Abyssal Soul offers dark fantasy and roguelike deckbuilding with a distinct twist

• Abyssal Soul is the latest game to take a crack at the roguelike deckbuilder
• But it offers a distinct twist of card sacrificing and sequencing for push-and-pull gameplay
• Enjoy a dark fantasy world and a launch collaboration with Soul Knight!

Another day ending with y, and that means another roguelike deckbuilder! Yes, the ever-growing genre seemingly shows no signs of slowing down. But if you were worried that Abyssal Soul from developer ChillyRoom wouldn't have anything new to bring to the table, then you might find yourself pleasantly surprised.

Available now on iOS and Android, Abyssal Soul offers your standard dark fairytale fantasy world, where you'll collect cards and play them to battle monsters. Where it differs from others is in its main mechanic that requires sacrificing up to seven other cards to play one. This, and the fact you can see which card sequences your opponent will use, offers a surprising new level of strategy.

Grim fairytales

From what I've seen of the gameplay, it seems as if Abyssal Soul has an interesting push-and-pull style of combat with complex triggers and sequencing being key. I can certainly see that being very engaging and, to me, it meets my core requirement for any roguelike deckbuilder, which is for it to have an actual distinctive twist on the genre.

Even better, as it launches today, Abyssal Soul is also hosting a collaboration with another mobile game, Soul Knight. You'll be able to claim the titular Knight and other exciting rewards just by playing.

While the roguelike deckbuilder genre has been enormously saturated, even to the point of games riffing on the title themselves, I think that it's one which has a place on mobile. And with a distinctive art style and that aforementioned twist on the formula, Abyssal Soul may well be worth a look even for sceptics.

But if you'd rather see what else is available, or just compare notes, then you should check out our latest list of the five new mobile games to try this week. Because that's where we put some of the more interesting launches from the last seven days for easy browsing!