A PS2 Katana Controller Mod Is Officially the Coolest Way to Play Ghost Of Tsushima

Ghost of Tsushima
(Image credit: Sony)

A YouTuber has found a way to play Ghost of Tsushima with an old PS2 Katana controller.

Ghost of Tsushima is a game all about living out your ultimate Samurai fantasy. From its pleasingly authentic Japanese audio tracks to the blood-soaked cherry blossoms swaying in the wind, Sucker Punch’s open-world opus has it all…. except the ability to slay Mongol invaders by swinging an actual katana. Thankfully then, Youtuber Super Louis 64 has done his best to rectify that -- turning the immersion up to 11 by modding an old motion-controlled PS2 controller to work with the PS4 exclusive. 

Originally launching alongside 2004 PS2 game Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, this hefty motion-controlled beauty houses a Dual Shock 2 controller - complete with analogue sticks - splitting the face buttons evenly between the front and rear grip of the sword’s hilt. This cleverly designed piece of plastic activates the triangle button with a swing of the sword, working with the likes of Sekiro right off the bat.

As you may expect from a 16-year-old controller, however, the analogue stick didn’t fully (or accurately) detect motion inputs initially, leaving each swing feeling a little janky. Yet like a true ronin, Louis knew that his honour was at stake here, so he opted to mod the katana, swiftly managing to map Ghost of Tsushima’s light attack to each real-world sword swing. Impressively, he even managed to get the game’s heavy attack, sword sheathing and parry to work with this glorious controller.

We don’t know about you, but we’re suddenly feeling pretty underwhelmed by our Dualshock 4...

For more, check out the biggest new games of 2020 and beyond still on the way.

Tom Regan
Freelance Writer

Tom is a freelance journalist and former PR with over five years worth of experience across copy-writing, on-camera presenting, and journalism.

Named one of the UK games industry’s rising stars by Gamesindustry.biz, Tom has been published by world-leading outlets such as: Fandom, The Guardian, NME, Ars Technica, GamesRadar, Engadget, IGN, Techradar, Red Bull, and EDGE.

Latest in Adventure
an ai chatbot plays a modded verion of pokemon red and jumps down a ledge to talk to an npc
An AI's mission to 'teach' itself Pokemon Red is going as well as you think - after escaping Cerulean City after tens of hours, it went right on back
Pokemon Legends Z-A screenshot showing Mega Charizard
Pokemon Legends Z-A's visuals aren't "great" say former Nintendo marketing leads, but hope Switch 2 could allow Game Freak to "go back to the drawing board" and add more detail to future RPGs
Screenshot of Herdling, showing the weird yaks heading toward a sunset horizon.
With 18,000 glowing Steam reviews on their lovely debut game, this indie team's game about leading cute fantasy yaks up a mountain is instantly one to watch
The two characters in Split Fiction holding their hands up in surrender in a futuristic city
Split Fiction, the new game from the It Takes Two devs, launches to Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam and is the highest rated game on Metacritic this year
Exploring and fighting in Blades of Fire
Blades of Fire plays like a lost Xbox 360-era mashup between God of War and Soulslikes, and it's coming from the studio behind Metroid Dread
Pokemon Legends: Z-A screenshot
Pokemon Legends: Z-A looks to finally bring my anime-inspired dreams of truly active combat to life
Latest in News
Original Xbox console
Former Microsoft exec says the first Xbox was killed early in favor of 360 because it was "losing money left right and center," but luckily "we could afford to hemorrhage cash"
A Monster Hunter Wilds character holding binoculars.
Despite Monster Hunter Wilds suffering monstrous performance problems on PC, it still outsold the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in the US
Jordan A. Mun looks at herself in a mirror in just a vest in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet screenshot
The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann says Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will also be about "being lonely," as if his zombie apocalypse wasn’t isolating enough: "I really want you to be lost"
A screenshot of Jordan drinking a soda during the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Hertic Prophet.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2
Pedro Pascal as Joel in The Last of Us
The Last of Us is "better" than 28 Days Later, says movie writer Alex Garland: "This is so much more sophisticated and moving"
Atelier Ryza 3 protagonist closeup
JRPG producer says people prefer their anime girls to have thick thighs when the economy's in the tank, and he's not even joking a little bit