Summary
I easily put thousands of hours into the fighting games, all with my trusty Qanba Obsidian, before eventually upgrading to the lovely Victrix Pro FS. While gamepads never clicked with me, and I’m very comfortable with using a stick, I was always curious about what leverless controllers were like, which brings us to theRazer Kitsune Fighter’s Edition: Akuma, my first ever all-button controller. After spending two weeks with it for review, I’m happy to state that I have been converted to the new age of fighting game peripherals.
Form Factor
One of the notable features is just how thin it is. It’s not too heavy either, nor is it too light, making it immensely portable and easy to carry and pack away. The weight distribution of the Razer Kitsune Fighter’s Edition: Akuma is just right and feels tremendous in your lap. And, all the more important, the entire bottom of the controller is a high-quality non-slip pad, ensuring it won’t slide out during intense encounters.
Aside from its ultra-slim design, the button positioning is ergonomic and feels natural, even if you’re a newcomer to the all-button controller scene like I was. While there will still be plenty of growing pains in learning an entirely new peripheral, how your hands naturally rest on its surface will offer lots of comfort, leaving the only pain experienced coming from dropped combos and a slew of losses. Hey, at least you’re going down in style!
Speaking of poor gameplay, I was impressed by how quickly I adapted to this controller. While I definitely struggled during my first few days with it, I constantly made minor adjustments and landed more and more complex and complicated combos the more I used it. I’m still far from perfect, or even as competent, but I already feel confident that it will likely be my primary choice moving forward.
Soft, Quiet, Yet Impactful Buttons
Proprietary anything always makes me uneasy, as you never know if it will be good or how easy it will be to replace things if something goes wrong. The good news here is that you’re able to, fortunately, replace these switches with any north-facing, low-profile, optical switch if something goes awry. This can be done by simply popping the keycap off, removing the switch, slotting the new one in, and snapping the keycap back on. It’s that simple. There is no need to remove the bottom of the controller, unplug wires, or any of that jazz. You can even replace the keycaps if you like, though you’d need third-party add-ons for that.
Even better news is that you will likely not have to replace anything, as these proprietary switches from Razer are rated at a staggering 100,000,000 presses. The resistance is just enough that you won’t have any accidental button presses when resting your hands, and they feel soft and springy despite being optical switches. It’s also an extremely quiet controller, with nothing but a light ‘click’ sound from each press.
You have your left, down, and right buttons near the left-center of the controller. Then, toward the right-center, you have your eight action buttons. The up button is placed just below the first action button toward the bottom-middle of the controller, which takes a bit to get used to but makes so much sense once you fully adapt to it, as placing the left, down, and right buttons directly next to one another makes motion inputs trivial to execute. The Razer Kitsune Fighter’s Edition: Akuma also offers lots of room on its surface, giving you tons of space to work with, which you love to see with any fighting game peripheral.
The Razer Kitsune Fighter’s Edition: Akuma is a premium upgrade to an already premium product. It retails at a relatively high $329.99, with the standard Razer Kitsune launched only last year at $299.99, offering the same form factor and layout as what’s presented here, but with slightly fewer bells and whistles.
Exclusive to the Razer Kitsune Fighter’s Edition: Akuma is a unique collectible box made of synthetic leather and a solid aluminum plate that serves as the controller’s surface. With splash art of Akuma dye-sublimated onto the aluminum, it’s not a mere vinyl wrapping or high-grade decal. Akuma is actually part of the metal top, making it look fantastic and feel premium when you remove it from the box.
Whether or not that’s worth the near $30 price hike is up to you, but both the standard and Fighter’s Edition: Akuma variants of the Razer Kitsune feature a locking mechanism for your USB-C cable, ensuring it won’t accidentally come unplugged during a match, and also features a lock switch that turns off the top row of the controller, making it so you cannot accidentally pause or open menus while in a game - a must-have if you attend locals or participate in tournaments.
Additionally, both models feature Razor’s Chroma RGB around the bottom edge of the controller, allowing you to customize it to your liking, while the faceplate is also replaceable, but you likely won’t want to replace the Akuma one. I would love to see a plexiglass top for the standard model that allows you to place your own art inside of it however, much like what Razer offered with their Panthera Arcade Stick, as that would further emphasize its customizability.
Unfortunately, there is one massive downside to the Razer Kitsune, which applies to both the standard and Fighter’s Edition: Akuma; they will not work on a PlayStation 4. In Razer’s defense, it doesn’t market this compatibility, but seeing as they work on a PlayStation 5 and PC and have the official Sony stamp of approval, one might assume it would work with it, but alas, it does not.
With most events and tournaments moving to the PlayStation 5, it isn’t a big deal, but some still use the PlayStation 4 as their primary console. This means you would not be able to use this controller at those events unless you own a Brook Wingman Converter, which costs an additional $45 on top of the premium asking price of the Kitsune.
It also won’t work on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, or Nintendo Switch, as it is an officially licensed PlayStation product and will only work natively for PC and PlayStation 5.
Overall, the Razer Kitsune Fighter’s Edition: Akuma is a solid controller that made me appreciate and understand the appeal of leverless controllers. The packaging is premium and the components that make up the product are phenomenal. If you’re looking for a solid all-button controller, this is as good as it gets if you have the funds to drop on it. Aside from the growing pains in your gameplay and your wallet, the Razer Kitsune Fighter’s Edition: Akuma should serve you tremendously well for years to come and level up your game if you hone your skills with the new age of play.
Razer Kitsune Fighter’s Edition: Akuma
The Razer Kitsune Fighter’s Edition: Akuma is a premium, all-button controller compatible with the PlayStation 5 and PC. It offers 12 low-profile optical switches for unrivaled feel and precision.
