Serial World is Pokemon meets Slay the Spire, meaning another roguelike deckbuilder JRPG is already vying for my heart

Serial World plays in some familiar territory, having your young hero throwing out monsters to dish out turn-based damage against bigger foes. But, with charming creature designs, deck-based battle moves for each, and a smart roguelike system that has you leveling and evolving them on a per-dungeon and per-battle basis, Serial World shrinks down the loop of fighting with your critters into something delightfully bite size that's fun to tackle time and time again.

Going hands-on with Serial World for myself with a build of the demo shown at Tokyo Game Show, it takes me all of about a minute to feel at home after I navigate through town and into a dungeon via a mysterious door. It might be reductive to say that Serial World's 'Anima' monsters are reminiscent of Pokemon, and its deckbuilding roguelike structure is a lot like Slay the Spire or Monster Train 2 (with dungeon exploration right out of The Binding of Isaac). But, it's a good point of comparison to begin and, frankly, all I need to know to grip my controller tight and lean in to really get invested in the battling on-screen throughout this JRPG.

Heart of the cards

Serial World comes from the Yokohama-based indie studio Serial Project, a small team of former Level-5 developers – which goes some way to explaining the visual design that looks like an anime you can play. Young boy Milo is thrust into adventure when his home of Bricktown comes under threat from portals that spill forth creepy monsters. But so too do they bring Anima, creatures Milo can befriend and take into the portals to help him clear dungeons by diving into scraps. Completing dungeons means getting Milo's mitts on more Anima, and more cards within, all while saving town.

Within dungeons I run about through rooms on a grid, sometimes full of pickups or NPCs – from shopkeepers to those requesting items themselves. But, more often than not, a battle awaits on each screen with its own rewards. Roguelike veterans like me know that, though some can be avoided to progress from floor to floor, ideally you want to be doing every fight you can to scoop up goodies, fully exploring to ensure you get as many chances to upgrade your build for the run as you can before facing off against a boss. Tough battles will mean you'll be glad you shoved healing items into your pockets beforehand.

In battle, all three Anima you bring along for the run are active at once – but you only have a limited amount of action points (three in my demo) to spend each turn across them all. A hand of cards makes up possible moves you can use, split between different colors representing each Anima. Some cards may be free, while others require multiple AP. A special 'Renda' cards can be comboed with others, reducing their AP-cost after cards of other colors have been played. There's plenty of reason to look for synergy between your pals in battle.

My starting Anima all complement each other well. Reptibud, a lizard and plant fusion, can draw on its nature powers to heal allies while also dishing out damage with the 'grow' status that boosts their power on subsequent turns. Tanibo, on the other hand, a little blue shellfish, is able to raise shields to soak damage. Meanwhile the spiky mole thing, Porcupint, is all about dealing damage and boosting power.

Enemies clearly telegraph most of their attacks, meaning each turn is a chance to respond to oncoming threats while making moves of your own. Lots of damage coming one Anima's way? Get Tanibo to hop in and protect them from the hit. Got a clear shot at damage? Maybe invest in growing Reptibud's moves for later. But that's only if you draw the right cards that mean you can react optimally. When adding cards to your deck for the run, you'll need to keep in mind things like Anima balance and total AP cost to ensure you're not drawing duds. Serial World is the kind of game where you still may want to ditch badly performing cards rather than let them clog up space, especially as ensuring your three party JRPG squad are working together is the way to maximize damage.

Take a clobbering, and your Anima will be knocked out. But what I love is that rather than cards for that creature becoming worthless, you can keep playing their cards in order to build energy to revive them. Likewise, energy can accumulate to be used for an evolution that lasts only for one fight (a little like Digimon), bringing a major one-off effect when they transform, from an invulnerable one-turn shield to weather a storm of damage to large attacks of their own.

By the time I get to take on a boss fight in the short but sweet demo I've honed my Anima squad's strategy to a fine point, meaning if I draw my cards right I can shield up while waiting for the right moment to unleash a chain of boosts, dropping AP costs on some of my best moves significantly by balancing all my Anima. When I slip up and don't have the right cards, there's a thrill to trying to work out an alternative strategy that can save me, working towards building a comeback.

Victory is sweet indeed, and I can't wait to delve more dungeons to experiment with more Anima combinations. It's easy to see how with each creature packing its own deck and card possibilities there will be plenty of combos to explore, and plenty of room to grow. Serial World comes to PC in 2026, with consoles yet to be confirmed.

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