For Zeliard, set your joystick to: 4axis

I just checked the game and my settings (which I had the joystick set to 4axis ), and it works fine.

I found out that Sierra fixed a bunch of games like Silpheed and Zeliard at a certain point, to fix their joystick detection code due to faster CPUs.
Using a revised 2.0 version of Zeliard fixed the issue for me.

I revisited this and this could be added to the ritual to make MT-32 and joystick work for Zeliard:

FULL RITUAL:

-Have v2.0 of Zeliard with improved joystick detection
-needs a fresh boot
-EMS memory
-then run unisound
-then softmpu (the reason for EMS)
-and it will only work with joystick on the first load, it will run on the next loads, but no joystick. cold start to get it working again