Only on playstation. On xbox and most PC controllers they can mostly attack. On switch they do like… the least common main action, or something context sensitive.
Honestly I back that decision. They’re all basic shapes, not letters, so cross is the obvious name for it. I started calling it that based on that logic without being told to.
They are used precisely that way in most Japanese titles, but for some reason when Playstation games were localized outside of the Japanese market the baffling decision was made to swap the positions of the OK and cancel buttons. So we got X for OK and O for cancel, which totally makes sense…
I think it was to be similar to the XBox layout. I did wonder why the X was there, but never really asked.
It’s interesting because I’ve just recently learned the Japanese layout on Switch and it’s really sticky in my brain to the point that it’s taken over, so I’ve switched over on my PC controllers too. Except now games don’t know what to make of it, like Hollow Knight let me remap controls so button 2, which is B and on the bottom, is jump, and button 1 is A and on the right is spell. Now the menus behave the Japanese way, but also the game thinks that A is called B and B is called A because they were remapped and it assumes jump must be A and spell must be B, so now I need to ignore the button prompts in menus.
Also Bopl Battle lets you remap controls, but then it forces jump to be confirm no matter what, so you can have A for confirm and B for back in the main menu, but when you go into the game B becomes confirm and A becomes back. Me and my kids have bounced ourselves out of matches so many times it’s infuriating.
IIRC this was originally a Squaresoft decision, and was originally done for ergonomic reasons. Then other publishers started following suit. Square switched from the Japanese style O for OK, X for cancel between Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8 in the US. 7 has Japanese style controls, 8 by default has the American style layout. I have never actually seen a definitive explanation given, though.
FWIW, the original Playstation predated the XBox by six years (1995 vs. 2001). The X/O switch for non-Japanese Playstation games was well in effect long before the XBox ever landed on store shelves, so I’m pretty sure the reverse is actually true. The XBox button layout is designed to ape the Playstation’s ergonomically, but the letters are shuffled around so it is not the same as the Nintendo/SNES controller most likely for lawsuit avoidance purposes.
PlayStation doesn’t have an X button, it has a Cross button. /j
Imagine if instead of X, Δ, O, and ☐ it was 4 different religious symbols. Like those “coexist” bumper stickers.
If you’re pushing everyone’s buttons it’ll end badly.
It makes extremists only able to push a single button and particularly combative atheists able to push none. At least Christians can jump I guess.
Only on playstation. On xbox and most PC controllers they can mostly attack. On switch they do like… the least common main action, or something context sensitive.
If you used a time machine to go far enough back in history, I bet you could find a civilization or two that those would be religious symbols.
Well shit. And here I’ve been holding it at a 45 degree angle all this time.
This isn’t a joke I made up on my own, either. That’s legitimately what Sony calls it.
Honestly I back that decision. They’re all basic shapes, not letters, so cross is the obvious name for it. I started calling it that based on that logic without being told to.
And Sony originally had the intention of each symbol alluding to a particular action or concept:
Interesting, especially that they intended the confirm and back buttons to be nintendo-like but I’ve never seen them used that way.
They are used precisely that way in most Japanese titles, but for some reason when Playstation games were localized outside of the Japanese market the baffling decision was made to swap the positions of the OK and cancel buttons. So we got X for OK and O for cancel, which totally makes sense…
I think it was to be similar to the XBox layout. I did wonder why the X was there, but never really asked.
It’s interesting because I’ve just recently learned the Japanese layout on Switch and it’s really sticky in my brain to the point that it’s taken over, so I’ve switched over on my PC controllers too. Except now games don’t know what to make of it, like Hollow Knight let me remap controls so button 2, which is B and on the bottom, is jump, and button 1 is A and on the right is spell. Now the menus behave the Japanese way, but also the game thinks that A is called B and B is called A because they were remapped and it assumes jump must be A and spell must be B, so now I need to ignore the button prompts in menus.
Also Bopl Battle lets you remap controls, but then it forces jump to be confirm no matter what, so you can have A for confirm and B for back in the main menu, but when you go into the game B becomes confirm and A becomes back. Me and my kids have bounced ourselves out of matches so many times it’s infuriating.
IIRC this was originally a Squaresoft decision, and was originally done for ergonomic reasons. Then other publishers started following suit. Square switched from the Japanese style O for OK, X for cancel between Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8 in the US. 7 has Japanese style controls, 8 by default has the American style layout. I have never actually seen a definitive explanation given, though.
FWIW, the original Playstation predated the XBox by six years (1995 vs. 2001). The X/O switch for non-Japanese Playstation games was well in effect long before the XBox ever landed on store shelves, so I’m pretty sure the reverse is actually true. The XBox button layout is designed to ape the Playstation’s ergonomically, but the letters are shuffled around so it is not the same as the Nintendo/SNES controller most likely for lawsuit avoidance purposes.
Factually correct :) Sony use symbols not letters