I wanted to play this game with my Steam controller, and since I spent a good bit of time figuring this out, I thought I would share. The best way I have found so far to configure the Steam Controller for this game is to start Steam and configure the Desktop Configuration for the controller with whatever layout you want to use for playing Die By the Sword. I went with
a modified "Mouse with WSAD key layout" and then set the game to use mouse VSIM with the right circular trackpad acting as the mouse (could never get it to work like a joystick) and thus your weapon. I think made some modifications to the controller mappings since the game does not use WSAD. Once you have it set up, start the game itself (I am starting it using GOG Galaxy). Hope this helps someone out there enjoy this game.

tell me more about it!
did you have fun playing it? I have a steam controller here and never ever thought about running dbts with it!

It works well--better than trying to use the mouse or keyboard to emulate sword hand. One thing I remember is having to alter sensitivity of the right pad so that it's easy to get strong swings against enemies.

Your post prompted me to load it back up, and now that I do so, my old post confuses me because I am using mouse VSIM and WSAD for movement (instead of arrow keys)--I got stuck at a part of the game and even with the control, have not been successful at getting past it. Think I'm going to have to go back to an old save and get more health :)

I definitely recommend trying it--the game is great fun, and having better control over it makes it more fun to play. If you try it out, let me know what you think or if you have trouble with settings!

Weirdly enough I had this game on the (now) defunct dotemu.com and didn't get in on gog since, well, I had it there. Got it for free like 10yrs ago and had a blast with it, much like I did back in the day.
Went to check my gog account and didn't find it. The ol' mind was playing tricks on me.
Hah.

Well, into the wishlist it goes since I ain't breaking my "1yr without buying games on gog" fast.
But hey that's a nice way to dig out the steam controller for a ride. Currently I'm "only" playing steering wheel games on the ps4 (driveclub and the crew 2 tbh), Caravan on steam (other games such as Toki, Garfield Kart, Majesty Gold and my go to game, Poly Bridge) and starting some rounds of Seven kingdoms II on gog, so... that'll wait. Too many games.

The "fast" ends on december and I'll be careful as f**k with my purchases. DbtS is a must, I say. Thanks for the tip, pal. Mean it!!

c ya!

ps: no I didn't back up those dotemu games. Well I kinda did but can't find 'em now. This sucks. Anyways, we'll see it next january (hopefully! what a year) and I'll swing this clumsy sword with those haptic keys... yummy.