Indie Games

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood – Isolation and Divination

August 21, 2023

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a narrative experience about exile, isolation, identity, community and divination. In this world, you are Fortuna, a witch and gifted Oracle that has been exiled onto a lonely asteroid for a millennium after predicting the downfall of your coven.

After two hundred years of isolation, Fortuna summons Ábramar, a forbidden cosmic entity, and makes an even more forbidden pact with him to alleviate her sentence. This comes in the form of creating your own Tarot cards, which will be the tools that will help you reveal the past and the future and hopefully regain your freedom.

Throughout your journey, you’ll be able to meet a cast of richly diverse characters, both old friends and new, rediscover more about yourself and immerse your talents in the complex web of interests that surround your coven and the overall fate of Cosmic Witch society.

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a thought-provoking narrative experience from the Deconstructeam and is out now on Nintendo Switch and PC – Steam.

Branching Narratives

Deep and complex narrative games where your decision actually changes the story give me a special kind of satisfaction. Like our recently reviewed Oxenfree 2, it makes me feel like each decision I make gives weight to the decision. And depending on what kind of player you are, it might be worth replaying The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood to see all of them. Its well-written story is definitely worth the effort.

After raising the Behemoth Ábramar who is able to grant wishes, Fortuna’s lonely life of exile slowly comes to an end. She is able to see her old friends and welcome new visitors to her lonely hut, and with her newly created Tarot deck is able to change their fates. These different fates are surprisingly varied and carry a lot of weight for each character.

Creating new cards will open different story paths for characters to experience different fates, and trying different contracts with Ábramar will reflect different endings. While some plot points are set in stone, most characters have a wide array of options written for them that varies depending on Fortuna’s readings. The more cards you create from accumulated energy, the more you open your options for advice in branching narrative pathways.

Divination And Making Your Own Tarot Cards

In The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, you’ll be going through the game’s visual-novel style for the most part, but when it comes to Tarot reading it will require more of your input and creativity.

Utilising your divination powers is one of the game’s core gameplay mechanics. Visitors will come to Fortuna with their problems and she in turn will draw a single card in answer to each of their queries. Not all the answers will be favourable and your readings can go on to affect your world in unpredictable ways.

What makes this divination unique is that you’ll be in charge of creating your own Tarot cards. Via a type of MS Paint, Photoshop magical creation platform you’ll be able to craft each unique Tarot card that will be imbued with unique elements.

Each card has three components – the sphere (background), the arcane (main icon) and symbols (minor embellishments). And each component requires energy from the four elements of air, water, earth, and fire, which in turn affect the themes and emotions each card represents.

For instance, combining an earthy sphere with earthy symbols represents a card full of immobility and stagnation. While a fire-and-fire card brims with overwhelming transformative power. Whatever you create and draw could bring you one step closer to regaining your freedom and changing the fate of Witch society forever.