HORI Fighting Commander Octa Designed for Xbox Series X|S By - Officially Licensed by Microsoft - Xbox Series X

I played on the PS4 FC for the last 2 years and, to it's credit, it held up to the punishment (around 1500 hours of SFV and various other fighters on both PS4 and PC) but eventually, it's buttons just kinda stopped working. So I decided to jump to the Octo here with my fingers crossed since I play mostly on PC these days and was pleasantly surprised. I couldn't tell you if it will stand the test of time or not, but for the price, I'm not terribly worried. You simply cannot get a controller (of any kind) of this quality at this pricepoint. This one has excellent MECHANICAL buttons that are simply a joy to press. If you love those fight stick buttons, you're going to be a happy camper with this pad. Reception on the D-Pad is mixed, but I love it. My only complaints are that the D-Pad cross has hard edges which can hurt my thumb after hours of continuous play and that it does NOT have the mechanical actuation that the buttons have. I would have happily paid another 10-20 bucks if that was the case, as it feels a little odd to have clicky feedback on one side of the controller but not on the other. But I still give this controller 5-stars despite my hair-splitting complaints. It could be better, but it's still best-of-class. It's great. You should get one.

You're going to hear a lot of negative talk about this product's D-Pad. I was used to a more traditional playstation or NES style cross pad, and this one did in fact initially hurt my thumb when I started using it. However, after a couple days of use, the pain went away, and the controller continued to outperform my arcade stick, nailing inputs and letting me bind Parry and Drive Impact to the right shoulders, and taunt to the Left shoulder. The D-Pad doesn't cause any pain for me personally anymore. The analog stick is a nice option for running around in World Tour. Camera controls are a little wonky in this mode without a right stick but it is what it is. This eight way stick gives the game pad more usability as a general use PC controller for different types of games. I have two of these... the first was unknowingly shipped from another country so it took awhile, I ordered one locally and they happened to arrive together. I ended up having an account on PC and an account on Xbox so I just kept them both and I love them. I do better than on a fight stick or a stock controller. Important note, however... you MUST update the controller's firmware or it will drop diagonal inputs on the D-Pad. You can do this by running an app called HORI Device Manager while the controller is plugged in. You can also remap some controls this way, although I believe duplicate bindings are not allowed. The only thing better than this is gonna be an old Xbox One Fighting Commander... and frankly while that had a better D-Pad technically, it wasn't better by a whole lot, and it goes for 250 dollars or more on auction sites and will come used of course, presumably without a long life span ahead of it. The Octa is your best, most affordable option if you don't play on PlayStation or Switch (those systems have other options). It's a much better option than people reviewing it poorly would lead you to believe, though. Good enough that it's my main fight pad for PC fighting games as well. The clicky micro switches in the face buttons are a very nice touch as well.

UPDATE: Original review below but I gotta knock this down to a 1-star. I've got a few dozen hours into this thing now and the dpad is definitely trash. Unlike most bad daps, instead of the corners being bad, it would seem that the cardinal directions are the problem. Which is weird. Even worse, the pad requires a significant hold to keep the input. If you let off even slightly, it'll release back to neutral (or start bouncing back-and-forth with the corner input, which is not good). So I'm killing my thumb just trying to maintain, say, a down input. It's sad because I do like everything else about the pad. This dpad just ain't cuttin it. Giving this a tentative 3-star. The biggest issue for the Hori FC is still the dpad; however, this current iteration is at least better than the redesign one they did with the FC4. My rating is tentative because I can already tell that I'll need to put in some significant time to break in the pad. Right now, it's incredibly stiff, so there are a lot of dropped inputs for certain complex sequences. This could definitely get better once it loosens up, or it could get worse. (Although it still confused the **** out of me that they ever moved away from the original FC4 dpad design. That was one of the best dpad's ever, and right out of the box, too.) I also don't know how the dpad will hold up over time, so it could be low quality and just wear out. We'll have to see. So again, this could go to 5, could go down to 1, just need more hours on it. Otherwise, it's a solid controller. A little light in weight, but still seems to be solid construction. Buttons are all nice and responsive. Really no other complaints than the dpad. I'll also note briefly that I'm a life-long pad player. I see a lot of reviews from stick players; my main controller has always been pad, so I've tried a ton of different brands and styles of pad, including Hori contemporaries like the PowerA Fusion and Razer Raion (which I've reviewed here on amazon). Hori is still way better than those, but Hori is just a ways from the insanely awesome pad that was the original FC4. Take from that what you will.

I've been using this pad to play SF6 with (using classic controls) and I feel the negative reviews are overblown. I never had any problems with the controller in terms of inputs (though I did buy mine after the firmware update so that could be why). I've found this controller to have the most accurate and comfortable D-Pad I've used for a long time. The only issue I had is that the Xbox version of the software didn't work properly for me, and I couldn't tweak the D-pad settings at all. I just decided to return it and get the PS version since I play on PC. If you're on PC as well, I'd suggest getting the PS version for less of a headache regarding that. Build-wise the controller is perfect for if you have larger hands. A lot of pads out there are very small, and ended up hurting my hands despite me liking the feel of the pad and buttons on them. With this one I had no hand pain and as said before, the pad is very accurate. I never get any misinputs that aren't the result of my own error. The buttons are clicky and easy to press down, which I personally like as well but some may find them too easy to press, causing errors. The trigger buttons feel...okay. They aren't terrible by any means but they aren't the most deluxe feeling. The control stick on the controller I haven't used much, but when I have it feels pretty nice to use, the gate is appreciated on it, though I don't think you should be using the stick for fighting games, but if you really like to do so, this is a good option for that. I imagine it'd be really good for those who play charge characters, too. But again I haven't used it much myself as I prefer the d-pad. All in all I think this is a great pad that people are too harsh on. Just do yourself a favor if you're a PC player and just get the PS version. It'll save you some headache.

UPDATE 6/7/2021 - The app for the controller was updated some time ago, and now properly remaps buttons. However, there are durability issues with the pad. The triggers seem to have some alarming weak points, and will snap off after some use. This is considering my use of the controller is fairly light. The controller was great, up until this point. Original Review: The Fighting Commander Octa is easily the best fightpad I've used thus far. Everything about it is absolute bliss, and does everything you would want out of a fightpad. It has one glaring negative (For now though!), but the positives absolutely overwhelm that specific issue. The Fighting Commander design has seen another major overhaul, and everything about it screams that the company has put in a lot of effort to make the Octa the definitive fightpad. The fightpad shape takes a much more traditional shape, and feels very akin to the DualSense in the hands. The 6 face buttons use microswitches, and have a short travel distance, making for improved response times and a more tactile feel to them. The shoulder buttons have been given a redesign, and feel much better than the previous Fighting Commanders, which felt extremely cheap in comparison. The d-pad is a massive departure from past controllers, sporting a fully circular design. It's not quite a floating d-pad, though, which isn't a negative at all. Being the most important piece of a fightpad, it absolutely delivers. It has an extremely clean response to it, and feels very sturdy overall. In my opinion, it may overtake the Sega Saturn as the best d-pad in existence. It's that good. My execution in fighting games is fairly lackluster, but the pad registers my inputs so cleanly, I'm able to do things like KBDs in Tekken much more consistently than ever before. Overall, the controller feels great to use! Hori has added in some new features to the Fighting Commander, with the most obvious being the reason behind the "Octa": the analog stick. The Octa's analog stick has clearly been designed to be used for fighting games, as it has notches that form an octagonal shape. This allows you to feel where your analog's positions are on the controller, and gives it a feeling of feedback that you're in the right position. The notches are smooth enough that they don't get in the way of your inputs, and I'd argue makes them feel better to perform. The stick's travel range is also very short, and there's a lot of resistance in the stick itself, so getting quick and clean motions with should be much easier than other controllers. Another new feature is profile customization. Hori released an app that allows you to customize up to 4 profiles on the Octa, which you can switch on the controller itself by using the profile switch button. There's an LED that indicates which profile you're currently using, so you'll never get lost on your current profile. The app allows you to remap your buttons and even tune the d-pad's sensitivity. Unfortunately, the app needs some work, as there's quite a bit of limitation to the buttons that can be remapped (you cannot remap ABXY directly), and remapping is very messy and does not allow for specific configurations, as the app will swap unaffected buttons. Hopefully there is a fix soon for this. The Octa also has a headset jack, with mic and headphone controls both in the app and on the controller itself. I have not tested this, so I cannot give an opinion on it, however. The controller also supports firmware updates, which is pretty important, as some Octas released with d-pad issues. The update that fixes this can be found on Hori's site under the Support page, and I'd highly advise applying the latest firmware to fix this. Overall, the Octa has far exceeded my expectations as a controller. It currently has one major issue, being the configuration app. However, that aside, the fightpad just may be the greatest released yet. I'd highly recommend it as a fighting game player, and you may even find some use out of it for other retro games. Will update this review in the future if any problems such as durability pop up.

I bought this controller to try out the octagon analog stick and it's mechanical switches to play Guilty Gear Strive when it released. I enjoyed my time with it until one of the triggers snapped from use. THE GOOD: The face buttons feel great. They feel quick and responsive with the satisfying mechanical click from micro switch buttons used. I have no complaints about the face buttons and Hori should continue using this going forward for their gamepads. The octagon analog stick feels very smooth and the notches give great tactile feedback when finding precision. Half circle forward motions feel great and easy to do on this. This alone was the reason why I bought the controller and it exceeded my expectations. THE BAD: The D-Pad does not feel good. The D-Pad on the Hori Commander felt much better. The shape and design of the Octa D-Pad doesn't feel comfortable and having to rely on the app to change sensitivity doesn't reduce how the D-Pad actually feels. These triggers feel extremely cheap when compared to the micro switch face buttons. Obviously they're cheap too if one broke after only two months of frequent use. In my case it was the R2 button as it's my dash macro in GGST but it probably would've broke just as soon if I had this during my peak play time in Dragonball FighterZ. Obviously you can forego these and use the face buttons for R2 but there's besides the point. The triggers just aren't of the same quality as the rest of controller and should not break these easily after only two months when my Hori Commander is still standing just fine after almost an entire year of consistent fighting game, 2D side scroller and platformer use. THE UNUSED: I never actually used more than one profile to change settings and I didn't feel a need to. So having to configure different profiles felt like an unnecessary feature for me personally. D-Pad sensitivity was never used either because I just didn't like the way the D-Pad felt. If it was more comfortable I might have messed around with this more. Mic and Headset was not used by me since I just hooked it up to my tower, but this is still a nice feature for those who used this on an Xbox or whenever Hori decides to put this on a Sony console as well. OVERALL THOUGHTS This is like two steps forward and two steps back from the Hori Commander for me. The triggers and D-Pad got worse but the face buttons and additional analog stick are great. If Hori can put out an upgraded model that fixes these two issues I will definitely buy one to try it out and see if it becomes my definitive fighting game controller.

This HORI Commander Octa Xbox controller is Amazing. As of this review on 12/1/23 - it’s an official Xbox authorized 3rd party controller that is supported after they took access away support from other 3rd party controllers last month. It’s especially great to use with Sega Saturn / Genesis / CPS systems (Street Fighter Arcade cabs, 6 buttons fighters etc) - I bought this specifically to use on my Xbox Series X in dev mode to play Sega Saturn games proper on the Retroarch Emulator; and couldn’t be happier. This was the layout of the original Saturn controller too with a couple extra triggers for quality of life mappings. The D-pad is really nice and responsive. Same with the analog stick, it’s like perfect - I didn’t even have to install HORI’s custom software to make custom tweaks to the D-pad settings and folder presets. It all felt right straight out of the box. Buttons are quick and responsive, They barely need to be pressed to register an input. Took a little to get used to that. But, there’s basically no lag because it’s a wired controller with a 10 foot long cord. The wire also has a safety break away if it gets tugged too hard so that it won’t pull your hardware off the shelf with it. Only issue is there’s no rumble support. But the Sega Saturn never came with rumble controllers anyway. Also this controller is great for N64 mappings as they had 6 face buttons with one analog stick on their original trident shaped controller in the 90’s. If you like retro games and fighting games, then you’ll love his controller. 11 out of 10. Highly recommended.

I am returning this product because it doesn't feel right for me. There's honestly nothing wrong with this, but even after a few days I just can't get used to this controller. Pro's: - Price point is a steal for a new pad, definitely better than Razer - Build quality is superb and has a very solid feel on hands - Attack and movement input buttons have a clicky feel to it - Four controller presets, also you could use side buttons for movement inputs (if you're into that) - I don't usually use left directional stick for fighting games, however testing it out I noticed that you have to put more pressure when applying an input in comparation to the official Series S/X controller and DualSense controller Cons: - My only con, and this is coming from personal preference, but the directional pad is abysmal. · It is similar to and reminds me of the Xbox 360 directional pad; I hated playing fighting games on that pad but if you can play on that pad without misinputs then more power to you and I would recommend that you should definitely get this controller because it is an absolute steal for the price. I'm just sad that Hori could not replicate the directional pad the Xbox Series S/X had. If they ever update the directional pad to have that feel or even better, or if they ever come out with a Sony version of this with a directional pad that feels just the same or better then I'm all in.

La Marca hori siempre me a gustado hace muchos años compré el hori tac y funciona perfectamente y este mando es una pasada el tacto suave los botones tipo click súper preciso, buen mando buena marca

Ótimo controle, de qualidade e durável

This controller won't work properly until you go into Hori settings and adjust the dpad sensitivity. After that it's pretty good, and the additional buttons are great.

Street Fighter 6 için almıştım, yaklaşık 1.5 - 2 aydır da kullanıyorum. 3 dizilimli tuş sistemi olması SF için zaten olmazsa olmaz seviyede bir özellik. Stick kısmının mesafesi normal Xbox koluna göre kısa olduğu için move inputlar daha hızlı çıkıyor. Canavar gibi DP çektiriyor. Ayrıca Stick kısmı 8 köşesinden tırtıklı bir yapıya sahip, bu yüzden hangi yöne çevirdiğinizi anlamak daha rahat. Ancak bu tırtıklı yapı stick'i daha hızlı aşındırıyor, bakalım nereye kadar gidecek. :) Tuşlar inanılmaz yumuşak, basma hissiyatı çok güzel. İkili basmalar (Ex atarken veya kapma, DI gibi şeyler yaparken) Xbox koluna göre daha rahat. RSB ve LSB tuşlarını sol omuz kısmına koymuşlar. Bu yüzden oyun içinde onlara da bir takım şeyler atayarak daha hızlı hareketler yapabiliyorsunuz. Mesela ben RSB'ye drive parry aradım, elimi hali hazırda vurma tuşlarından çekmeden parry veya rush yapabiliyorum. Dpad tarafında net Xbox daha iyi. Bazen dpad'in çıkıntılarına tırnağım takılıyor, belki sadece bana özgüdür ama olabiliyor. Kontrolcü aşırı hafif, kablosu kontrolcüden daha ağır. Kablosuz bağlama seçeneği yok ama kablo yeterince uzun. Sanırım 3m kadar var. Kolda eksik hiçbir şey yok. Bence Tekken için de gayet kullanılabilir bir kol ama ben daha çok Street Fighter için aldım. Mortal Kombat'a sanki normal gamepad daha iyi gidermiş gibi duruyor ancak bilmiyorum, ondan çok emin değilim. Street fighter 6'yı da modern layout ile oynuyorsanız, yine normal Xbox veya DS kolu ile devam etmeniz daha iyi olabilir. Bu kolu daha çok classic layout ile SF oyuncuları ve Tekken oyuncuları için önerebilirim ama SF için gerçekten süper oldu.

Great controller. The d-pad allows for super clean inputs (For example, I can easily slide my thumb across it to get a clean back -> forward motion without accidentally hitting the up or down buttons, unlike standard controllers) and the extra buttons means you don't have to do finger gymnastics on 6-button fighters. The controller plastic does feel pretty light and cheap, but it's not really that big of a deal as long as it's functional. It's a lot easier to land combos without messing up inputs with this controller compared to other pads.