head to head

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door cover artvsRunes of Magic cover art

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year DoorvsRunes of Magic

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Runes of Magic leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION3 /10READS2 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION7 /10
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year DoorRunes of Magic

Axis by axis

Execution3 vs 3

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads2 vs 2

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance3 vs 2

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door leans harder on variance: Audience and badge effects

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.

full breakdown

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

full breakdown

Runes of Magic