After using a lot of equipment, a few objects stay in your memory for reasons that have little to do with specifications. Sometimes a design wins you over despite limited practicality; sometimes an unattractive device becomes the thing you reach for most. This controller belongs firmly to the former category for me. It caught my attention through an unusual concept, rather than performance or widespread popularity, and that is still why I remember it.
A Limited Edition I Couldn’t Resist
The object in question is the Hori Wired Controller Light: Dragon Quest Slime Edition for PS4, released during the PlayStation 4 era. Rather than put a small character logo somewhere on an ordinary face, the design works the blue Slime’s shape into the front of the controller. That was enough to make an immediate impression on me. I liked the character treatment before I had any practical reason to want another pad.
Getting one was less straightforward. It wasn’t officially released in Korea, and I couldn’t find it locally, so I ended up ordering through Amazon Japan. I was concerned about a future failure and about keeping the collectible in good condition. With the idea of selling an extra later, I bought three together. That might sound excessive for a controller, but the satisfaction when I finally held it made the effort worthwhile to me.
The Slime Design Is the Point
The cleverest part is the position of the analog stick on the front. The left stick aligns with the Slime’s round eyes, turning a functional part of the controller into a feature of the character design. I still like that relationship whenever I look at it. It makes more sense to me as a character collectible that happens to function as a controller than as a controller chosen solely to play games.
There are practical compromises. The body is rather small for an adult with large hands, and the fit becomes less comfortable on the wrists during a long session. The cable also has to be connected each time I want to use it, which is another inconvenience. Those aren’t things I would overlook when judging an ordinary gamepad for daily use. Here, they are limitations I accept because of why I wanted the object in the first place.
Even when it isn’t being used, placing it on the desk changes the atmosphere. That visual pleasure and the satisfaction of having found it compensate for the functional shortcomings. It doesn’t need to win a comparison on performance to have a place among the things I enjoy owning. The collectible side is doing much of the work.
Why I Keep It
Finding equipment that expresses a personal preference is part of the fun of this hobby. Popular, widely used gear can be excellent, but something I had to seek out tends to remain memorable for longer. This is one of those pieces for me. Which controller has stayed with you because of how it felt to own and use it?
