The idea was simple. In Final Fantasy XIV, Astrologians use cards. Yu-Gi-Oh! characters use cards. Why not combine the two?
That was the original idea behind Twitch streamer Super Louis 64’s latest project, in which he customised a Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Disk so that the cards could be pulled in FFXIV. But Super Louis 64 did not mod Final Fantasy XIV. Instead, he customised the Duel Disk and then mapped the controls to it.
Each of the first four slots on the Duel Disk corresponds to a party member in FFXIV (he could’ve had five, but didn’t work on that extra slot). Drawing certain Yu-Gi-Oh! cards then triggers buffs in FFXIV.
On Twitter, Super Louis 64 said the hardest part was somehow figuring out how to make the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards conductive because he didn’t actually change anything in in-game. Rather, he needed to assign buffs to each Yu-Gi-Oh! card and did so by using conductive paint, which he discovered while making the build. “I thought, wait a minute,” he said during the stream. “I can turn anything into a button if it’s conductive.” Both the cards and then the insides of the Duel Disk slots are coated in the material, making the project possible.
“I made sure these cards aren’t worth anything before I painted over them,” he added.
Completing the project took weeks of work, but the end result is seriously cool. In my time, I’ve seen a lot of controller mods. This might be one of the most amazing ones ever.
Super Louis 64 picked up the Duel Disk for about ten bucks, and combined with the 15 dollar hardware he added to the build, the whole project cost under thirty dollars. He is currently at work on a walkthrough which should explain the process in greater depth.
On Twitch, Super Louis 64 showed off the controller in a two-hour-plus stream. He first tackled some CPUs in a dungeon, but later in the stream, did face off some unsuspecting random other players using his Duel Disk controller. Later, he wrote on Twitter how proud he was that the controller worked well enough for raids with random players.
“The one problem is that I cannot wear the Duel Disk,” said Super Louis 64 during the stream, explaining that his wrists were way too big. “It would be really cool if I could.”
It’s way cool even if you can’t.
Be sure to check out Super Louis 64’s Twitch channel right here.
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