izigame.me

(This review is spoiler-free)
So, I'm a run of the mill, heterosexual, cis-gendered white guy. I do not believe in astrology, and I do not believe in tarot.
Normally, I don't think thats an important detail to add to any kind of review, but I feel thats an important qualifier to justify my claim that the writing in The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is strong enough that despite the fact that I have no direct point of commonality with the characters in this story, it completely resonated with me.
Thats not to imply that if there isn't a character you can directly connect an aspect of your persona to that you can't enjoy a story, we all do it all the time. This is, however, a game focused on a very diverse cast of (all women by nature of who can be a witch in this universe) omnisexual intergalactic witches. All this to say; I'm not exactly the targeted demographic for this game lol
But, often times in games that focus on story, or just with writing in general, there isn't the extra level of prose there to elevate said story above its base merits. You can feel the perspective of the writer and thats definitely an important piece to experiencing literature, but writing something that goes beyond an individual experience or perspective is a pretty hefty task and most stories, especially when it comes to video games, fall short.
That is not the case here.
Through the almost 7 hours it took me to beat the game I was continually surprised at the depth each of the characters seemed to have. It makes sense in a narratively driven game that the characters would be fleshed out, but the way that each of them mingled with the themes present in the game was actually very impressive especially compared to a lot of this game's contemporaries. It felt like they all had tangible goals and aspirations that required attention. It didn't feel like people just popping in through your window on a stranded rock because the writers made it so, but it felt like real people searching for answers despite the cosmic setting.
Good writing is really, really rare in games, especially the larger you go with audience, because frankly a lot of people don't have the time to sit down and be narratively entranced, sometimes you just wanna go shoot some stuff in Halo. That being said, if an entrancing narrative is what you're looking for, you've got a good one sitting right here. I was intrigued from the demo back during Steam Nextfest, and I'm glad the full game delivered. There was a very, very small team behind this one and the creative choices they made to allow for a strong and wide spanning story to come to life despite the limitations of their team are just kickass.
Reading the cards and fortunes remained pretty intriguing every time I did it, and only got more interesting as time went on through the game, it really felt like you were both in control and at the whim of the cards which is a delicate balance to write. The way that player agency was treated is extremely interesting as well, and while it is not the same at all it did remind me of the way Kentucky Route Zero approached player agency, and thats genuinely one of the best stories I have ever experienced in a video game format.
As far as some minor demerits, I did feel as though the romantic relationship you are offered felt quite rail-road-y? Is that a word? Either way, the way that the character just kinda showed up and it was like "Hey, you're in love now!" was pretty wonky to me. I was trying to be careful up to that point to ensure that I didn't accidentally romance someone and was pushing to help one of the characters I liked to see where I could trigger the romance route and uh... I don't think that you can romance anyone but the one character I ended up with. I'm not positive about that, but I'm fairly certain that was my only option. Its not the end of the world, but in a game about a bunch of horny gay witches I was kinda surprised how limited that route felt.
Without spoiling as well, there was a shift in the second half of the game that felt... weird. I did end up enjoying that shift but it was definitely surprising and it felt like an odd tonal change for about an hour or so. You settle into things pretty quickly but it was definitely one of those where I went "Oh, okay this is happening now".
There's also nowhere to fit this cleanly but the art, aesthetic and soundtrack are just 10/10. Seriously the music makes this game, it does so much heavy lifting for setting the mood of some scenes. I follow the composer (@thefingerspit) on Twitter or X or whatever its called now, and they were posting snippets of the soundtrack leading up to the game's launch. Absolute bangers throughout.
Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood isn't just about whats on the surface, horny witches vying for power and trying to stay true to themselves. Its about the friendships and bonds that keep up standing when sh*t knocks us down, and there's a really beautiful story here.
I really enjoyed this, and honestly its a damn shame that it came out in a year that is so absurdly stacked with GOTY contenders because I feel like this would be getting more attention that it deserves were it not sandwiched between Baldurs Gate 3, Armored Core 6 and Starfield. I'm hoping that this quirky indie title finds its space in the cosmos that is Steam, because it deserves some love. If you're interested in it, I say give it a go.
Follow my steam curator page for more reviews: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42143664/