Mechas and JRPGs go together like chocolate and peanut butter, yet there are so few, and even fewer get it right. It makes a lot of sense: both genres synergise nicely with progression and buildcraft. Mechs are the ultimate customisable “equipment”: weapons, armour, frames, and even paint jobs. It establishes satisfying progression without breaking the fantasy. Starbites promises to be a rousing epic mecha JRPG. Does it have what it takes to be in the same breath as Xenoblade Chronicles X, or does it crash and burn like Megaton Musashi?
Lukida is a quick-witted, fiery redhead born and raised on the remote desert planet Bitter. As a salvager, she scavenges the sands for spaceship parts and relics to sell. Like many others, Lukida is burdened with a massive debt passed down from her parents, owed to the local power broker and ruthless overseer of Delight City. This debt has locked her into a lifetime of servitude, and weary of the constant grind and exploitation, she longs to leave Bitter behind to explore the stars and create a better life.
The story begins with Lukida finally securing a rare ticket off-world. Along with her close friends, the ditzy and well-endowed Gwendoll and the sagely Badger, she sees a chance at freedom. However, a sudden ambush by a mysterious giant robot derails everything. This violent encounter sets off a chain of events that forces Lukida far beyond her usual scavenging routes. What begins as a personal mission for escape and revenge soon grows into something far bigger, uncovering secrets beneath the dunes, clashing rival factions, ancient war-born mysteries, and the real truth about Bitter itself. It’s kind of like a JPRG take on Borderlands, but with mechs instead of loot.
Starbites takes a while to get interesting and wastes time with trite sci-fi JRPG tropes. The pacing is uneven; it builds momentum only to be interrupted by excessive backtracking, fetch quests, and filler sections. The writing/dialogue is thin and often predictably cliched. Even with the clear world-building potential of a planet strewn with wrecked warships from an ancient interstellar conflict, the game never makes the most of its setting.
The plot comes off as unfinished, with grand reveals in the final stretch arriving without appropriate buildup to land effectively. The characters save the story and carry the experience, especially Lukida and the other party members. Regretfully, the story frequently sends the party back through previously explored areas for new objectives, which artificially lengthens and pads the game, breaking momentum. More signs that Starbites is incomplete include some late-game plot points being left unresolved and a lack of closure or detail for certain characters.
Fans of the Octopath Traveler series will feel right at home with Starbites‘ Shield and Break turn-based combat system. In both games, enemies are protected by a specific number of shield points alongside a hidden lineup of elemental and weapon vulnerabilities. Early in battles, expect to spend a few turns experimenting with different weapons or spells to uncover an enemy’s weaknesses, pushing players to target rogue machines with specific damage types like slicing, piercing, or burning. Once the shield points hit zero, foes enter a “Break” state that completely stuns the target, cancels their upcoming actions, and dramatically amplifies the damage they take. The idea is to foster strategy and push gamers to use all of the party members and their abilities instead of relying on their most powerful attacks.
Starbites‘ battles emphasise strict turn-order manipulation using a visible timeline. With this information, the trick is to plan shield breaks with precision. It’s an effective combat system, but with all of the mech customisation, there’s a lot to work with. The only problem is that it’s all too easy and basic. Save terminals completely restore all gauges and respawn item pickups in the overworld, ensuring there’s never a shortage of inventory. Most battles get wrapped up nearly instantly when the party knows the enemy’s weaknesses and breaks their shields, making it like shooting fish in an barrel. At the worst of times, Starbites is merely boring.
It’s not just boring, it’s also unbelievably rough and ugly… on the Nintendo Switch. Starbites has an appealing art style that’s wasted due to a mistake when the game was released. Most of the in-game textures look like they never fully load, leaving the cast and many background elements looking like raw and crudely built clay models. In cutscenes, the camera lingers on close-ups of seemingly incomprehensible, splotchy shapes, only to reveal they’re actually a character’s face. Several objects won’t have collision, and the frame rate is all over the place. Maybe a few updates or patches can fix all of the technical issues, but in its current state, the version on Nintendo Switch is not recommended at all.
