Yeah, the gamepad movement is superior even beyond the QoL of having to click much less. If I move the stick to the right, the game clearly knows I’m moving towards the right. If I click to the right, the game has to determine if I’m telling it to attack a monster, open a crate. walk to that spot, or if I click on some rubble or something impassable in the heat of the battle, try to figure out a way to pathfind around the obstacle which sometimes leads to more frantic clicking to correct it, since my squishy mage is derping right into a pit of lava on the ground.
No such ambiguity here. If I am moving the thumbstick it’s for one thing and one thing only: move in this direction. If I want to bash something over the head, I press X.
Also, it’s amazing how much more obvious the telegraphs are and how much more natural dodging feels with a gamepad. With the typical KB/M control scheme, say I’m trying to shoot fireballs at a big scary enemy in the top right of my screen, while I’m running away towards the bottom left of my screen. To shoot a fireball, I have to move the mouse all the way to the top right and click a few times. But in order to run, the mouse cursor has to traverse the entire screen to tell my guy to start running away again. That might not sound like much (how long does it take a mouse cursor to move across the screen?), but when you factor in having to somewhat accurately aim the mouse for attacks and moves, those fractions of seconds really add up. With a gamepad, I just face the monster, hit X, and shift the thumbstick slightly. It feels so much better.
I’m so glad that a crunchy PC ARPG really took the time to develop a solid gamepad control scheme. As I’ve probably mentioned a dozen times in this thread (sorry), it’s been one of my biggest gripes with the genre… and this is coming from a gamer who wouldn’t be caught dead using a gamepad versus a mouse in the vast majority of games.