Still find parrying in games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 hard to time? Let me tell you about how a new controllers fantastic speed and micro-switch triggers transformed my timing

Date:
Thu, 05 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Description:
I thought my aged reflexes were too slow for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
then this controller with 3.5ms input latency and micro-switch dual-mode triggers changed everything.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get the TechRadar Newsletter Sign up for
breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter If youve read many of my recent gaming reviews, youll notice that theres often one reference thats peppered throughout them. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 .
In fact, if youve ever had the misfortune of getting caught in a conversation with me, youll find I reference it approximately every 6.5 seconds. It was my frontrunner for Game of the Year 2025 by a clear furlong.

And yet despite my enduring love for it, a recent acquisition has totally changed the way I play the game. When toying around with the Asus ROG Raikiri II Xbox controller for review, I found it totally changed the way I play the game and, honestly, helped me enjoy it a whole lot more. Id been missing something since the very beginning of the game, and the high-end, premium controller helped me realise why. So what was it about picking up one of the best Xbox controllers out there that proved such a game-changer? You may like Asus ROG Raikiri II Xbox review: awesome precision, blisteringly fast Razer Kitsune review: a luxurious leverless thatll take your wallet for a ride Turtle Beach Rematch Wireless Controller for Nintendo Switch 2 review: good, but not quite great Despair Obscur (Image credit: Sandfall Interactive) Its not hard to explain why Ive enjoyed Expedition 33 so much. The heyday of turn-based role-playing games (RPGs) came during my youth, when my brain was at its squishiest and most impressionable. I know were only supposed to care about action RPGs and Soulslikes these days, but Expedition 33 is a love letter to many of the games that sparked my adoration of RPGs, while having enough modern innovations to feel truly forward-looking.

Yet I have a confession to make. Despite how much I love the game, Ive been harboring a dark, shameful secret that cuts to the core of my identity. While I never wanted to admit this publicly, I feel like I can no longer hide it I kinda suck at it.

Dont get me wrong. I hold my own in battles. My builds are relatively effective, I have a good lot of synergies worked out with my skills, and I
can usually ace most of the quicktime events (QTEs). The vast majority of opponents fall at my feet, and I can master a lot of the bosses after a few humiliating deaths. So whats the issue?

In a word: parrying. Ever since I started playing, Id always felt something was slightly off with the parrying and counter mechanics I could pull them off regularly enough to be satisfying and to bring many enemies to their knees. However, I often felt like I was missing something. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

The window felt unforgiving at the best of times, and every time I came
across new enemies, Id spend most of the encounters with them learning their timings before they largely disappeared from play. I wanted to excel, but often found I got by on a painful process of repeating counters until I had the rhythm down. Later in the game, this sensation was only compounded certain bosses required almost flawless countering, and the introduction of Versos Perfection ranks meant coasting was no longer an option.

I know, I know get gud, right? But despite all the practice I got, I never quite built up the fluency I needed. And advice online didnt seem to work for me: listening out for aural cues or the way the screen zooms in just before
an attack didnt help me hit the window with enough regularity. My younger co-workers didnt seem to have any issues with it, convincing me my issue was more likely with my middle-aged brain. The old girl just aint as fast as she used to be.

But, as it turned out, the issue wasnt with my wetware. It was with my hardware. What to read next Razer Kitsune review: a luxurious leverless
thatll take your wallet for a ride Turtle Beach Rematch Wireless Controller for Nintendo Switch 2 review: good, but not quite great As someone who's been playing fighting games for over a decade, these are the fight sticks I recommend for when a standard controller just won't cut it Hes got control again (Image credit: Future) Ridiculous as it is, I dont actually spend a lot of money on gaming accessories. Despite owning a mid-weight gaming PC, an
Xbox Series X, and a Steam Deck , when it comes to choosing between games and accessories, Ill choose games every time. As a result, Ive got a Steam
library full of uncompleted games, and yet Ive always used my PC with the cheapest controller I could get my hands on. Yes, I know: I can literally
hear your eyes rolling from here.

Fortunately, TechRadar Gamings managing editor has been dragging me kicking and screaming into the 2020s one accessory review at a time. And it was as a part of this gradual reeducation process that I recently tested out a new pro controller for Xbox and PC: the Asus ROG Raikiri II Xbox Controller.

When I test any gaming accessory, Ill always try it out with as wide a range of genres as possible. So, naturally, one of the first titles I fired up was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 .

Suddenly, something was different. Instead of getting slashed to ribbons by the Obscurs I was facing, I started deflecting their blows like a spider at the peak of his Olympic fencing career. The crack-thin parry window suddenly felt like an enormous floor-to-ceiling window, and hitting it became a far-less stressful experience. Verso finally went from an, at best,
straight-C student to regularly unleashing his most powerful attacks.

Id never previously considered that a more pro-level pad could make this much of a difference. But take a quick glance at the Raikiri IIs design and feature-set, and its easy to see why its been so transformative for my gameplay. (Image credit: Future) The most obvious is its triggers. Not only
is the Raikiri II one of the few console controllers so far to have
introduced Tunnel Magnetoresistance (TMR) sensors to its triggers promising even more sensitivity and longevity than Hall effect sensors but using Asuss Gear Link software, you can set the sensitivity window for each trigger independently. By far the biggest game changer as far as Expedition 33 is concerned, though, is their micro-switch setting, a digital setting with minimal travel that makes it easier to hammer that parry trigger much faster.

But thats not the only trick the Raikiri II has up its sleeve here. Its also
a blindingly fast controller, full stop. Thanks to its 1000Hz polling rate,
it will pick up any trigger pull or button click within 1ms. On top of this, it has a seriously low input lag of just 2.32ms when hooked up in wired mode or 3.53ms when connected via its 2.4GHz wireless mode meaning that the gains youre getting out of faster triggers arent swallowed up by lag on the digital side.

And its not only been transformative for playing Expedition 33 . Tweaking its left thumbstick curves on the Gear Link software made keeping up with the frenetic pace of Doom easier, while lengthening the sensitivity window for
the accelerator on Forza Horizon 5 gave me slightly more granular control of my speed as I hurtled around the streets of Guanajuato. As important as
speed, that increased level of sensitivity can be transformative for certain titles.

So while Im not suggesting that all your woes in gaming can be solved with a magic bullet, Ive definitely noticed how a more pro-level pad has given me more of an edge in certain titles. I may not be able to guarantee thats why youre finding the timing tricky in games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,
but its definitely worth considering if youve followed all other advice to no avail. Because sometimes that extra edge and precision can make all the difference. Today's best Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Asus ROG Raikiri II Xbox Wireless Controller deals Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 33.95 View See all prices Asus ROG Raikiri II Xbox Wireless 181.85 View See all prices We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices The best Xbox controllers Our top picks for the best Xbox gamepads

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/gaming/gaming-accessories/still-find-parrying-in-gam es-like-clair-obscur-expedition-33-hard-to-time-let-me-tell-you-about-how-a-ne w-controllers-fantastic-speed-and-micro-switch-triggers-transformed-my-timing


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