Building comparison
head to head
Portal 2vsShin Megami Tensei
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Portal 2 demands more execution; Shin Megami Tensei demands more variance.
Portal 2
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A first-person puzzle game where seeing the solution is the whole skill.
Shin Megami Tensei
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The original post-apocalyptic demon-fusing dungeon crawler where preparation and fusion knowledge decide survival.
Portal 2 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Shin Megami Tensei leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Portal 2Shin Megami Tensei
Axis by axis
Execution3 vs 1
Portal 2 leans clearly harder on execution.
Portal 2
Portal placement requires some precision but timing is lenient.
Shin Megami Tensei
First-person menu battles; trivial inputs.
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Portal 2
No opponent; puzzles are static.
Shin Megami Tensei
Demon negotiation is random, not adaptive.
Variance0 vs 5
Shin Megami Tensei leans clearly harder on variance.
Portal 2
Puzzles are deterministic with no randomness.
Shin Megami Tensei
Negotiation rolls, ambushes, and moon-phase RNG bite hard.
Optimization9 vs 8
Portal 2 leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Portal 2
Solving the puzzle's logic IS the entire game.
Shin Megami Tensei
Fusion charts, alignment routes, and weakness mapping are solvable.
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.