Star of Providence: Into Oblivion - Hard Mode - Loop 13 Clear + Temple (Null)
235They really cooked since the last time I made a video on this 7 years ago.
The game was still called Monolith back then, and over the years they never really stopped adding more and more content and mechanics and polish to the game. Monolith was already a pillar of its niche, but now it's become this insane and staggering behemoth of a game, with all of the new additions and changes being basically too much to list.
This also got a Switch port recently published by Bigmode, and it looks like it's now finally getting the recognition it always deserved.
The loop system is new here, every new loop increases the difficulty with loop 13 being the max. Besides more bullets on loops you also get new rooms and new bosses. Loop 13 also has a unique TLB at the end.
The Temple is another unique optional floor that houses a TLB as well if you can beat all of its highest challenges.
Star of Providence is a very cool rogue-like bullet hell shooter, and is probably the only real one of its kind.
Raw bullet dodging skills are still the most important factor here, there is no over-reliance on i-frame moves or other mechanics that circumvent the dodging like what you see in a lot of other games.
The bosses are definitely the highlight in this. You can tell the devs really understand shmups, as the patterns are pretty damn good. The new loop 13 TLB is especially incredible. If you like rogue-likes and shmups you can't really go wrong with this game.
The game plays on a grid with randomly generated rooms, with a wide variety of weapons, powerups and systems with a random selection of bosses and mini-bosses.
Basically no two runs will play out the same and there are a bunch of secrets things that only have a slight chance of happening too. The game loves to jumpscare new bosses on you.
Even though there is a lot of variance, it's not like RNG determines your victory. You can work with any weapon and skill will get you out of most situations.
Ammo management is one of the more important things you have to juggle here.
Weapons have limited ammo and break once they run out. Ammo pickups can refill them, but besides midbosses it's random if these get dropped.
You have bombs and a dash in this game. You're not invulnerable when using the dash, unless you picked up a powerup that does exactly that. Bombs can also be used to reveal secret rooms.
Clearing rooms without getting hit raises a multiplier to a max of x3.0, and getting hit lowers it. The multiplier increases the amount of money you get, and also doubles as the scoring system in this game.
Since this is a rogue-like there are way too many mechanics and systems to explain in just a YouTube description, so I'll just refer to the wiki for the rest: https://starofprovidence.wiki.gg/wiki/Star_of_Providence_Wiki
The game does take some getting used to, especially if you're not used to twinsticks. What ended up still working the best for me was using the 8BitDo M30 in one hand and the mouse in the other.
The game is also very cramped and claustrophobic. The playfield is very small, filled with many obstacles in it and with enemies that love to fly in and shoot in your face. The playfield only really opens up during a very few select boss fights.
Buy the game on Steam here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/603960/Star_of_Providence/
00:00 - Intro
01:39 - Floor 1: Excavation
07:38 - Floor 2: Archives
13:31 - Floor 3: Maintenance System
21:50 - Floor 4: Bellows
32:32 - Floor EX: The Temple
47:37 - Floor 5: Sanctum
57:18 - Floor 6: ??? (Unknown)
1:07:53 - Floor 7: Nowhere
1:28:23 - Ending & Credits
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