Building comparison
head to head
Dark Souls IIIvsMike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is reads, and it is a single point.
Dark Souls III
Execution · Practiced Mastery
The fastest mainline Souls, distilling the formula into aggressive boss duels.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Execution · Practiced Mastery
NES boxing game built entirely on memorizing opponent tells and executing split-second counters.
Dark Souls III leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Dark Souls IIIMike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Axis by axis
Execution8 vs 8
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Dark Souls III
fast roll timing against aggressive scripted bosses
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Frame-tight dodges and counters, brutal at Tyson
Reads1 vs 0
Dark Souls III leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Dark Souls III
PvP invasions exist but are optional
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Every boxer follows fixed tells and patterns
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Dark Souls III
fixed encounters converge after first sight
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Almost fully deterministic once patterns are known
Optimization7 vs 7
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Dark Souls III
movesets and builds are fully mappable
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Memorizing each opponent's pattern is half the 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.