a piece of advice if you are getting a gamepad (
if you are using Vista): the ONLY controller/gamepad that works this far (I'd tried 5 of them - one from myself and the rest from my friends) is the
Xbox 360 controller for Windows. I only have problem with Dante changing styles - it's a bit too sensitive and you have to practice a bit to press PRECISELY at up/down/left/right to get the style you want or else...
Logitech has one that mimics the 360 (something called "Chillstream") but there's problem with the left analog stick so Nero/Dante can just WALK in a certain direction - which can screws you up a lot, say, in Beriel's battle. (I ended up returning that and got the 360 gamepad).
The rest [controllers] are those that looks like PS2's (even tried the one that it's a USB wire that converts PS2 dualshock controller to Windows-compatible). Those are the worst - all button configs are messed up. So messed up that I can't even config it back to the way it's supposed to be (e.g. for some reason, the L1 button sends the signal as SELECT, the default button for TAUNT; START is just not available; etc.)
Anyhow, hope you come to a solution soon and enjoy the LDK mode