Witches, as we know, are a very powerful symbol to represent the most powerful and destructive side of the feminine. A "witch" is disparagingly defined as a hated, perhaps feared, woman; In the 60s, feminists proudly brandished signs that read: "We are the granddaughters of the witches you couldn't burn." Deconstruct He chooses to focus everything on the witches, their powers and their feelings, building a fantasy world that he sees as the protagonist. Luck, exiled among the stars for a thousand years due to her fearsome powers.
The team is perhaps one of the most refined in the world when it comes to addressing issues related to the human sphere and, in particular, emotions. He demonstrated it with works such as Behind every great (2018), created on the occasion of Ludum Dare 42: focused on the life of a housewife, wife of a famous artist, it requires barely half an hour of your time and amply demonstrates the excellent writing skills of the team. Behind Every Great One is included, along with other Deconstructeam video games, in the collection Essays on Empathy (2021).
The Brotherhood of the Cosmic Wheel the partnership between Deconstructeam and continues Devolver Digital, which had borne excellent fruit with El Red Strings Club (2018), capable of proposing a deep and convincing cyberpunk narrative adventure. We found The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood to be perhaps less compelling than The Red Strings Club, but the quality of the writing remains the very high one the team has accustomed us to over the years. It's a shame that the card creation system is a bit secretive in its results, but as we know, the mysteries of magic are difficult to reveal to the human mind.
After this introduction to the works of Deconstructeam, we get to the heart of Fortuna's cosmic adventures in ours. Review of The Brotherhood of the Cosmic Wheel.
An exile of a thousand years
In the vast cosmos created by Deconstructeam, the Witches They are very powerful beings who ascended to immortality after a mortal life on one of the planets in the Universe. Fortuna comes from Earth, where we will see her as the protagonist of several interesting flashbacks; Now, however, the witch has been imprisoned on an asteroid for two hundred years, only a fifth of the sentence to which she was sentenced by Aedana, leader of the coven of which Fortuna is a part.
Every witch has a Special power: Fortuna's, passionate about tarot cards since she was a mortal woman, is the ability to predict the future. And maybe even something more. Aedana's fear of Fortuna's talents led her to exile the powerful witch, in an incipit reminiscent of several Greek tragedies: the protagonists' rejection of an already written destiny will lead them to carry out actions that they cannot do more than accelerate the dramatic course of events. This is how Fortuna resorts to extreme measures to recover her powers - she had been deprived of her tarot deck by Aedana - and summons a fearsome demon, called Abramar, in a forbidden ritual.
Abramar is the only male character in the entire wizarding cosmos represented by Deconstructeam. Element of disruption of order and desecration of the rules of the coven, he is able to appear and hide at will, resulting in a constant (and sometimes threatening) presence throughout the adventure, which lasts about eight hours. Soon Fortuna will find herself receiving visits - the first will be from Referee Thea, who will partially review her sentence and allow her to once again welcome the witches of the coven, even without being able to move from her small asteroid - and events will be affected. . rush towards a conclusion that depends on the decisions made along our path. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood has a considerable amount of text (much more than what was seen in The Red Strings Club), but it always manages to be entertaining and focused on the topics covered, as long as you have a more than reasonable knowledge of the English language; In fact, at the moment there is no localization in Spanish.
A mysterious deck of cards
In the first days in his company, Abramar will teach us to master the Magic of air, water, earth and fire. to create new divination cards. While Fortuna was used to using "classic" tarot cards (in a flashback we see her using cards similar to the Marseille tarot on Earth, one of the most used types in the world), she will now find herself creating a completely different deck. , marked by infinite possibilities. Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood's card creation editor is open to a large number of variables, dictated by the combination of balls (card funds), Arcana (the "protagonist" figures of the letter) and Symbols (capable of adding magical features).
Everything can be moved, expanded or reduced according to the taste of the player, who can decide to build an essential or overflowing deck, always changing or imbued with a single basic logic, something that will be especially appreciated by tarot fans, and also by those who want to invest time in the study of the texts associated with each Sphere, the Arcana and the Symbols, true bearers of the history and values of the virtual world created by Deconstructeam. Study is also a game mechanic: by investing magical power (obtained through divination sessions carried out by Fortuna) we can "unlock" the deepest virtues of each element, and thus increase the number of ability to read cards.
Because the Fortuna deck actually has the ability to write its own story and that of its witchcraft coven: in this sense, the link between the game mechanics and the narrative created by Deconstructeam is fertile and deep. It's a shame, however, that how deckbuilding works always remains unfathomable and obscure, even after several games. The idea of making our creations shareable is nice: the Share Card function allows you to export the created images to a PC. The option to make it impossible to load past saves is even more appreciable, making the weight of choices tangible and completely immersing the player in the here and now. Not only that: each game is linked to the other without any caesura, without even going through the metaphorical "go" of the main screen. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a garland of multiple possibilities, difficult to exhaust, except for a few drops in pace during the adventure.
From a graphic point of view, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is in clear continuity with the pleasant Pixel Art already featured by Deconstructeam in the past; We are sorry to see some visual glitches, quite common in the final part of our games, that diminished the enjoyment of the experience. The nods to the team's past works and beyond are very nice: Hotline Miami and other video games also appear in references that are never predictable or banal. The ambient soundtrack does a good job, but overall we would have liked a greater presence of music throughout the adventure, which is usually quite quiet.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam Price 17.49 € Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (4) 7.2 your voteDeconstructeam creates an excellent narrative adventure in the name of a deck of cosmic tarot cards very open to the player's creativity. If the creation mechanics remain too secretive in their results, you can be sure that The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood will always and in any case have something interesting to say, thanks to the excellent level of writing and the interesting plot premises put into play. for the team. Perhaps Jordi De Paco and his companions could have been more incisive on some occasions, but the vicissitudes of Fortuna and her witchcraft congregation remain fascinating and make you want to play much more than a game in the deep cosmos.
PRO
- The idea of creating tarot cards is new and original
- The stories of Fortuna and the witches are always interesting.
- In general, the artistic direction is spot on.
AGAINST
- The results of card creation are unclear, which can prevent you from making truly different decisions in later games.
- Sometimes the writing goes into less depth than it could.
- Some technical issues to review
