene players don't bother with all those extra buttons on cheap Chinese multi-button pads.
All of them, lol.
Huh?
The Joy-Con's separated D-pad buttons can't really misinput though.
That's a 'directional button,' not technically a 'cross-shaped button' though.
The Joy-Con's D-pad is officially called a 'cross-shaped button'
Nintendo's own materials list it as '十字ボタン' (cross button).
It's not like you can only own one pad — use whichever fits the game.
https://jpeg.men/1IvU6CDJMHf.jpg
And this is for a super hectic PvP game?
FromSoftware clearly never actually play-tested it, lol (or so I hear).
Way too much load is put on the Y button.
It's rough unless you can work the stick with the base of your finger while also pressing buttons.
The left-hand side is a dealbreaker.
https://www.nintendo.com/jp/hardware/switch/accessories/img/controller/img-spec-fc-01.webp
And yet, for some reason, the Nintendo fanboys ('Nishi-kun') are denying that it's called a D-pad.
Doesn't it literally say 'cross-shaped button' (十字ボタン)…?
Re: #174
Okay, this is actually hilarious.
Handhelds are always full of shape compromises.
On the Vita, the buttons and stick don't interfere with each other.
For handheld form factors, neither symmetrical nor asymmetrical layouts really work.
Maybe putting both sticks up top like the Wii U GamePad would be better.
And yeah, it's probably an impossible ask either way.
Background and Key Points
Nintendo’s Pro Controller for the Switch 2 carries over a design lineage that goes back to the GameCube and Wii Classic Controller: a single molded cross-shaped pad (十字ボタン, literally “cross button”) rather than four discrete buttons. The Joy-Con 2, by contrast, uses separate buttons for each direction simply because there isn’t room in the slim controller body for a rocking cross piece — not because Nintendo redesigned the concept for accuracy. This distinction matters because the thread conflates the two: posters point to the Joy-Con’s discrete buttons as proof Nintendo “could” fix the Pro Controller, without acknowledging the different engineering constraint behind each. “Dusk Blood” is a new FromSoftware action title for Switch 2, and its fast, D-pad-heavy control scheme (special-move switching, item use) is what’s exposing the diagonal-misinput problem that more casual, menu-only D-pad use (Tetris 99, digital movement) would never surface.
The thread doesn’t split over whether misinputs happen — multiple posters confirm them — but over whether that’s a hardware flaw or a grip problem, with a “correct thumb placement” guide offered as a fix rather than an admission of a design fault, alongside a side-argument over PlayStation’s segmented cross pad being objectively better.
What’s missing is context: this diagonal-misinput complaint about Nintendo’s one-piece D-pad is decades old, not a Switch 2-specific defect, so readers shouldn’t assume this is a new manufacturing problem. Also unaddressed: reports of Joy-Con 2 stick drift exist in the wider press, despite one poster’s claim that drift was “properly fixed” this generation.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware & Industry / Gaming Hardware) thread “Why isn’t anyone criticizing the Switch 2 Pro Controller’s D-pad even though it’s industrial waste?“
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