Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEStar of Providence
Star of Providence is a top down action shooter with procedurally generated elements. Explore a large, abandoned facility in search of incredible power, fighting dangerous foes and gaining new weapons and upgrades as you progress.
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Video reviews
Reviews and deep dives from YouTube and Bilibili, in every language. Open the original video to watch.
Other voices, for reference.
Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
A top-down twin-stick bullet-hell shooter with roguelite runs through a procedurally generated abandoned facility, by Team D-13 (originally released in 2017 as Monolith, now published with Bigmode).
Steam players rate it Overwhelmingly Positive (about 97% of ~3,375 reviews), and the recent reviews I read are almost uniformly glowing, with many describing it as a sleeper that got a second life after videogamedunkey's Bigmode picked it up. Critics were positive but few: Metacritic lists 6 reviews (Metascore 84) mostly from 2017 plus one 2025 review, and the Metacritic user score is 8.5 from only 37 ratings. The praise centres on tight game feel, huge boss and enemy variety, and deep post-game challenge layers; the complaints centre on steep skill-check difficulty and on weak or unexciting roguelite upgrades and meta-progression. It is not early access; it has been substantially expanded since launch, and the large Relics of the Past expansion is now included free on Steam.
What players praise
- Extremely responsive, polished controls and game feel; many reviewers call it one of the most satisfying shooters they have played
- Huge amount of content for a tiny install size, with many bosses and lots of enemy variety and new attack patterns still appearing deep into endgame runs
- Skill-based progression: players improve by learning patterns rather than by finding broken builds, which they find more rewarding
- Layers of optional post-game challenge (difficulty levels, looping, trials, secret superbosses and multiple 'final' bosses) give very long replayability; several reviewers logged 100-270 hours
- Soundtrack (chiptune) and pixel art praised as charming and well made
- Unlockable ships such as the sword ship change how a run plays and are described as making it feel like a different game
- Helpful accessibility options, such as a hitbox marker setting, and hitboxes some players find forgiving
- Weapon variety (13+ weapon types with 50+ modifiers per the store page) and an exploration-and-secrets feel reminiscent of older shooters
- The large Relics of the Past expansion is now bundled free, and reviewers say it is what makes the game shine, with secrets and discovery driving them to keep pushing
What players criticize
- Roguelite upgrades and perks are seen as bland: mostly small percentage boosts to damage or reload that do not change playstyle
- Meta-progression between runs feels thin or slow to some players
- Weapons have very limited ammo and swap often, so players rarely get to enjoy the interesting guns
- Dash gives no invincibility frames, which some find a poor design choice in a dodge-heavy game
- Many mechanics are unintuitive and must be learned by dying repeatedly
- Difficulty ramps very hard for some players, especially trials and boss gauntlets with low damage output, and base difficulty feels too high to them
- Technical nitpicks in recent reviews: a blue-tinted black shader that prevents true OLED blacks, and fullscreen stutter reported by one player
Distinctive features
- Hybrid of shmup/bullet hell and twin-stick dungeon crawler with roguelite runs, often compared to Enter the Gungeon but with much more shmup-style dodging and skill expression
- Lots of hidden depth: secret bosses, multiple final bosses, looping difficulty and trials buried under the main game
- Exploration element compared by one reviewer to Guardian Legend, plus a surprisingly involved narrative and lore
- Ships and characters that substantially change playstyle (for example the sword ship)
- Small file size but very dense content; publisher Bigmode is co-founded by videogamedunkey, who helped bring it new attention
Divided opinions
- Difficulty: fans call it the hardest yet most rewarding roguelike, while others say it is too brutal or too easy depending on skill and mode
- Art style and direction: praised by most, called subjectively bad by at least one negative reviewer
- Roguelite depth: some love that skill beats build luck, others find the upgrades shallow and the roguelite layer a perfunctory afterthought
- Comparisons to Isaac or Gungeon: one positive reviewer warns it should not be played like those games, while a negative reviewer says it shares Gungeon's flaws
Repetition and friction
- Dying repeatedly to learn unexplained mechanics, which some find frustrating rather than fun
- Forced weapon swapping with scarce ammo
- Losing uncollected drops if you accidentally leave a room while dodging leftover bullets
- Slow upgrade pace and unlock grind that leaves some players feeling their time is wasted after a single hit ends a run
- Boss-heavy sections that feel punishing rather than exciting for some players
Hoped-for improvements
- Make perks and drops more impactful so runs can feel powerful or distinctive rather than just incrementally stronger
- Add ways to extend weapon life, such as ammo min-maxing or reroll options, to reduce forced weapon swapping
- Speed up or deepen meta-progression and unlocks, which some find slow
- Better onboarding and explanation of mechanics so players do not have to learn everything by dying
- Add a setting to disable the black-level shader for OLED displays
- Community requests on Steam include arcade stick controls, better game-over screen detail, aspect-ratio options and workshop or modding support
Launched on Steam in June 2017 as Monolith to positive but modest attention; Steam revenue estimates (Boxleiter-style, unaudited) put gross at roughly $1.19M and owners at 50k-100k, though the owner figure likely undercounts recent growth. It was renamed Star of Providence for console releases (to avoid confusion with Monolith Productions) and published with Bigmode, the label co-founded by videogamedunkey; several Steam reviewers say they found it through Dunkey. Wikipedia's sources give somewhat inconsistent dates for console launches (PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch, between 2024 and February 2025), so treat exact dates as unverified. The large Relics of the Past expansion (two extra floors, 2,000+ room layouts, looping difficulty, rare weapons, blessings and hacking) is now free on Steam, and recent reviews are near 100% positive. Steam store is Windows and Linux only; no Mac. OpenCritic score could not be retrieved: the web search budget was exhausted and the guessed OpenCritic URL pointed to a different game, so null is reported rather than guessed.
Community sources
- Local file of top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (recent, 2025-2026) ↗
- Local Steam metadata: review counts, tags, price, revenue estimate and owners estimate ↗
- Steam store page: features, Relics of the Past expansion now free, review summary, tags ↗
- Metascore 84 from 6 critics, user score 8.5 ↗
- Individual critic scores and praise/criticism (Destructoid, GameSpew, Digital Chumps, TheSixthAxis, DarkStation, GameGrin) ↗
- Metacritic user review breakdown and themes (upgrade balance, DLC-locked QoL) ↗
- Steam community forum topics: feature requests, display settings, bug reports, weapon and loop discussion ↗
- Rename from Monolith and Bigmode/Nintendo Switch release context ↗
- Bigmode as publisher co-founded by videogamedunkey; Star of Providence as its second title ↗
- Estimated gross revenue about $1.19M and net about $350k (Boxleiter method, unaudited) ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 2 (2024)
Star of Providence is a fast-paced top-down bullet-hell shooter where you pilot a small spaceship room to room killing enemies. PepperHead was excited going in but came away disappointed, mainly by the gameplay itself. The tiny screen and high speed make it feel like trial and error, especially on later bosses, and he found it unfair and punishing from the start. He still appreciates its content, secrets and charming pixel art, and may keep playing. No tier letter is stated in this segment.
What the creator praises
- Lots of content, hidden stuff and secrets to discover
- Variety of different worlds and bosses
- Charming SNES-style pixel art that looks great
- Strong intrigue that makes him want to keep playing
Issues raised by the creator
- Screen is very small and gameplay very fast, so you must memorize enemy move sets or take damage
- Bosses feel like trial and error with almost no reaction window, which feels unfair
- Dash does not give invincibility; rolling into a bullet still hurts, odd for such a fast game
- Teleport instead of dash is an upgrade rather than core mechanic
- Health is very hard to regain, so every hit feels permanent and punishing
- Not enjoyable enough from the start; too punishing early
Design observations
- Finding health only raises max health, so damage is effectively permanent loss
- Dash replaceable by a teleport upgrade, which he thinks should be baseline
