Need help binding keyboard buttons to my GC Controller

[Kyomaku]

Used to play this game with a PS3 controller emulated as an Xbox Controller and used Xpadder to bind the numbers on the controller, so that I could make use of all the extra shortcuts for items/traps etc, was amazing to play that way. Well, except that I hate how the PS3 controller feels, so I wanted to use my GC Controller now that I want to give playing PSO another chance. Issue is, while the controller functions in the game properly and while I did bind the numbers in a similar way with Xpadder to my controller and it does type these numbers in browser/files, it does not in the game and I don't understand why. (e.g. dpad up down left right would be 1 2 3 4 and c-stick up down left right would be 5 6 7 8, and I can cause my computer to type that by moving / pressing those buttons, but doing so in the game doesn't type it in chat and also does not activate the hotkey)

Can someone help? I'm open to changing software/method, I only care about achieving the desired result, playing with a GC controller and having the numbers bound to it and usable ingame.

Thanks in advance.