IKINAGAMES’ new sci-fi turn-based RPG STARBITES manages to stand out in a competitive RPG genre full of exciting games from emerging developers and seasoned veterans. From gameplay to the main story, STARBITES feels different, otherworldly, and refreshing to play, despite some of its flaws. STARBITES is a game that can both satisfy and frustrate RPG fans, but it’s one that will reward the player for sticking around. From its mecha influence to its faithfulness to the turn-based RPGs, STARBITES brings something for everyone, in my opinion.
The story of STARBITES takes players to planet Bitter, an Earth-like planet that experienced massive desertification due to the effects of the “Space War.” Enter Lukida, a young adult salvager from Delight City who’s gathering funds and looking through scraps every day to earn enough credits to finally leave Bitter and explore the universe. However, Lukida is bound by debt to Fennec, an overseer-like figure who controls the remnants of Bitter’s civilization. One day, Lukida’s treasure-hunting run goes wrong when a mysterious mech attacks her and her aptly named Mecha, incapacitating her and racking up more debt for Fennec. Once revived, Lukida sets out with her friends Gwendoll and Badger to find out more behind the attack and uncover more secrets about Bitter than may hold the keys to their future.
STARBITES is a Great Mecha and Anime-Inspired Adventure
STARBITES truly feels like an adventure, despite its desolate dry setting. Delight serves as a beacon of hope for the humans and androids living on Bitter, and for Lukida and the crew, the city has the shops and services they need. You’ll come across other major towns and locations throughout the main story, adding more life to what can be seen as a dead world at first glance. The NPCs aren’t anything to write home about, but there are plenty of side quests that add character to Bitter itself and complement the story.
At the beginning of the game, Lukida is accompanied only by Gwendoll and Badger, who both fall into some anime tropes that players can recognize. Gwendoll is Lukida’s close friend and a carefree, heavy drinker, and she’s certainly on the ditzy side. Meanwhile, Badger is a strong and calm man who supports them as a chaperone of sorts, but it’s clear that he’s quite intelligent and knows more than he’s letting on. Like other RPGs, you’ll meet more characters along the way who find a connection with Lukida and decide to come along for the ride. The cast in STARBITES is really great and memorable, and I thoroughly enjoyed the English dub and original Japanese voice-overs, and there are also Korean voice-overs as well.
The game’s story is split up into multiple acts, and there’s a lot of literal ground to cover in each one. Typically, each act introduces an explorable region of Bitter as Lukida and her friends seek information regarding Rockbot, one of the game’s antagonistic factions, and the various crises that have arisen on the planet. STARBITES doesn’t waste much time with its story, and I found the pacing to be predictable and fair to the player, despite initial expectations that some players may have on turn-based RPGs. The game is full of fun and interesting dialogue, great world-building, and unique and peculiar characters that only a post-apocalyptic anime-inspired narrative can bring.
A Different Flavor of Turn-Based Combat
As Lukida, you’ll pilot her mech and traverse the wastes with her crew in a slight isometric view similar to that of old-school RPGs. Enemies come in the form of other mechs and their pilots, human and android alike, but bosses tend to be larger than life with some quirks of their own. STARBITES eases you into its combat system as you explore each region of Bitter section by section, and once you begin to upgrade your mechs and perks, the game really opens up.
Sticking to the tried-and-true turn-based system, STARBITES puts a spin on combat with different damage attributes, Breaching, and the Driver’s High mechanic. Each party member can deal different types of damage depending on their respective Skills, which also offer a number of different status effects and bonuses. It’s up to the player to use the correct Skills when the situation calls for it in order to deal effective damage and deplete an enemy’s Barrier Points.
When an enemy’s Barrier Points are completely depleted, the enemy will enter a Breached state, which stuns and weakens them. If you have the right party composition, you can regularly Breach enemies and put the turn order in your favor through additional turns. Once you have more party members, they can also assist active party members with support attacks, which can deal additional damage to an enemy’s Barrier Points.
Dealing and receiving damage boosts the Driver’s High gauge for each party member. Once full, the Drivers High lets the party member immediately act and deal even greater damage with powered-up Skills that deal stronger status effects with different or additional damage attributes. Driver’s High especially comes in handy during the game’s boss battles, which can be seriously tough if you are even slightly underleveled or just at the right level.
STARBITES brings a really fun and easy-to-learn combat system that becomes more intricate and synergistic as the party levels up, learns more Talents, and acquires more powerful gear. As characters level up, their base stats will increase, but they will also earn Talent Points and unlock Talents, which include perks, additional stat boosts, and additional status effects for certain Skills. You can build into specific Talent trees for each character to give them a specific role, but you can also be a completionist and acquire every Talent if you have time for it.
When it comes to equipment, it’s rather straightforward in STARBITES. You can acquire equipment from the overworld and side quests or build it by heading to Bella or any other mechanic in towns across Bitter. Equipment will change the appearance of mechs and grant major stat boosts, and you can also acquire better weapons to increase critical hit rates and deal way more damage. Engines can also be swapped to grant increased stats, and Cores will offer special perks pertaining to the mechs themselves, such as follow-up attacks and increased stats in certain conditions.
STARBITES is a Refreshing New RPG with Some Issues
Although the story and combat in STARBITES are quite good, there are some issues that hold the game back, depending on which version you choose to buy. The Nintendo Switch version is serviceable, but the graphical drawbacks are quite noticeable. STARBITES has a washed-out and blurry appearance on the original Switch, and it appears to be running at the lowest performance settings possible. The frame rate is steady at 30 FPS, but I did run into multiple crash instances with side quests and the main story. Fortunately, I did save regularly, and the game does have auto-saves.
Another issue I had pertains to overworld exploration itself. I think the overworld is just fine, but besides the treasure chests, loot, and occasional side quests you can come across, the map layout tends to be simplistic and redundant. This is especially true when navigating the game’s dungeons, with some of them being rundown bunkers with light puzzle elements. I wish there was more of a hook in this regard. At the very least, STARBITES does offer a 2x turbo mode in battles, so you can speed through enemies and get through content more effectively.
Despite the issues I have with STARBITES, it’s clearly a labor of love from the developers at IKINAGAMES. The game’s soundtrack is unique, ranging from lo-fi beats for calm exploration and quirky tunes to emphasize the strange world of Bitter. This soundtrack is accompanied by an art style that is clearly anime-inspired but feels one-of-a-kind for STARBITES. The combat system is sound and faithful to the many games that came before and served as inspiration, while the Breaching and Driver’s High mechanics offer some strategic elements that players can have fun with. STARBITES also offers a compelling story with memorable characters, an emotive voice cast, and notable narrative beats that make a believable and interesting world. This is a really good RPG to get into for newcomers of the genre before jumping into more seasoned and realized RPGs.
STARBITES launches on May 21 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. The Nintendo Switch 2 version will release at a later date.
Disclaimer: NIS America provided a Nintendo Switch copy of STARBITES for review purposes.
