Building comparison
head to head
Castlevania: Aria of SorrowvsPortal 2
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow demands more variance; Portal 2 demands more optimization.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A GBA metroidvania built around collecting enemy souls.
Portal 2
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A first-person puzzle game where seeing the solution is the whole skill.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal 2 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Castlevania: Aria of SorrowPortal 2
Axis by axis
Execution4 vs 3
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Modest action timing
Portal 2
Portal placement requires some precision but timing is lenient.
Reads1 vs 0
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Scripted enemies
Portal 2
No opponent; puzzles are static.
Variance3 vs 0
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow leans clearly harder on variance.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Soul drops are heavily random
Portal 2
Puzzles are deterministic with no randomness.
Optimization7 vs 9
Portal 2 leans clearly harder on optimization.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Soul build crafting dominates
Portal 2
Solving the puzzle's logic IS the entire game.
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.