head to head

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga cover artvsThe Forgotten City cover art

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil SagavsThe Forgotten City

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); The Forgotten City leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION1 /10READS0 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION9 /10
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil SagaThe Forgotten City

Axis by axis

Execution1 vs 2

The Forgotten City leans harder on execution: Combat is technically possible but almost never the optimal path

Reads0 vs 0

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance3 vs 3

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization9 vs 8

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga leans harder on optimization: Mantra grid routing and Press Turn exploitation are fully solvable.

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

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga

full breakdown

The Forgotten City