Starbites
Developer: IKINA GAMES
Publisher: NIS America
Platforms: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $49.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
There are times that an RPG comes along and tries to reinvent the wheel or make a name for itself in some unique fashion. A few of these games manage to succeed and become household names while others fail due to poor implementation. Then there are RPGs that feel more like they’ve taken inspiration from the past and keep things rather basic across the board. Not looking to re-invent the wheel, but keep spinning along with their own coat of paint. This happens to be the case with NIS America and IKINA GAMES’ Starbites, a mecha RPG that may not offer the freshest or unique game around but still delivers a satisfying enough journey along the way.
Story
Set on the desert planet of Bitter, where the remnants of an ancient space-war that saw every ship in orbit crash down into it, a plucky scavenger named Lukida thinks she has finally found her ticket off of the dusty world, literally. She has managed to find a ticket to set out into the stars and while she is happy to show it off to her two best friends Gwendoll and Badger it isn’t long before everything goes tails up. Shortly after leaving their scavenging site, Lukida is attacked out of nowhere by a massive mecha that no one has seen before and wipes out her and her motorbot (mecha) in one attack. She awakens in her home town of Delight after being rescued by the local service team and told that her already significant debt to the town’s overseer, a woman named Fennec, has grown even higher as a result.
Finding that the ticket is now lost, Lukida enlists the help of her two friends and sets out not only on a job to work off paying off some of her debt but also track down her ticket off of this desert planet. Though that quickly becomes the last of their worries as the trio soon finds that the local bandit groups have begun to gather and encroach on the city of Delight, an unknown element has begun damaging their power supply, and even other towns are suffering on the outskirts of the world. What begins as Lukida’s personal quest to escape to the stars soon becomes a party-wide adventure that will change the course of power on Bitter and reveal far more secrets than she could ever have expected.
Starbites‘ narrative actually ends up going into some rather interesting places once players get far enough long into the story and uncover the many secrets that lay beneath the sands of Bitter and the different twists that happen. Unfortunately the road to these developments is a bit on the long side and while a slow opening is perfectly fine for most RPGs, that only works if the characters can help hold it up along the way. This isn’t the case with Starbites since, while Lukida herself is a lovable goof and eventual party members are far more interesting, her starting allies of Badger and Gwendoll are as generic as they come. Badger is a man of scars and muscle but a heart of gold while Gwendoll’s whole personality revolves around drinking anyone under the table. This leaves a lot to be desired before the eventual additions of new party members and revelations that we won’t spoil here come along.
The antagonists that players face down throughout the various acts are also similarly one note, at least until near the end of the game, so nuance really isn’t Starbites‘ strong suit. The same can be said regarding side-quests since most of them simply involve fetching things from the desert overworld or gathering/crafting certain items for random citizens. There is little plot development or even character development to tie these side-quests in other than in-game rewards and oddly enough players are almost punished for doing things “out of order.” This includes finding an item out in the desert, or buying one, ahead of actually taking on the quest and then rather than being able to complete it right then and there, players will need to actually travel back to where they originally found it just to trigger the flag to let them complete it, making side-quests often annoying more than anything for players who like to explore beyond the story’s pacing.
Gameplay
Starbites will see players traveling around as a team of three active fighters at any given time with, eventually, three supporting characters that can be attached to each frontline fighter. These supporting characters can also fight for themselves on the frontlines, it mostly just matters how players want to dictate their skills and preferred playstyle. Either way, while out in the field players will find that every map is split into various ones that can be traveled to through simply reaching the edge of another area and traveling through. There are some fast-travel locations but these are almost always limited to major towns, meaning players will need to backtrack through the desert for any side-quests or new adventures and even fight old enemies once again.
Rather than letting players perform an attack in the field to either instantly slay enemies they are far stronger than or even stun enemies, players will just bump into foes (or be targeted by them if seen) and start a fight normally, triggering the turn-based combat system. The turn order is handled through a simple manner, by character speed, and displayed in the upper left of the screen. What does make things interesting is the fact that every enemy has their own unique weaknesses to certain attack types and striking this weakness will lower their “defense” gauge. When fully depleted they will end up in a “broken” state that not only delays their turn but allows them to take way more damage from any incoming attacks. Also, should the character that broke the enemy have an assistant then they will perform a devastating follow-up attack that will generally slay most enemies.
Speaking of attacking, every character will have a variety of elemental attack options at their disposal such as their default attack, various special attacks that will be learned as players level up, and even the ability to apply buffs and debuffs through Talent Points, or “TP,” gained from leveling up and applying it to a large skill tree. This skill tree can thankfully be reset as many times as players like, meaning there is no punishment for exploring a certain playstyle and finding out it might not pay off as good as players may have hoped. While fighting, using skills, and taking damage, every character will fill up a “Driver’s High” gauge that, when filled entirely, can allow that character to instantly launch an enhanced attack or enhanced skill even if their turn is way back in the order. This can help play a role to instantly wipe out tough foes or pull a heal out of thin-air in a clutch moment if needed.
That isn’t to say that Starbites is a hard game, if anything it’s too easy. There are three difficulties available and players can swap between them at any time but it is worth noting that playing on Normal will likely feel too easy for most fans of JRPGs with standard enemies feeling like cannon fodder and only the occasional boss encounter actually pushing players to put a bit of extra thought into fighting, thankfully there is at least a double-speed option in combat to hurry things along. Of course, part of this is thanks to the many ways that players can upgrade their motorbots. Every mecha has unique weapons and pieces that can be bought at stores, obtained through side-quests, or hidden out in the desert with some of the strongest gear offering significant damage improvements and defense.
This includes different torsos, chassis, legs, and even a core engine. To top this off, every engine allows players to equip “mech cores” that are easy to craft to their highest level and do things such as instantly healing a character when entering a fight, providing significant attack or defense boosts for a few turns, and more. To top that off, the fancier engine a mecha has equipped the more cores it can hold, allowing for some truly frightening combinations that will make some characters turn into complete killing machines capable of wiping out entire generic enemy mobs with a single skill. This gives players plenty of options to customize their party to be extremely overpowered to the point that even bosses won’t pose much problem, even if a few do throw a few spanners in the works by having some unique mechanics to them.
Audio & Visuals
Starbites looks like it was designed to capture the nostalgia of the early 360 era of RPGs with some dated but decently detailed character models and some impressive looking designs for the in-game mecha, with many having their appearances change slightly depending on the frames they have equipped. The enemy variety is handled quite well and the boss battles remain a standout every time players come across one. The 2D character portraits are impressively drawn and a number of CG artworks are spread throughout the story as well. Sadly this level of quality does not extend to the actual world players will be traveling through as the dusty wastes players navigate and almost every dungeon is lacking in detail and feels unpolished. It is also worth noting that, during conversations, random NPCs in town have a tendency to just wander in front of the camera where players are trying to talk or vanish into thin air.
The voice acting for the English dub of the game is handled exceptionally well and it is really what helps add a bit of extra life to some of the humdrum characters while making Lukida shine even more as the plucky scavenger with a dream. As for the game’s soundtrack players can expect a collection of decent sounding background tracks and some rather impressive boss music.
Overall
Starbites does what it sets out to do and little more than that by delivering a solid turn-based RPG that may have a slow start but also a lot of heart thanks to some excellent voice work and writing for Lukinda to help carry the story until it starts getting more interesting. Combine this with a satisfying enough combat loop that is a bit too easy but also equally comfortable and Starbites is the type of RPG that allows players to enjoy it at their own pace without expecting too much from them in return, though players should similarly keep their expectations in check.
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