Harpist turns her harp into a controller, plays Elden Ring with it
She beats Margit the Fell Omen.
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Hello everyone and welcome to yet another installment of “what can you make into a controller to play hard games with.”
Today we have skilled harpist and vocalist Anna Ellsworth. A few months ago, she posteda YouTube videoabout turning her harp into a controller and playing Dark Souls with it. Since then, she’s beaten Elden Ring’sTree SentinelandMargit the Fell Omenwith her harp. (She also beat Dark Souls' ragequit-inducing duoOrnstein & Smough!)
In apost on Reddit, Ellsworth explained how the controls worked.
“A for dodge and G for light attack! To my great sadness, I don’t have a heavy attack string because I needed that real estate for other actions,” she said. “The only control I have over the direction of the roll is just whatever direction my character is walking. It’s a little annoying because when I play with a controller, I tend to do a lot of forward-but-a-little-to-the-right rolls which I can’t do with harp unless I happen to be approaching from a certain angle. Mostly, it’s really just rolling into an attack and hoping for the best.”
The hardest part, however, was adjusting for input lag. There’s a moment of input lag between plucking the string and the controls firing off. Ellsworth said that figuring it out “took some time but isn’t too bad anymore.”
As to how she plays the game better with a harp than some people play with a controller? “To be fair, I’ve spent way more of my life with a harp against my shoulder than with a controller in my hands,” shesaid.
She also did some rad covers of the game’stitle theme,final battletrack, andthe song of lament.You know, that sad song the harpies sing.
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Ellsworth is a harpist and vocalist who has won awards and done national tours in the United States, including as part of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses tour. You can find her on herpersonal website,YouTube, andSoundcloud.
Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he’s not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.
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