Star of Providence

I hate roguelikes, bullet hell, and procedural generation.

I love this game.

Probably the best of its genre. This game is not perfect - there's some dumb bullshxt that feels unfair, but those moments are few and far between. With excellent music, great level and enemy design, and a gameplay loop that keeps me coming back for more, Star of Providence delivers what it promises.

Great game with an amazing gameplay loop, both extremely difficult and rewarding.
Having played Enter the Gungeon, this takes the bullet hell and roguelike aspect to a whole new level.

The fact that this game was basically ignored for 8 years is a crime, a crime that I'm ashamed to have commited myself.

Dunkey gave this game the relevance it deserved and I couldn't be happier.

If you like bullet hell and a pre-Hades rogue-lite stucture, this game is for you.

This game is so unique, it has the perfect the balance of rng and skill. It scales in such a way that the majority of your progress is skill, however it introduces new and fun features, allowing it to remain entertaining throughout the play through. I cant wait to play some of the other content, as it seems like I have only scratched the surface after beating the overlord

embarrassed to admit that i probably never would have tried this game if dunkey wasnt promoting it hard for his new publishing venture (shmups/bullet hells arent usually my thing) but shee-oot this game is fun. good reminder to broaden my horizons and play games outside my comfort zone more, highly recommend this one. i think the room-by-room rouguelike structure with upgrades and shops and stuff really helps the pacing, my usual problem with shmups is exhaustion since theyre often just overwhelming level after overwhelming level with nothing in between but this is a very digestible bullet hell format for me.

Star of Providence is pixelated perfection, the peak of what a Roguelike should aspire to be. Tightly designed, beautifully stylized, and as fair as they come, though 'fair' does not mean 'easy' in the slightest.

For every challenge you rise to meet, there is always another lying ahead of you. Nothing is left up to chance; Though no run is the same, there are endless opportunities to succeed. The only thing stopping you is you. And the more you give this game, the more it gives back.

Rewarding in a way no other in the genre can match. A true test of skill. No matter what lies ahead of you...

❤️ Don't give up.

Cant even use a controller, turned on steam input and changed controls to controller. It makes square A and cross to B and only lets me look left and right, awful that this is an issue in a game released today.

Just straight up adrenaline pumping fun. Weapons are powerful and hitboxes are tight as hell, letting you avoid any attacks thrown at you if you're skilled enough. Every enemy and boss has unique moves and there is a staggering variety of both. I have only just scratched the surface of this game, but its seems like it has as much replay-ability as my old baby Enter the Dungeon, possibly even more.

Buy it.

NOW.

Perfect, just perfect. no offense to isaac but that game is slow as fuck. The amount of enemies and their attack patterns is very good. The bosses are hilarious and the weapons have interesting mutations.

Lack of full Steam Deck support seems odd. Lack of official Steam input controller layout is just lazy.

I'll change my review when the devs add official, working default controller bindings. It'll take 30 minutes at most to add.

Great game for any Isaac fan! Love that feeling of gradually unlocking more weapons and content. The Tag Champion achievement is harder than Elden Ring though

Star of Providence could have been a great roguelike—if it hadn’t come out after both The Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon. For its price range, it falls short in terms of content. Even with the latest update, which integrates a previously paid DLC into the base game, it still feels lacking.
While it's a solid first attempt, it needs constructive criticism—because nothing improves with just praise. Unfortunately, the waves of Dunkey fans aren’t exactly offering much in that department (go ahead, shower me in clown).

Variety

The biggest issue is how little variation there is between runs. Instead of making meaningful choices that define a build, it feels like you’re just picking different-colored M&Ms from whatever RNG throws at you. Mainly a run is made of Weapon, perks and cartridges, health/damage upgrades.

Shooting & Weapon System

Each run starts with the base starship gun. Throughout levels, you’ll find "chests" that offer a choice between two weapons. Guns are formed by combining an archetype with keywords that should make them unique. However, they often don’t. On top of that, each gun has a limited ammo pool—once depleted, you’re forced back to the base weapon. This leads to three main problems:

1) Archetypes are bland. Most are generic (laser, revolver, charge shot, faster fire rate), and the few interesting ones are locked behind a hefty in-game currency price. This is a baffling decision given how small the weapon pool is—these should be the first and cheapest unlocks. Probably they aren't because the rest of the unlocks aren’t that great either.

2) Keywords are underwhelming. A handful genuinely change how a weapon behaves (triple shot, homing, hitscan), but the majority are just minor stat tweaks or trade-offs so insignificant that you barely notice them or worse just add damage towards a type of enemy, a thing you have no control over. Also the keywords are randomly assigned where you find a gun, and at best you can add new ones with costly items from shop rooms, obviously the choise is rng as well.

3) The ammo system is bad. I hated it in Enter the Gungeon, and it’s even worse here with only one gun at a time. You can’t temporarily switch to your base weapon, so you’re forced to burn through ammo on regular enemies, making it feel like a waste. This also means that finding a weapon early in the run feels pointless—you’ll just be tossing it away once the ammo runs out. The whole system boils down to RNG: just survive until the final floors and hope you get a good weapon when it actually matters.

The DLC introduced 40 new weapons—mostly gimmicky variations that do change how encounters play out. Not always in a positive way, but at least they add variety. Unfortunately, they’re rare and suffer from the same ammo problem, making them feel wasteful to use on weaker enemies. The exception is cursed weapons, which provide both a bonus and a drawback but are infinite until they self-destruct preventing you from swapping weapons, making them a mixed bag, still there is some good idea there.

I'd rather the weapon system be something you build during a run, perhaps you collect keywords to keep and choose 2 archetypes that mix, so like a sword that shoots laser, just to feel like the choice of guns during the first floor is actually something you build upon to make the run a succesfull one, not only tied to RNG.

Perks and Cartridges and Blessings

Each level you can find at least one upgrade room, offering a choice of 1 among 3 perk to choose from. In theory, this should feel like a meaningful build/run choice, instead, some perks feel like basic mechanics that were removed just to make the game harder. Many of them resemble things that would be permanent unlocks in other roguelikes, making the choice feel forced—you’d be foolish not to take them. If those were added as unlocks the remaining one wouldn't be run changing, but would pose an actual choice, that might vary depending on the success of the run so far. Unfortunately a couple are just too situational and the player doesn't have the build building tools to make them work.

Cartridges are a DLC addition, essentially Isaac-style trinkets only you can collect a bunch of them. Unfortunately their effect are so situational that they rarely feel impactful. Most of the time they’re just an “I guess that’s cool” kind of unlock. That said, some dropped ones are actually useful. EDIT: [on second thought they might work, but they need to be more consistent, they could help with the "build" feeling but they are so random, some runs you might not even find one]

The only meaty ones are the Blessing, they are few, you get a choice of 2, unfortunately them even appearing is completely RNG.

Health and Damage

Not many problem on this part, I might not like 100% how RNG the upgrades are but I feel it's a reasonably thought out system. Perhaps what the game is lacking is healing items. There is an health upgrade system, where once you find 4 health fragments your health get upped by one, perhaps that could be a reward for a clearing a room without damage?

Other and ending

The rest of the game presents well, the enemies are well designe, good pixel art, the bestiary has fun comments and a bit of lore sprinkled in. The Bullet hell is quite hellish EDIT:[The readability is at times awful, between colored bullets and background there are some ugly situations], still don't undertand why the dash doesn't have invulnerability, makes it useless and actually damaging during bosses. The Soundtrack is just bleeps and bloops, nothing you haven't heard, very generic and frankly quite noisy by default, turn it down.

Obviously I'm going to receive a lot of "you haven't played it enough" and I know there are some unlocks I haven't experienced but I ask you, is this a "It gets better after 12 hours" type of game? Runs already feel very repetitive, I've beaten Overlord once, nothing really changed, don't think hard mode is going to make it any better. It definitely needs variety to hold your attention while you go on unlocking the very few thing you can, can't expect people to work to reach the bare minimum of fun...Probably going to slowly finish it, got it after all, but it's definitely a "one run in a while" game.

EDIT: REMOVE THE FISH!!!

Its fun, but it keeps crashing and that's really frustrating.

they got me good with the star, thats what pulled me in. its going big mode now fellas

I suck at roguelikes, but this game is awesome. Feels low-stakes to start a new run, and it's generous with awesome gear. A complete run can be pretty short too! I was able to complete a run after 4 hours or so of playing, and I've never done that on a roguelike before. I'm hoping that this will help me complete runs of Enter the Gungeon and all those other games people love that I suck at!

This was tough for me. I'm a huge fan of roguelikes, bullet hell, and twin stick shooters. I still ended up refunding this game as there are things that didn't particularly feel good to me.

For reference, I managed to make it to floor 5 up to Overlord on my second run, eventually beat him and get to "spoiler" territories (in under 2h-ish). The game IS a good game by all metrics.

The reason why I refunded it is that it got to a point where I started to notice how heavy this game is based on RNG, and the grind needed to get to meta progression upgrades to help mitigate this was going to be quite high. Normally, this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I felt that PC controls aren't as smooth and at times felt unresponsive. Hitboxes seemed like they were off (both on myself and enemies) at times not even in a "I shouldn't have been hit by that" but the opposite... which is odd. Loot de-spawning if you accidentally leave a room is awful, SPECIALLY in rooms where loot is there, you are fighting enemies and you dash outside of the room (for instance, after blasting open a secret room), this was specially bad on weapon container rooms, as you can only have 1 gun on you, you are forced to take it or leave it, I couldn't figure out if I was just able to "recycle" any of the offerings and get some HP shards instead. So if I had a gun I liked equipped and tweaked, I had to drop it or just forsake the rewards. Given the hectic nature of the game, I often felt like I was in/out of rooms a bit too fast some times and this would happen more than it should've. THAT is frustrating, way more frustrating that some of the bosses (which are awesome, btw). Maybe these things get better down the road with more meta-progression unlocks, but I didn't want to wait and hope for it to be the case.

Anyhow, I figured I was not going to enjoy those aspects specially given how much I see I needed to grind, and knowing that the game will (as is with these kind of games) feel repetitive quickly at some point. And it IS a sweaty game, the "gamer cred" you'll get from this game is tangible lol, really fucking difficult but equally as fucking rewarding! So keep that in mind if you do want to stick around and see how "good it gets".

That being said, I still recommend this game, and I might end up picking it up later down the road. Just right, given my current circumstances, is not the right game for me.

many roguelites come and go but Star of Providence stands tall as the most peam roguelite ever created. you must play this one

I first heard about this game shortly after the release of Animal Well. I LOVED Animal Well, But I wasn't initially sold on SoP. I have never been a big fan of bullet hell games, so I kinda wrote this one off until the newest update released this week, and ended up buying it on a whim because I thought Bigmode has earned enough goodwill with me to warrant a purchase. Guys--

This is one of the best games I have played in recent memory. The bullet hell roguelite combo is unbelievably addicting and it is just so incredibly polished. It is a joy to play, the controls are tight, the art, the vibe, THE SOUNDTRACK! It's really, really good. I LOVE how the hitbox for your ship is smaller than the sprite, making it feel easier to dodge the onslaught of projectiles that yours eyes would believe, its just awesome. There are some cool story beats and lore here too, if you are into that - they were a welcome reprise in between runs. The cat is cute (duh).

I don't have much else to say here other than if you are like me and not a huge fan of bullet hell games, but love roguelikes like Isaac, Hades, or Gungeon, Then give this one a shot. If you trust the Dunk as an arbiter of indie gaming excellence, then GIVE THIS ONE A SHOT. it is 100% worth at full price. This one belongs in the rafters with the other pillars of the roguelite and roguelike genres. for me, its a 10/10. Bigmode has yet to even think of slipping once! Here's to many more awesome releases, guys - and congrats to team D-13 for such a fantastic contribution to the genre.

My opinion of this game changed fairly significantly after beating Floor 6 for the first time.

While it starts off strong, it is unfortunately riddled with that issues that become more and more pronounced, the further into it you are:
- Absent any permanent progression across runs and with the shop only having a few new weapons or bombs, variety dries up very fast once you have progressed into hardmode. Hardmode is fairly interesting in that it doesn't just bloat hp and damage values of enemies, but noticeably changes their patterns, However this then amplifies one of the games biggest issues:
- Visual clarity is abysmal and continues to get worse the farther you are get into it. And before you say "but it's a bullet hell game, of course there are lots of enemy projectiles". this isn't about the number of enemies projectiles. Between your own bullets splitting up and bouncing off walls (often changing color in the process), insane amount of screenwrapping going on with both portals and projectiles that screenwrap by default and enemy projectiles having every rainbow color imaginable, it is legitimately impossible to see whats going on this game in later rooms.
- The difficulty tuning is also somewhat off in my opinion, anything before Overlord is a complete cakewalk and then the difficulty has an obscene spike that makes learning Floor 6 and its boss infuriating because getting there is such a boring slog. Weapon balancing is also ridiculous, a game this difficult shouldn't have such variety in power in its weapon/mod combinations (homing triple lasers/fireballs utterly trivialize the game). Since it is so essential to almost instantly empty any room you come across, the game is in my opinion noticeably easier/less frustrating on Intense difficulty, which speaks to something being severely wrong with the overall difficulty curve.
- Similar to the previous point, the risk/reward tuning is also baffling in the sense that some optional content like the gauntlet is a nobrainer, while doing the temple and microcore is just griefing yourself. Almost every single unique weapon I ever found was also just straight up worse than what I was currently wearing at that point. Likewise entering a room to see a Cavalier there in hard mode is an instant reset due to his shield, I don't even bother with him anymore, since he is grossly overtuned for a floor 1 enemy.

The game also keeps spaming me with Steam cloud sync errors since the update yesterday and refuses to remember half of my settings.

TLDR:
If you want to have a little bit of fun for cheap, get this and stop once you beat the Floor 6 boss for the first time, because until then it is definitely a fun experience. Afterwards the game gets repetitive and its issues take center stage.

My first run of this game I thought the devs were out of their minds. There were too many bullets, my gun did no damage, the upgrades didn't help, and the upgraded guns ran of ammo instantly. My second run I thought the devs were onto something but just didn't quite know how to make games, the guns broke too fast but the enemies were interesting and I could avoid their shots. On run 20 I thought the devs might know what they're doing after all and then I realized I'd been playing all night and it occurred to me that this was, it turned out, a really really fun game.

Star of Providence is hard. There are bullets everywhere and you don't a regenerating health bar or a bunch of iframes to deal with them. You get 10 health that can very occasionally be restored by a heart or two, you get a couple bombs that recharge every 3 rooms that will erase projectiles, and you get a dash that will not make you invincible to most things while you're dashing. But you can increase your total health, get more bombs, make your dash a teleport, or better yet get a gun so big everything in the room is dead before it can shoot a million bullets at you. It's technically a roguelike, you can buy upgrades to find in runs but you can't start with anything more than the basic gear it gives you. And even as a roguelike it's not one where you can assemble Exodia and walk to the end. You get more powerful but you have to execute well with every tool you're give to get any use from it.

Above all it's insanely addicting. I never felt frustrated even when my weapons broke or some enemy took 3 of my hearts in a go. I just wanted to keep going. Every room is a new challenge and the bosses feel like bosses. It's a very well designed experience that tests how well you can master its mechanics.

It's not the most satisfying roguelike. In fact if you're playing because you really love roguelikes and want an experience like slay the spire or tiny rogues you're probably going to be disappointed. It's a shmup first and a roguelike second, but the experience is fun regardless of what you like. At 15 bucks (I got my copy for 12 on sale) it's really a no-brainer to recommend, the gameplay loop is challenging and rewarding.

And that donkey wasn't lying the Fish will mess you up.

This game rules so hard. I was deeply in love with Enter the Gungeon and I've never found a roguelike that quite scratched the same itch as ETG did until now.

If you like isaac and bullet shooters this is the game for you. The humble video game dunkey, showed me the true meaning of gamer cred.

>First run in years due to new update
>Start fresh
>Get fully upgraded laser
>It shoots in threes, splits in the middle, and ricochets off walls, creating a blinding star shape that covers the entire room
>Nearly die because I can't see anything

Ahhhh... never change, the game formerly known as Monolith, I love you so much

Coming from someone who thought Animal Well was kind of overpriced and very underwhelming... this one's much, much better. 15 bucks is getting you a lot of quality videogame, and it's actually quite addicting. The elevator pitch sounds something like "2D bullet hell dungeon crawler with Shovel Knight aesthetics," and they nailed it. Worth the cash if you're curious.

Also, I know this is a weird compliment, but... 25 megabytes?? Insane.

Very repetitive compared to other rouguelikes. Not much variety between runs, only few weapons and unlocks take multiple runs.
Screen is vertical for no real reason other than to maybe annoy you with cramped rooms.

Top marks for sound design, art and general gameplay design. A beautiful blend of Shoot-em-up and roguelike.
Seriously incredible how much game is packed into this little gem.

I played 40 hours of the original release and enjoyed it all, now I'm about to dive back in with the "into oblivion" expansion and I'm so excited.
When you see that frog, you buy the game dawg.

The donkey said it was good no now you have no choice but to play it.

(It actually is really good, one of the best roguelikes I’ve played in a while)

Star of Providence is one of my all-time favourite roguelites. a bullet hell in the truest sense with a strong visual identity, great soundtrack, and addictive gameplay.

The devteam's love for this project seeps through every nook and cranny of the game, and they just recently released a sizeable content update 8 years after launch. It's a better time than ever to give Star of Providence a shot.

I cannot recommend Star of Providence enough.
It has an amazing gameplay loop, a true hard mode that's not just a lazy increase in health and damage to the enemies, and so much replayability it makes it hard to go back playing other roguelites.
It certainly also has some of the most amazing bosses i've ever seen in any game, each challenge you'll undertake will be incredible to achieve.

Don't spoil yourself, jump into the facility. You'll see how deep it goes.

This is a great game made even better by today's update. Reset my progress to reexperience everything again. the new keywords, reworked bosses and just tons of QOL changes just elevates this already great experience.

Get this game if you like roguelikes, a challenge or shmups. The design and replayability is through the roof.

Great work devs!

This game is one of my favorite games of all time, easily makes top 10 in my opinion. As far as rouge likes, this game also falls near the top spot, next to gungeon and issac. The sound track is gorgeous and the sprite work is breath taking. Would 100% recommend purchasing this game!!!!

If you enjoy fun, twin-stick shooters with perfect controls and roguelite mechanics, this game is for you. I play using a PlayStation DualSense controller. The game is fair and always keeps you in control. When you fail, (and you will) you have no one else to blame but your self. Don't be deceived by the graphics; this is a modern game designed to maximize your enjoyment. You can teleport to any previously visited location on the map right from the start, making exploration quick and fun. There is no backtracking if you missed a section you can see it on the map and teleport to the adjoining room. I think it comes out on the Switch today.

This game is good. If you don't want some Touhou malware, I'd recommend this.

been playing this one for years, it's one of the few games where it feels like the devs really care to grow the game over time. it's changed so much over time, and always for the better.

it gets my highest recommendation, nuff said.

If I ever met one of the devs I'd buy them a beer for making a great twin stick bullet hell roguelike. Then after one sip I'd slap it out of their hands. "That's for the troll rooms."

Also, the music is amazing. It gets stuck in my head every time I play.

Must buy if you like rogue like bullet hell

This remains my favorite entry in the Isaac-like genre. Few games can compete with the variety of enemies and bosses in this game, and it does it all with runs that take 20 minutes. Highest recommendation.

Amazingly crisp roguelike bullet hell. Levels can be incredibly fast if you're good and it feels like there's no wasted time. Bosses are unique with different patterns and fun phases. I didn't expect to love this game as much as I do, but with an update coming in 2 weeks I would HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone who loves bullet hells.

Take the best elements of bullet hell shooters and action roguelites, mix them together and you get Star Of Providence. Highly recommended for those who want a fast paced roguelite with an STG flare.

Both one of the most enjoyable bullet hells and roguelikes on the market right now, with a charming but detailed art style and a fascinating setting to dig into bit by bit. I cannot recommend this game enough.

it hard im bad. very good tho lot of charm

I really like this game.

Its got great graphics and sound but limited control options hold it back, needs arcade stick support to feel precise and fun, recommend shock troopers control method be added

Never really got into Bullet Hell games before, but this game makes it very approachable. There is something new with every run so it is really replayable. I'd never imagine that the story would sink me in as well.

I also enjoy how you can contribute to your hub area to make it cozy and show off your achievements.

This is it, the best twin stick shooter dungeon crawler out there.

Peepee Poopoo ^_______^

it is fun, being a little ship <3

This totally reminds me of an NES title when i was in my very early 20's.. loved it then surly love it now! its a simple fun with twists and the old fight get parts search for codes and stuff and mini secret bosses and "Yes!" Steam Deck wonderful! Fully tested fully Great!!!! its challenging! and a great winter game when you don't want to Halo or Red Faction someone.

S-Tier bullet hell style shmup and roguelite experience in general. The action is very quick and the runs are generally fairly short (30-60 minutes). There's tons of content and it feels like there's a lot of depth to uncover. While the first floors are of course easier, none of run feels like fluff/padding since as you get better - more opportunities reveal themselves such as secret floors and higher score multipliers which increase your in-game currency and allow for additional power-ups.