The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is an Inspired Tarot-Crafting Game – Hardcore Gamer

Creating a character in a video game using various tools is easy. Or at least, the basic concept of creating one as, is in execution, you can get caught up for well over an hour or so as you try to get every detail right. Now, creating an entire mythology of sorts out of an entire set of characters, that would be trickier, especially if what you create had a major impact on those who you would interact with. That would be the main hook of The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, the latest game from Devolver Digital and developers Deconstructeam, where you get to eventually craft an entire tarot deck and perform readings with it, crafting the fates of various friends and colleagues along the way.

The part about creating your own tarot deck is strong enough of a hook, but then theres the actual story behind it all, where you play as a witch thats been sentenced to exile on an asteroid in a cosmic void who eventually summons a massive Behemoth in order to help them get out. Said witch is Fortuna, the player character who was exiled for performing a divination that ended with a prediction that their covens leaders were less than thrilled with, and said Behemoth is Abramar, another imprisoned being willing to strike a deal with Fortuna and provide them with the magical energy needed in order to craft their own tarot deck.

Said deal comes with a catch, of course. As Abramar teaches Fortuna about the different types of elements and energy needed for creating new cards air, water, earth, and fire he asks her a series of questions about what she wants to eventually achieve with their new power, from how they want to be perceived to want they ultimately desire, culminating with what Fortuna would be willing to give up if order to be free, such as the death of a loved one or their own immortality. As the demo we played only covered the first hour or so, we havent yet been able to see exactly how your choices will fully affect things, but the dialogue alone between the nonchalant Fortuna and the massive Abramar as they discuss their goals once again shows Deconstructeams skills when it comes to captivating characters and dialogue, as they slowly begin to understand one another through basic chat and some practice tarot readings.

Speaking of tarot readings, lets discuss the main meat of the gameplay, the tarot cards. As you earn energy through the game, you can use it to create new cards, heading into the basement of Fortunas asteroid cottage prison in order to craft them. To do so, you pick a setting, a central figure, and various accessories, all with their own detailed stories and history behind them, like interstellar mining colonies, mother wolves, a cosmic bow and arrow, or the occasional shout out to other Deconstructeam titles such as The Red Strings Club. Creating the cards as you move around the background, pose figures, and scale and rotate bits is fun and easy to do, and can leave players sucked in for a while.

Once youre done, the various elements chosen for your card are analyzed, and a name and legend is provided based on your choices, along with the various meanings that the card can represent. Certain choices cost different combinations of energy, however, which is gained through the readings you perform with the cards. After a few tests with Abramar, we eventually get our chance to try it out on a visiting witch going over Fortunas sentence, determining if its still fair or not and if theyre eligible for some sort of parole. You shuffle your deck, draw a card, then place it in the area representing what your friend would like to know. Depending on your card, you then get to select from a series of meanings, allowing you to divine the persons wishes. The officer wants to know about their future? Well, depending on your card, it may not be a happy future, and you get to tell them if they can expect to lose a limb or wind up killing a fellow member of the coven.

Again, the demo only provided a taste of things to come, but what a taste it was. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is already doing an amazing job in making me want to experiment with its tarot creation even more, wanting to see not just how many combinations can be created, but how they can eventually influence a persons future as well. Of course, the deals made with Abramar help a bit for Fortuna, such as a choice I made about wanting to be idolized clearly influencing the visiting witchs perception at one point. Speaking of which, while the game doesnt seem to provide much in the way of different locations, the visuals are still striking, especially with the contrast between Fortunas cozy cottage and the massive Abramar wrapped around it, whom only they can see.

The demo wrapped up with one last twist, though, as we suddenly get a flashback to more modern times, showing Fortuna as a food truck owner on a road trip with their sister and friend towards a meteor shower, displaying Fortunas skills with a regular tarot deck as they receive a premonition of things to come, with all of this being the apparent origin of how they became a witch. It should be interesting to see where this origin goes and where her newfound skills at crafting tarot cards leads them in the present, and between the captivating narrative and the unique mechanic of tarot creation and divination, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood looks to be an impressive and fun journey when it comes out later this year.

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The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is an Inspired Tarot-Crafting Game - Hardcore Gamer