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.
