Building comparison
head to head
Castlevania III: Dracula's CursevsSifu
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is reads, and it is a single point.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Execution · Pure Mechanics
The hardest NES Castlevania, with branching routes and switchable partner characters.
Sifu
Execution · Practiced Mastery
Drilling fixed enemy movesets until parry-perfect execution carries a run.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); Sifu leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Castlevania III: Dracula's CurseSifu
Axis by axis
Execution9 vs 9
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Brutal platforming and tight whip timing throughout
Sifu
Parry and dodge timing on tight windows is everything
Reads0 vs 1
Sifu leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Scripted enemies and bosses only
Sifu
Enemies attack from fixed movesets, never adapt
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Minor enemy spawn wobble
Sifu
Levels are deterministic once learned
Optimization6 vs 7
Sifu leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Partner choice, route branching, pattern memory
Sifu
Learning movesets, shortcuts and the aging economy is the meta
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.