head to head

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops cover artvsShadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun cover art

Metal Gear Solid: Portable OpsvsShadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).

EXECUTION5 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION8 /10
Metal Gear Solid: Portable OpsShadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Axis by axis

Execution5 vs 6

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun leans harder on execution: Precise timing windows on simultaneous multi-character abilities matter

Reads1 vs 1

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance3 vs 3

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization8 vs 8

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.

full breakdown

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

full breakdown

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun