Building comparison
head to head
Demon's SoulsvsGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Demon's Souls asks more than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the gap is execution.
Demon's Souls
Execution · Practiced Mastery
The original Souls game: scripted boss patterns you solve with builds, routes and disciplined execution.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Optimization · Practiced Mastery
A sprawling open-world crime epic with RPG-style character stats across a whole state.
Demon's Souls leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Demon's SoulsGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Axis by axis
Execution7 vs 4
Demon's Souls leans clearly harder on execution.
Demon's Souls
Stamina-timed dodges and parries punish sloppy hands.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Flying school and drive-bys need decent hands
Reads1 vs 0
Demon's Souls leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Demon's Souls
Invasions exist but bosses are scripted patterns.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Gang AI is scripted, never adaptive
Variance2 vs 2
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Demon's Souls
World tendency and upgrade drops add mild noise.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Territory wars and traffic add light randomness
Optimization7 vs 6
Demon's Souls leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Demon's Souls
Builds, routes and learned movesets are fully solvable.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Stats, gym, weapon skill, and routes reward systematic play
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.