Serial World: Pokémon Meets . . . Well, Pokémon, but It Still Looks Fun – Gamescom 2025

Serial World is a deckbuilding RPG that might look a tad familiar when you watch the trailer. The colorful aesthetic, the adorable creatures, and the turn-based battles will probably bring Pokémon to mind. Indeed, the game’s trailer seems to be aiming squarely at Pokémon fans without bothering to disguise the game’s inspiration.

The Pokémon – I Mean Serial World Trailer

The trailer debuted at the Future Game Show showcase at Gamescom 2025. It shows a cartoony kid in a baseball cap opening a door to another world, where he gets to pick from three adorable creatures called “anima” and train them for battle. Yes, it’s like how you pick from three Pokémon at the start of most Pokémon games. In addition, each creature seems to belong to a different “type” – attack, defense, or healing – and we even see them “evolve” during battle. It seriously feels like the game developers were trying to mimic Pokémon as closely as they could without getting sued.

But Wait, Isn’t This a Deckbuilding Game?

Yes, it is a deckbuilding game, meaning that you collect different cards to utilize during battle. Of course, we can’t forget that Pokémon has its own line of physical card games, Pokémon TCG, which also has a video game adaptation. So essentially, this feels like a cross between the mainline Pokémon games and Pokémon TCG, leaving very little room for originality. However, the creatures have some interesting designs, and there’s even a living toy vending machine, so that’s something.

Conclusion

Maybe Serial World has more originality than the trailer isn’t showing us, but judging by the trailer, it was strongly inspired by Pokémon. However, that doesn’t mean it looks like a bad game. The art style is cute, and the deckbuilding battles look like fun. Still, the trailer didn’t offer any compelling reasons to play it over an actual Pokémon game. Serial World is set to release in 2026, and maybe by then, they will have added some more original elements.