head to head
vs
Death Must DievsRisk of Rain
Death Must Die leans Optimization (Systems & Chaos); Risk of Rain leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Death Must DieRisk of Rain
Axis by axis
Execution5 vs 6
Risk of Rain leans harder on execution: Dodging projectiles and platforming under scaling pressure.
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance6 vs 6
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization7 vs 7
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.