Two hundred years of exile is a pretty long time, but it feels a lot longer when you’re only two hundred years into a thousand year sentence. We’d all be dead. But for witches, this is merely just a piece of their immortal existence. Like so many of us over the past few years, it’s not time that’s necessarily plaguing Fortuna’s existence, it’s loneliness. Exiled from her coven for using divination to predict their fall, she was sent into exile without her tarot deck. Surely being locked up in our homes for an extended period of time is something many of us can relate to. We were and some of us still are stuck waiting, but as a witch, Fortuna has another option. Doing the only thing she can think of out of desperation and loneliness, Fortuna breaks the magical pact and summons the behemoth, Ábramar.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
Developer: Deconstructeam
Price: $17.99
Platform: PC / Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood explores too many themes to merely list in this review. However, the ones that struck me the most were friendship, pride, and loneliness. Following in the footsteps of their previous titles, Deconstructeam’s The Red Strings Club and De Tres al Cuarto offer a very raw and real understanding of their themes and characters. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a game about self-discovery. We won’t all have moments in our lives that crystalize so clearly as Fortuna’s, but learning about oneself feels paramount to human existence.
Starting off, with Fortuna’s tarot deck confiscated, Ábramar has Fortuna create a new deck. While the card creator works in a similar way to creating tarot cards, these new cards are unfamiliar but just as cryptic. Card creating is satisfying, even with a controller, and offers new possibilities with conversations and the way the story navigates. While drawing for friends or working with Ábramar you’ll be given magic points which you can spend on cards. There are three pieces to a card, Spheres for the backgrounds, Arcana for the main figure on the card, and Symbols, to add some magic pizzazz as Ábramar calls it. Put those three together and you’re on the fast track to building a new deck.
Magic energy is being provided to you by Ábramar because you’re sealing four pacts with him. Each pact sealed represents an element, with the pact of fire requiring something extremely important to all witches. The stakes are high for Fortuna, but loneliness is a powerful emotion. Ábramar is enormous, as should they be with the title of Behemoth. However, what put me on edge at the beginning of the game, Ábramar’s presence became so familiar before the end. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood has a very gentle way of easing you into questioning your instincts.
Soon, while the exile remained, I was allowed to have visitors. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood began to open up, but not before I was treated to a flashback. We’re back before Fortuna was a witch, she’s driving her food truck to the beach with her sister Patrice, and their friend Eva. These vignettes of the witches’ time on Earth are fun and extremely well-written. Peppering in the context of who these people were and how that’s reflected in their current personality. It becomes a lot of fun when you get to see who gets to ascend to witchery and who stays on Earth.
This is when I started noticing how powerful of a soundtrack The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood has. The work put into this soundtrack is incredible, as to be expected from Deconstructeam’s composer, Fingerspit. When moments are light the music is almost ambient but when the narrative picks up and there’s some serious tension, the music becomes obtrusive. Each witch has their own track that spans genres to fit the personality of the witch it’s supporting. This isn’t just impressive, it’s incredibly cool, the vibe is set before anyone has said a thing. Another cool thing is The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is verified for SteamDeck and despite being a game that looks like it requires a mouse, is actually quite intuitive with the SteamDeck. Seeing as The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood releases on both PC and Switch, you can confidently choose the platform of your choice, it works just as well with a keyboard and mouse as it does with a controller.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood takes place almost entirely in Fortuna’s asteroid home, having visitors come and go but primarily working under house arrest. In typical witch fashion, the house is littered with plants, mugs, books, and candles. There’s a large cauldron in her kitchen and a vanity next to the ceremonial tokonoma where Fortuna goes to create new cards for her deck. Her home is elaborately designed and done so in a way to facilitate the perspective. The left side of the screen is dedicated to the big picture, you see the entire house and can select different areas for Fortuna to go to. However, by default, Fortuna sits on the floor at a table facing the window, allowing the right side of the screen to display what Fortuna sees. In the beginning of the game you’ll just see Ábramar speaking but as the game opens up and you have friends wishing to visit, you’ll be able to look through her window and see other witches’ familiars waiting with missives.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is definitely one of the best games I’ve played this year. I wish I could share so much in this review but due to the nature of interactive fiction, most of the exciting moments are story spoilers. This game throws curveballs at you with how mature and understanding witches can be. So often we’re given stories where the central conflict is based on an inability to communicate or childish behavior. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is about just that, sisterhood. I felt so connected with each of the characters by the end that, like a beloved television serial, I wasn’t ready for them to leave yet. And considering my final playtime was around 8 hours, that’s an incredible feat. I spent 8 hours with these witches and it wasn’t enough.
Unsurprisingly, I dove back in. Because I wasn’t ready to be done with The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, I hadn’t uncovered all of its secrets yet. And as I continued to craft new cards, forge new relationships, and learn more about the cosmos, I felt even more connected. Not just connected to the game, but to the world around me.
The Final Word
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood broke me by the end, I was in tears, and I’d encourage you to let it break you too.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
