In 2012 an indie studio by the name of Deconstructeam was founded and their goal was to create video games that could be seen as works of art. Well there’s more to it, but a common trend among their games waS the narrative focus and message they wanted their players to walk away with. The first major project they ever published was Gods Will Be Watching. A click and point adventure following a ragtag team of sci-fi operatives risking their lives to save others. Choices you made would have a lasting consequence and would determine who gets to live. It had a great concept, but the execution of their ideas were somewhat flawed. Looking at the Steam reviews while writing this, the general view of Gods Will Be Watching was divisive. On one hand you got a good general idea and the game didn’t overstay its welcome. On the other hand not a lot of the choices players made throughout the experience mattered much in the end and certain systems weren’t communicated well to the player. It was a mess, and day one reviews by major outlets communicated this very well. However, this didn’t stop Deconstructeam from trying to improve on their ideas. They spent the next year or so trying to fix the game, and a year or so later the game got better. It wasn’t a huge boost, but enough for it to be seen as an okay game.
Next game they made was The Red Strings Club and you gotta admit it was a vast improvement from what they made before. They defined what they wanted to do and placed a clearer focus. It told a heartwarming story about love, living in a cruel world, and getting by each day. It was art, it was what they wanted with Gods Will Be Watching and it was better here. Sure there were still some problems and one of the earliest controversies I’ve seen about this game was the featuring of a transgendered side character. I’m gonna say this right now before I forget. That is probably the stupidest thing you can get angry about. I don’t see how featuring one trans individual in a video game hurts it entirely, nor should it be the main vocal point of your criticism. It is a video game. People play these things for fun. They aren’t gonna focus on that and that alone. Grow up and learn to fight about other things. Trans rights matter. Human rights matter. Shut up. Anyways The Red Strings Club was a much better product than Gods Will Be Watching and this confidence boost was enough for Deconstructeam to work on what would be their ultimatum. The best video game they ever put out and one of the most fascinating games I’ve tried in recent memory.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, a game where you create your own deck of tarot cards and utilize them to decide the fate of a whole society of people. I was debating whether to play this or not. It’s a cozy game and I’m not a fan of this genre. The only cozy game I played was Spiritfarer and that’s because it had a story I wanted to witness the ins and outs of. That and trying to understand what this game was trying to advertise itself as based on the trailers was difficult. I was going to skip this game, but then I started seeing reviews from small creators I follow and they claimed this was one of the best indie games of 2023. A work of art that’s worth looking at, picking apart, and trying to understand how the hell it managed to work. I too struggled to comprehend why this game was held to such high regard. What was special about this game? After dedicating two days to playing it nonstop I can safely report that The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is in fact that amazing. I love this game. I can’t give you the simple explanation as to why it’s good, because the reason is something you have to figure out yourself. Please play this game. It’s so hard to talk about why it’s good without spoiling what makes it good. It’s magical, and that’s not a pun. Let’s talk about why I love The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood and why it deserves your attention.
Story
We follow Fortuna, a young woman who's actually a witch that lived for dozens of centuries. We don’t know much about Fortuna at first besides that she’s been drifting in space within a humble abode that’s really an asteroid. We witness Fortuna summon a Behemoth, a being that witches fear will destroy them when brought to their world. The Behemoth she summons is Abramar, a worm humanoid like creature with multiple eyes and flames bellowing down his spine. He asks what Fortuna desires and she desires company. Back when she was part of a coven, an orderly group of witches who practice in the fine arts of magic and maintain order, she committed an act that almost plundered the whole thing into despair. The head of all witches, Aedana, placed the poor Fortuna under arrest and sentenced her to one thousand years of exile. She can’t make any contact with people, and can't utilize tarot cards to conduct fortune telling. She is to be alone for a thousand years and this drives Fortuna to insanity. Her mental health begins to fall apart, she loses sight of who she is, and contemplates whether to take her life. She reconciles on the time when she used to be human. When life was so basic rather than the magical complication she has to deal with now.
Abramar has empathy for Fortuna and decides to help her out. He becomes a somewhat mentor slash guardian figure to her, and begins teaching Fortuna how to create new tarot cards. Unlike the ones handed to Fortuna in the past, these ones are original. They are handcrafted using the four elements and represent different kinds of individuals that exist in the universe. Fortuna loves the work Abramar helps her create, but dealing with a Behemoth requires a pact. Abramar asks Fortuna what her deepest wishes are, and the sacrifice she is willing to make for her life to come back to a more stable state. Fortuna chooses the deals she wants, and pain courses through her veins once the final deal is made. Fortuna awakens and discovers an Arbiter, an officer amongst the witches, has come to visit her confinement. She tells Arbiter what she is dealing with and that the life she has been forced into now is one she can’t take anymore. The Arbiter has mercy and using her powers is able to get some rules from Fortuna’s home. Her friends can now visit as well as people wanting their fortunes to be told. Fortuna is enlightened and working alongside her behemoth friend is determined to guide people down the right path. Something is brewing within the witch world. Balance is off put and big changes are about to come down everyone’s way. Fortuna shall adapt and she shall decide the fate of all witches. What lies for the wicked.
Gameplay
I’d say this game is split up into two main categories, fortune telling and card creation. The card creation feels much like an art editor in that you choose the assets you want and create an artistic piece of work. Before making a card you select three things: background, character, and object or that’s how I see it at least. Choosing the specific three things you want cost elemental crystals and these are obtained from fortune telling which I’ll explain later. Once you spend the crystals it’s all up to your artistic skills to make the cards. Drag objects around, turn them, enlarge or shrink them, change position, and when you are ready you can finalize the design. The card shall take form and you can now use it for any future tellings you have. However, that is if you can pull the card because you always shuffle your deck whenever it comes time to place a card down. The more cards you make the bigger this deck becomes, but this isn’t a disadvantage or anything. It’s not like a bigger deck decreases the chance of getting a card you want. No, making more cards is good because it gives you different choices and directions for tellings. A topic we shall discuss now.
Fortune telling is probably the strongest aspect for The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood. It’s the main attraction for this game after all. You get an invite from your window, accept it, and the person who sent you the invite comes in to have their fortunes told. They ask you some questions and then a spot on your telling pad appears. Draw a card and place it down on the spot. At times you will get multiple spots indicating different topics. Maybe a person wants to see what action they should take to get revenge, but wants to know the consequences of said actions. Maybe another person wants to know about their future, if they are successful, and what will be their downfall. When you draw a card it’ll tell you the emotions and traits it expresses. You can use this to your advantage to raise or lower the stakes of some choices. Let’s say you get a card that’s centered around empathy and care. Use use to enlighten a telling and produce a happy outcome. I’m not sure if that’s exactly how it works. I can tell this game was made for multiple playthroughs just to see if you can do better the next time, but what I will say is that some of the choices you make for the characters who come for help will matter. Be careful of what you say because it’ll either help them, lead to a terrible fate, or come to bite you in the ass. Besides that there’s not much else I can say. Hopefully your tellings are right. You’ll help others and even change the future…
Thoughts
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a work of art. Not everyone is going to understand this game, and it’s an opinion I can respect. This game’s narrative threw me off at times and took me a bit to get back on track and understand. However, from what I put together it’s a beautiful narrative one I think everyone should depict by themselves. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood represents so many things, but trying to limit it down is difficult due to how this game can play out based on player choice and what they can end up encountering. You will most likely not see everything it has to offer. There’s no way to reload saves or chapters from what I can recall, so you’ll have to start a whole new save just to see new choices and outcomes. This game is many things, and I’m kind of glad it left itself so open rather than keep it so condensed. I do want to discuss the design and gameplay first, because as much of a selling point it is what stood out to me mainly was the story and characters which I want to save for later. The gameplay is relaxing and I had a blast engaging with it even though it wasn’t much at times. Creating cards is fun and I like how to get what you want to create with your crystals. This forces you to decide what setup works best and if you should save up to create something you like more. You also have to remember when you choose what you want you can’t use it again for future cards, so you have to think carefully.
I like how getting more crystals is based on what you say to characters. Sure you could say what is needed to get the crystals you need, or you could pay attention and say what is best for whom you’re talking to. Morality is quite important in this game and a lot of choices will be carried on in the endgame. Connect with your clients, help them, and they’ll return the favor. Do you get the resources you need, or do what is best? It’s this conflicting idea that makes you determine if you favor gameplay or the narrative more. I like card creation and the UI is simplistic. It’s not that I play a game with an editing tool, and here it’s just drag and drop. What I will say though is that this game was made to be played with either a computer or touchscreen. I played the Switch version of this game, so thankfully there was touchscreen functionality in handheld mode. Yet, using card creation with a controller is not as good. You don’t get as much preciseness and if so you have to move objects around very slowly and in a finicky manner. I had to do this half of the time, because my fingers are big for touchscreen.
So the core gameplay is good, but not the main defining part of this game despite making up a good chunk of the advertisement. It’s the story and building of said narrative that I liked mostly, and it kept me hooked for me to finish this game within two days. Fortuna is quite an interesting protagonist and I like how the game starts off with us knowing very little about her. It gives us some exposition on who she is, but not where she came from. It’s from learning more about her life, the choices she made, who she aspires to be, and how she deals with everything that is being frontloaded onto her that we feel for Fortuna. We relate to her life and honestly her life is really sad. One that is filled with a ton of isolation, regret, and fear of what may happen if she makes the wrong choice. One of the things we learn later on is that Fortuna had an older sister, Patrice. The two looked after each other, but after Fortuna ascended Patrice never saw her again or that’s what I remember at least. Patrice would die of bone cancer at the age of 59, but would come back due to a fortune Fortuna read. She predicted this so that her sister would ascend and become a witch, and so the two of them could enjoy their new lives. However, this ended up separating the two more. They got to see all their loved ones die, and their new lives are much worse than previously. So it’s this resentment of forcing someone into something they didn’t want.
I said this game would be hard to talk about without spoilers, so I hope you aren’t reading this part if you plan to play the game. The biggest twist to The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is that the fortunes you’ve been reading aren’t predictions. They all come true and you have decided what the witch world will become next as the leader dies and a political election rises. This is where major choices you made throughout the game come to play as old and new characters appear to help you out. Maybe helping out one person will lead to them promoting you or assisting in the election campaign. Maybe choosing to not help someone or betray them will lead to them having a whole sector of witches not vote for you. It’s a fun final act of the game and these outcomes felt like a good reward for paying attention to what people wanted. As to whether all the choices you made in the game matter in the end is debatable. I feel like no matter how you perform in the campaign it’s gonna lead to a specific event happening. One I won’t go too far into, but I will say as someone who struggled a bit with getting as many votes possible I came out on top due to a scripted event. Then the ending will depend on whether you stick to your deal and one of the three dialogue choices you made at the beginning of the game. I love how something near the start that doesn’t feel significant played a big role. I love how treating characters well or awful comes into play. That final scene though between the campaign and ending could be better.
What is the focal point of this game though? What is it trying to say or teach? This is why I said you need to experience this game yourself and figure it out on your own. It could be about the deconstruction of philosophies and governments. That no matter the society you raise there’ll always be some sort of problem that leads to disagreement. A compromise that you’ll struggle to work towards without rearranging the whole system. It could be about life and learning to get through it all. Suicide is a pretty touchy topic in this game, because Fortuna thinks it’s the only way to get out of the hell she finds herself in each day. Yet, she learns to persevere and continue living despite everything that has happened to her. It could be about the people you meet and the empathy you have for them. I met a weaver witch who wanted to confess to her lover she is a witch, but is afraid of being exiled for disobeying one of the laws of a witch. I met a nice suited individual who tries to keep to a simple lifestyle despite being an immortal magical being. A refugee who seeked shelter from the ongoing chaos, and you can take the risk to help or not. A person who wishes to transition into a witch, and let me just tell you I love how this game went and represented transitioning. How it showed us the feelings of this individual, the life they had to deal with, how uncomfortable they were to refer to someone they didn’t want to be, and gave them the joy of finally allowing them to be who they felt deep inside. Lovely.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is art like I said earlier. It’s chill, respects your time and attention span, has beautiful pixel art, a relaxing soundtrack, and a stellar story that kept me hooked. This is a very niche game that’ll click for very few people, but give it a chance and you will truly go experience one of the best indie games of 2023. Please play this game. There’s no other game like this and I am down to seeing what Deconstructeam can accomplish next. This is a glorious masterpiece and I wish them the best of luck. I strongly recommend picking this up. So in the end I am going to have to give The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood a 9.5/10 for being superb.
This critique was written by the single man at Review on. Stay tuned for more content and feel free to check more reviews out over at my site!
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