When I first saw The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, published by Deconstructeam, I knew it was a game I’d love. Or, at least, I hoped it would be. I’m not what you would call a readily practicing witch, but I am not adverse to occasionally reading Tarot for myself or others, so when I saw that was a central feature of the game, I became very excited. Cue my surprise and happy acceptance later on when I realized that you don’t need to understand Tarot when you’re playing through this game.
Judging from the Steam preview images, I was also relatively certain it would be a chill, cozier game, which I adore. And yet, I’m not sure I’ve played a cozy game quite like The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood. Maybe Death and Taxes, but even then, the characters in Death and Taxes weren’t as friendly or as well explored as the ones in The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood are.
Embark on an emotional journey of compassion and friendship in "Spiritfarer Digital Deluxe Edition," where you'll guide spirits to their final resting place aboard your mystical boat. With its stunning hand-drawn art style and heartfelt storytelling, immerse yourself in a unique blend of management simulation and heartfelt exploration.
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The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a complete experience, offering light and dark aspects that are entirely up to you to explore. As Fortuna, the main character, it’s up to you to determine the outcome of your coven from your exile, whether you want to or not. The characters are nuanced and relatable without being stereotypical, the music is fantastic, and the graphics seal the deal. It’s a solid 8/10 and stands out from the crowd as a unique and delightful experience.
A Quick Reading
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood focuses on Fortuna, a fortune teller who has been banished from her coven for a millennium and stripped of her Tarot. Desperate, she breaks a few rules from her coven and summons a Behemoth to be her constant companion and familiar.
As Fortuna, you get to make decisions, craft your own deck, read the future, and try to help your coven from behind the scenes. Almost every choice matters, and you may not be ready for the consequences of every choice you make. It can get a bit dark when exploring how intensive isolation can affect someone, but it’s entirely up to you if you want to look at that side of Fortuna’s isolation.
Making Your Cards
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood adapts the point-and-click format, occasionally indicating where you should go, but after a while, it’s up to you to decide what to do and how you’re going to spend your time in the game. Given that you are working in a fairly small space – Fortuna’s asteroid home – this point-and-click decision works incredibly well to display how little Fortuna really has to do and keep the mechanics relatively simple, which balances out the complex storylines and characters.
When crafting your tarot deck, things might seem a little bit more complicated, but if you press the buttons off the side, it becomes incredibly self-intuitive. You can move images up and down different layers, rotate them, and change their size.
This allows you to make some fairly complex tarot cards that can either be an absolute mess or an absolute work of art. Realistically, as long as you have the core components on your card, there’s no need to take so much time crafting each one, but at the same time, you’re going to be looking at them a lot, so you might as well make something pretty. Reading people’s fortunes is a wonderful experience in this game, and thankfully, you’re given a few options to pick from for your interpretations.
An Artistic Touch
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood uses pixel art, with slightly simpler sprites for the overall view and more detailed pixel art for up-close views of characters and some cutscenes. In my opinion, pixel art was the perfect choice for this game.
Pixel art helps to create such an amazing space environment surrounding your home without becoming overwhelming. Deconstructeam did an amazing job at utilizing pixel art to create such a unique feeling for each character – some are soft, some are a little rougher around the edges, and others are a mixture of both, and each choice fits each character perfectly. The cutscenes are, simply put, an amazing experience that you’ll desperately wish you could go back and watch again. If not to try for a different outcome, I’d definitely play The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood again for those cutscenes alone.
Mystical Music
If you have the option, buy the soundtrack. Don’t hesitate – buy it now. The soundtrack on The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is beautiful and even chilling at times. It generates such an amazing atmosphere that I had goosebumps at one point.
Like a siren’s song, I just couldn’t help but be enraptured by the music and audio of The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood. I will readily admit that I am guilty of muting games before so I can listen to other things while playing, and yet, I could never find the heart to do that with The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood.
The only issue I had was when I booted the game for the first time, and the music just wasn’t there. I restarted the game and was fine, but the third time I booted it up, the music was gone again. I restarted the game once more, and everything was fine again.
Telling Your Fortune
There are so many decisions to make in The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, from how you talk to your visitors to how you craft your tarot deck. When I first booted up the game, I thought I would be overwhelmed, but I really wasn’t. I was able to craft such a unique experience, and given that there were no guides when I played, I couldn’t default to one when I was panicking about how a decision would affect the game’s outcome. For that, I am so thankful.
The narrative works off of a base storyline with divergent endings for almost everyone you meet based on almost everything that you do. I will admit I briefly had a crisis while playing this game at least twice because I wanted to make the best decision, but that wasn’t always realistic. I am so tired of games with the illusion of choice, and suddenly being confronted with one that demands choice and dishes out consequences unrepentantly was a breath of fresh air but also a bit paralyzing.
All I wanted was the best for my favorite characters (and even my least favorites, admittedly). You, like me, will have favorite characters, and you will be torn when you’re forced to play favorites (even if that favorite ends up being yourself). The characters are compelling, nuanced, relatable, and fun without overly relying on specific character archetypes, which genuinely makes you want to drop everything when someone sends a request to visit.
Floating Through Space
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is not horribly long, sitting at around eight hours for one playthrough, which makes it viable to go through several playthroughs without things becoming repetitive or tedious too fast. At first, it seems like you have all the time in the world – after all, you’re waiting out a sentence for a millennium, and suddenly, everything hits you all at once (kind of like life).
Yet, it’s not overwhelming because several people are ready to walk you through and support you every step of the way. Even when the pressure was on, I felt like I had this in the bag (and it’s totally not because of certain game mechanics that made me super relaxed).
Rewriting the Past and Future
You can replay The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood so much. Sure, some decisions might lose their impact as you play, but your decisions aren’t infinite. Even still, this is a game I can and will replay as soon as possible. Some of your decisions will make small tweaks to the story; others could change the outcome entirely.
Whatever the case, it’s up to you, and if you so choose, no two playthroughs will be the same. If it weren’t for my own time constraints, I probably would have sunk so many hours into this game already, replaying and playing through different storylines over and over again.
Alternatives
If you loved The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, there are a few options you might want to try that are similar in aesthetic, gameplay, or general feeling.
- Coffee Talk
- The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
- Strange Horticulture
- OneShot
- The Red Strings Club
- Death and Taxes
- Spiritfarer
Verdict – 8/10
I would give The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood an 8/10 because I genuinely struggle to think of issues I had with the game or things I didn’t like. It was an amazing experience that I would gladly live through time and time again. After only a few hours of playing, it singlehandedly rocketed up to one of my favorite games of all time, sitting right alongside a few AAA games.
I don’t think the game is absolutely perfect, but for what it is, it’s a masterpiece and so much fun to indulge in through both the light and the dark aspects.
There are genuine critiques to be made of the game, such as questioning why only women can be witches or why we have to actively participate in the political campaign, but for what we are given, I really enjoyed the experience and found it to be a very wholesome and inclusive experience of sisterhood.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Beautiful Music and Graphics
- Choices Actually Matter
- Amazing characters
- Very replayable
Cons
- Music occasionally doesn’t boot with the game
- A little bit short
- We don’t see our friends enough
Footer Playlog
Tallis played The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood on Steam, finishing her first play of the game in about eight hours. In that time, she managed to get 24/28 achievements and regretted at least two of her decisions, which compelled her to go back and see if she could get a better ending.
FAQ
Question: What is The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood on?
Answer: It can be found on the Nintendo Switch eshop and on PC.
Question: How long is the Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood?
Answer: Your first playthrough will be about seven to eight hours.
Question: Do your choices matter in The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood?
Answer: For the most part, yes. Some choices change small things and choices that make huge impacts.
Embark on an emotional journey of compassion and friendship in "Spiritfarer Digital Deluxe Edition," where you'll guide spirits to their final resting place aboard your mystical boat. With its stunning hand-drawn art style and heartfelt storytelling, immerse yourself in a unique blend of management simulation and heartfelt exploration.
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