head to head
vs
Esoteric EbbvsSunless Sea
Esoteric Ebb leans Variance (Systems & Chaos); Sunless Sea leans Variance (Systems & Chaos).
Esoteric EbbSunless Sea
Axis by axis
Execution0 vs 1
Sunless Sea leans harder on execution: Slow boat combat barely tests the hands
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance6 vs 7
Sunless Sea leans harder on variance: Hidden map, random events and unknown story branches dominate
Optimization6 vs 6
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.