head to head
vs
Dark DevotionvsSonic Mania
Dark Devotion leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Sonic Mania leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Dark DevotionSonic Mania
Axis by axis
Execution7 vs 7
Even - both lean on execution about the same.
Reads1 vs 1
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance3 vs 2
Dark Devotion leans harder on variance: Blessings, curses and loot rolls vary each descent
Optimization6 vs 5
Dark Devotion leans harder on optimization: Learning movesets and routing the temple is the meta-game
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.