Product Info

Platform

Switch 2, Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC

Publisher

NIS America

Developer

IKINAGAMES

Genre

RPG

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

9.1 GB

Release Date (NA)

May 21, 2026

Purchase From

NIS America, Inc.

eShop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

STARBITES is a new RPG from indie developer IKINAGAMES and publisher NIS America. With its classic turn-based combat, mech customization, and sci-fi world, it feels inspired by old-school RPGs while still carving out its own style. After finishing the adventure, STARBITES comes across as a hidden gem for fans of traditional RPGs.

More than Just Sand

STARBITES takes place on a desert planet of Bitter. You’ll play and follow a young salvager named Lukida who is seeking to find a way off the depressing planet. Unfortunately her towering stack of debt and fate itself seems to keep her grounded on the wasteland planet. The story portrays you’ll leave Bitter, with several obstacles standing in the way. Due to the story scenarios, there’s more to Bitter than what is being told. You’ll uncover the truth and history of Bitter and the secrets that surround Lukia.

The sci-fi plot points keep players invested enough to want to uncover more. With a colorful cast of characters, each with their own personality and voiced dialogue, it strengthens the narrative and makes the depressing planet feel lively. Visually the game uses 3D models in a 3D environment. The soundtrack carries emotional weight throughout the adventure and fits the game’s wasteland atmosphere well. Battle scores feel engaging and sound effects give it enough punch.

As you play, there’s only one large city, Delight, and a few small spots where some civilians reside. There’ll be story-driven and side quests around these hotspots but Delight is where you’ll spend a good portion of the time in the beginning and story key events. You can fast travel to these areas anywhere or at a specialized service within the town/city. Specific ruined areas are shown on the game’s map but fast travel is not accessible to these parts.

Instead of random battles, enemies roam around and attack you if spotted. Despite the way the battle starts, there aren’t any scenarios such as surprise attacks or preemptive attacks. You can get around them but it feels like their hit boxes are larger than they should be, making them harder to avoid than they should be. When you leave the area and return, the enemies respawn but so do the “shiny” objects you can collect.

After completing the game’s story, I was disappointed to see the journey end just as Lukida’s adventure felt like it was just starting. Players can wrap up missing side quests or play one of IKINAGAMES’s earlier games, The Ramsey, located in the city of Delight at the bar’s arcade machine. Unfortunately it is a time-based game so if you want the full experience of that game, you’ll need to pick it up separately for either the Nintendo Switch or on Steam. I’ll admit, it’s a good way to advertise their older titles. Trophy and achievement hunters also won’t have to worry about an overly tedious completion grind. By following the game’s story and doing a little collecting, you’ll earn that 100% after your final confrontation.

Building a New You

The Motorbots, giant robots that can be driven by humans, are uniquely designed to give it an overall worn out machine that was battle-tested. Their designs evoke the mechanical style from the late Akira Toriyama. These machines are your main tools in battle and traveling around Bitter. STARBITES lets you alter your Motorbot with upgrades that can potentially change the visual design of the mecha while also adding other areas for additional stat building, such as regenerating health after using a basic attack. Some of these parts, mainly the cores that make these stat buffs, have to be crafted by finding parts around Bitter. Adjust your team’s core, you can make a super team that dominates battle.

Players can enhance their characters too. Every time your character levels up, you’ll earn talent points. Use these points to unlock skills and stats in your character’s skill tree located in the Talents menu. These can make a great improvement to your character and if you made a mistake on using points on a talent, you can reset your points to adjust. When it comes to skill trees, it adds a layer of customization that lets players control their character growth.

Classic Tactics

Battle mechanics are straightforward, simple, and feel smooth. Only three party members can actively battle, the other members act as support for the active fighters. This can be arranged in the game’s menu. Everyone including enemies on the battlefield takes a turn per round. Players can use a regular attack or choose a skill the character learned. Depending on the skill and the character’s weapon style, you can break down an enemy’s defense. When the defense reaches zero, this will “break” the character, or stagger them, for several turns. When you land the last hit to make the enemy break, your supporter will jump in to make an additional attack. If a party member falls in battle or is temporarily removed from combat, support characters never replace them. Ideally it would be interesting to see your party more involved by a party member not able to battle or swap places during their turn. If you’re looking for complex combat, you won’t find much underneath STARBITES and it portrays more of a classic style of battling.

Once a character’s Driver’s High (DH) gauge is full, activating it lets them jump ahead in the turn order for an immediate action. If a player has already played and then activates their DH, it acts like a bonus turn. Regular and skilled attacks cause more damage, healing amount is increased, stat buffs last longer, and more. Don’t be shy about using it since the DH will reset after every battle or depletes to zero if you ignore using it after several turns.

Boss battles are entertaining as you try to whittle down their shield number and deplete their health gauge. However there’s one boss that will turn the tide on how you battle which took me some time and a few deaths to figure it out. It felt like a secret boss based on how long the battle was taking. Frustrating at times, sure, but it gave me a run for my money and I couldn’t let the mechanical giant win. If things are too tough or easy, the indie game offers the ability to change the difficulty setting. Playing on normal, it was quite easy to go through if you battled every roaming enemy along the way. You’ll do a few backtracks if you take on every side quest and that’ll beef your characters and be much prepared for the next story event.

That being said, dungeon and field layouts feel repetitive. Designs are mostly the same which makes exploration a bit dull. Textures can look weird at times in these layouts and even during cutscenes. The game offers a map overview while exploring but only highlights key points and enemy locations. I understand you are exploring new territory but would have liked to see the map update itself showing explored paths to make exploration a little easier. Overall the designs could use more polishing. I will say the canning tool to find hidden items makes exploring more engaging.

STARBITES is a gem for players who enjoy classic turn-based mechanics, upgrading mechas and characters, and a colorful cast of characters. Its gameplay and story placement feels like a mix of both popular titles, Dragon Quest and Trigun. If you are familiar with both these titles then STARBITES is a no-brainer to pick up.

A Glitch in the System

There are some downsides while adventuring through STARBITES. One side quest that requires users to “collect three empty bottles” in a tavern doesn’t seem to initiate correctly. Other bugs such as trying to pick up “shiny” objects in the snowy mountain region, I could not pick them up. It required me to go inside and come back out to reset it. Sometimes you’ll notice androids walking through tables or other objects in Delight during specific scenes, which can look distracting, almost as if the game is still unfinished.

When you reach towards the end of the game and before entering a new world, players have the option to still travel to other civilization locations. When you do, the game is stuck on trying to load and you have no choice but to reload or restart the game.

Despite the technical hiccups and frustrating bugs, STARBITES delivers a heartfelt sci-fi RPG filled with charming characters, satisfying combat, and rewarding customization. For fans craving a nostalgic turn-based adventure with mech-inspired flair, this indie title may become one of the year’s overlooked surprises.

The Final Upgrade

STARBITES delivers a charming cast of characters, satisfying mech customization, and nostalgic turn-based combat. Despite technical hiccups, this sci-fi RPG feels like a hidden gem for old-school RPG fans.

A PlayStation 5 review code provided for this review. STARBITES arrives on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (Steam) on May 21, 2026. The Nintendo Switch 2 version releasing later in the year. Players can visit the game’s official website for additional details and purchasing options.