head to head
vs
Costume QuestvsStar Stable
Costume Quest leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery); Star Stable leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Costume QuestStar Stable
Axis by axis
Execution2 vs 2
Even - both lean on execution about the same.
Reads0 vs 1
Star Stable leans harder on reads: Other players coexist; little adversarial prediction
Variance1 vs 2
Star Stable leans harder on variance: Quests and drops are fixed and known
Optimization4 vs 4
Even - both lean on optimization about the same.
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.