I’ve used hundreds of controllers, and while the recent string of ‘pro controllers’ with extra buttons and fancy RGB lighting have been interesting, none of them have really justified the extra price tag for me. But the Asus ROG Raikiri II is one of the few pro controllers that feels just as good as a regular Xbox Series X or PS5 gamepad – and without the added weight of Microsoft’s Elite controllers.
Because rather than iterating on some of the more bizarre design decisions of its predecessor, the Raikiri II basically takes the comfortable controller part of the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X and just, well, makes it into a full-blown controller. That makes it a natural companion for the handheld gaming PC for anyone that’s using it to play on a TV or gaming monitor, but even without the Ally, the Raikiri II is just a damn fine gamepad.
Design and Features
At first glance, the Asus ROG Raikiri II looks like pretty much any other third-party Xbox controller. However, look closer, and there are a few more face buttons than would otherwise be there. Just like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X that came out last year, the Raikiri II has extra menu buttons, with one on the top left, next to the Xbox button, meant to bring up the Asus Armoury Crate software, and the library button on the other side that is meant to bring up the library tab of the Xbox full screen experience.
Here’s the catch, though: these buttons straight up don’t do anything on a standard gaming PC. Asus even has a piece of software that you can download to give the Raikiri II the same functionality as the controller on the Xbox Ally X, but in my testing it only works on, well, the Xbox Ally X. That’s great for anyone plugging their Xbox Ally X into their TV to play from the couch – you’re going to get the same functionality as in handheld mode. But if you’re buying this controller for your PC, you’re going to have two essentially useless buttons on the controller. But, hey, at least they don’t actually do anything when you accidentally hit them.
Aesthetically, the Asus ROG Raikiri II borrows a lot from Asus’ latest handheld, too. It has the same black colorway, and you can even look up close and it has the same tiny “ROG Xbox” lettering on the front of the peripheral.
And of course, being an import from the Republic of Gamers, this controller has plenty of RGB lighting. There are three zones of lighting, one in the middle, in the shape of the ROG logo, and then a stripe on either side of the controller. By default, the lighting has the standard blinking rainbow effect, but you can customize it using Asus’ Gear Link web portal. Asus isn’t the first company to move hardware management to a web app, but it is much better than having some heavy software always running in the background on your PC – at least if you have a stable internet connection.
The software does allow you to customize button assignments and even the response curve of your thumbsticks. However, the paddles on the back of the controller can only be assigned to one of the existing controller buttons. That is useful, especially if you’re playing a game that requires you to press buttons while you’re moving or something, but I would have liked to see some kind of macro support here. Just let me assign button combinations to the paddles – it would, for instance, make playing Final Fantasy XIV on a controller a bit easier.
Much like other ‘pro’ controllers like the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, the Raikiri II does allow you to swap out the thumbsticks. There is an extra set of thumbsticks included in the box, but they’re very long.
The controller also comes with a charging stand, which wirelessly charges the controller via some POGO pins on the back. The stand fits nice and snug in the included carrying case with a hole in the back for the USB-C cable, much like the Xbox Elite Controller, but Asus also includes little feet that let you set it up wherever you want.
I’d actually recommend taking the stand out of the carrying case and setting it up somewhere near your gaming setup. The charging stand has a little USB port in the front of it, which you can use to connect the 2.4GHz dongle. Then, you can just place it somewhere out in the open, and you won’t have to worry about the signal from the dongle being interrupted by anything.
Gaming and Performance
The Asus ROG Raikiri II is one of the few controllers out there right now that are using Tunneling Magnetoresistance, or TMR sensors. Just like Hall Effect, these sensors use magnets to more accurately track your inputs, they’re just a bit more power efficient. While it would have been enough to have these TMR sensors just in the analog sticks, the Raikiri II also has them in the triggers, which means both should stay accurate for years.
I obviously didn’t test this controller for years, just a couple of weeks, but even in that short time, I’ve been impressed by just how snappy this controller is. The analog sticks have this springiness to them that feels incredible – giving just enough resistance to feel like I’m moving something, without feeling like I’m fighting against them.
The triggers likewise feel incredibly accurate, especially when trying to drive around in Cyberpunk 2077, where the half-presses help me control the throttle of my car. You can also change the actuation point of the triggers with little switches on the back, but there are just two settings – all the way down and half-way. To this day, having a high-end controller stop the trigger press half-way down just feels weird, but it’s likely a boon for professional FPS players.
The face buttons, on the other hand, use micro switches, rather than TMR sensors, and they still feel incredibly responsive. However, the buttons are incredibly clicky, and they can get quite loud if you’re really mashing them. In the two weeks or so I’ve been using the controller, though, it hasn’t missed a click, so at least it’s reliable. And the micro switches will probably keep the buttons quick and responsive for quite a while.
It all comes together to a controller that just feels good to use. I’ll admit that I’m no esports pro, but even spending time in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, I’ve noticed a difference just in how smooth the camera moves when I’m using the right analog stick. And unlike something like the Xbox Elite controller, it’s not too heavy, so it doesn’t start to weigh me down after a long gaming session.
And you’re going to be able to get some long gaming sessions out of this controller, too. Asus claims that the ROG Raikiri II will last up to 50 hours on a single charge. I’m not going to sit there for 50 hours straight to see if the controller meets those claims, but I have only run out of battery once in two weeks of very heavy usage.
The battery could potentially last even longer, too, but its sleep behavior is strange. After sitting idle for a while, the lighting will turn off, but the controller will stay on. There have been a couple of times where, out of instinct, I picked the controller up and went to hit the Xbox button to turn it back on, only for the Game Bar to pop up. Annoying, but that’s something I got used to after a few days.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
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