The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood from Devolver Digital and Deconstructeam is a point and click narrative-driven arcane deck-builder that is a must-play on Nintendo Switch. Find out why in our The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood review!
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The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood from Devolver Digital and Deconstructeam is a point and click narrative-driven arcane deck-builder that is a must-play on Nintendo Switch. This particular indie dev and publisher combo previously gave us the excellent The Red Strings Club – a cyberpunk-themed experience that is part adventure game and part bartending sim – so I was definitely looking forward to checking out The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood.
But before you go any further, I do want to mention the content warning for The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, which you can check below.
The game tackles sensitive themes and content including:
Self-harm, suicide, discrimination, gender dysphoria, depression, anxiety, nudity, sexual themes, crude language and use of legal drugs.
You’ll be taking on the role of Fortuna, a fortune-teller Witch condemned to exile on her asteroid home… until she isn’t. She was vanished due to prophesying the inevitable demise of her Coven. There are some interesting plot twists along the way that I won’t spoil here, but at least I can talk about the stuff you can see in the above trailer and the screens for this The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood review. Those can’t really count as spoilers if you can see them right away… correct?
The first thing that probably caught your attention is the game’s excellent hand-drawn pixel art style which helps everything pop – it certainly caught my attention! This was also the case for The Red Strings Club, which certainly helped with immersion. Kudos also to the soundtrack from fingerspit, who also worked on the soundtrack for The Red Strings Club. It’s a project that’s been five years in the making, and the final product certainly shows all of the love and care that went into creating this universe.
What’s the premise for The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood? Since you’re in exile, you’re tempted into entering a patch with Ábramar, an ancient and forbidden creature who gives Fortuna a very special power: being able to craft magic-infused tarot cards! It will be thanks to this new power and your skills that you’ll be able to craft some very special tarot cards that can help you take on the branching story paths that this journey will offer. The cards will be used to read the fortunes of Witches new and old in your life… which will determine the fate of the Witches and your coven.
Who are some of the Witches that you’ll meet during your time with The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood? The group include Jasmine, a bubbly and charming bespectacled individual who was born during the Industrial Revolution in a quaint English town. You’ll also meet Daliah, a towering and mighty warrior who hails from the Daemonic Desertlands where matriarchy-based warlordism is the rule.
What’s the process like for crafting each of your new divination cards? First up will be summoning a sphere for setting the card. You’ll then need to add some arcana to spice things up. After that, you’ll have to select some energy symbols to add. Once that’s been taken care of, you’ll be able to customize the look of the card, mixing and matching the aforementioned elements until you have a design you’re pleased with. You can change the size of each element as needed. After all this is settled, the cards true magic will come into play.
For some interactions you’ll be using the left or right analog sticks to move a cursor around the screen while pressing the A button to confirm actions. You can also use the console’s touchscreen for this if playing in Portable or Tabletop Mode, or if playing on a Nintendo Switch Lite. This includes when you’re working on crating new cards for what will soon be a powerful divination set. When creating a card, you will need to use the cursor to drag and drop the different elements you’ve selected, so that you can place then just right on the card. Press and hold down the ZR button to move the background. Press and hold down the ZL button to rotate and scale an element. You can also flip elements with the B button or duplicate them with the Y button as needed.
Since you’ll be placing several elements on each card, you’ll get a change to move and place them on different layer depths by using the L and R buttons to move something backward or forward. Pressing in on the left analog stick will place it at the bottom of it all. Pressing in on the right analog stick will move it to the front. And for when you need more precise and minute movement on the screen for any final touches, the best option is to use the D-Pad since each press in this or that direction will move the cursor one pixel at a time.
The cards will then get a short blurb explaining its meaning due to the elements that you combined. It will also get a name that will make it a lot easier to see what it can really do. On top of that, there will be a section called “Meanings” which makes everything crystal clear. Oh, and the cards that you craft are so powerful, they will allow you to pierce through the past and future of every single Witch in the cosmos. You know, the usual.
The elements will be important for crafting your divination deck. Each of the elements that you imbue to a card will cost magic energy to summon. Some will require a single element to be summoned. Others will require a mix of different elements to bring to life. Once you are done adding elements and paying for their elemental costs, a card will be completed and ready for you to use during your divination sessions with the witches. How will you shape up their destiny?
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a point and click narrative-driven arcane deck-builder that is a must-play on Nintendo Switch. It’s hard to review games like this one since saying too much can end up ruining your experience, but hopefully you’ve gotten the gist of it. As you build your divination deck from a variety of elements, you’ll be able to shape and tailor your experience. Will you use the power provided by Ábramar for good or for vengeance? How will you affect the destiny of the witches you’ll interact with? The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is out today on Nintendo Switch with a $17.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Devolver Digital.
