head to head
Portal asks more than Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, and the gap is execution.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
A chain of self-contained logic brainteasers wrapped in a mystery story.
Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Portal leans clearly harder on execution.
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
Tapping answers takes no dexterity
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
No opponent - puzzles are static brainteasers
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Portal
Deterministic chambers; no randomness.
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
Puzzles are fixed; hidden only until read
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Portal
Pure puzzle-solving optimization.
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
Each brainteaser is a literally solvable logic problem
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.