head to head

Gladius cover artvsPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door cover art

GladiusvsPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Gladius leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION3 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION8 /10
GladiusPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Axis by axis

Execution3 vs 3

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads1 vs 2

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door leans harder on reads: Scripted enemy AI

Variance3 vs 3

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization8 vs 7

Gladius leans harder on optimization: Party builds, positioning and class synergies decide battles

Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.

full breakdown

Gladius

full breakdown

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door