STARBITES Review – An Ode To The Classic JRPG Genre

I have spent many years playing through a variety of JRPGS that have colored my life. I also love when games get influenced by some of my favorite artists like Akira Toriyama. Seeing a JRPG that is turn-based and has its mech designs after the late Akira Toriyama, sent my soul on fire. That game is STARBITES.

Game Name: Starbites
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC
Reviewed On: PlayStation 5
Developer(s): IKINAGAMES
Publisher(s): NIS America
Release Date: May 21st 2026
Price: $49.99

STARBITES has you in the shoes of Lukida, an ambitious mech pilot who constantly puts herself into more and more debt as she strives for a dream of leaving the planet of Bitter. She makes a living as a debtor in Delight City, scavenging for the highest bidder. She is joined by her two friends, Badger, a large and sensible man, and Gwendoll, the woman who is along for the ride. Each new salvaged part leads to more information about Bitter and the world as a whole.

Salvaging On Bitter

The core gameplay loop of STARBITES is traveling the planet of Bitter and going from point A to point B. Like the games of the PS1 and PS2 eras of gaming, maps are segmented, and you can travel around. If you reach the edge of the map, you go to a new map to traverse. These maps are not very big, but they do hide things you can find. If you bump into an enemy, you enter into combat.

Combat in STARBITES is turn-based. The person who goes first is determined by their speed stat. The order of combat is at the top left of the battle screen. When it is your turn to go, you can select Attack, Skills Guard, Items, or try to Escape. Each character has a weapon attack that has a basic attack type. The attack types can help break the enemy’s guard gauge. They can be weak to precision shots, power attacks, energy attacks, and other types of damage you unlock as you progress in the game. You will see the type of attack based on the indicator symbol of the attack. If you have found the weakness of the enemy, you will see the indicator symbol underneath their health bar.

There is a skill tree for each character. Every time a character levels up, they get a talent point. You can use a talent point to upgrade a stat, give a skill a passive, or increase the power of a skill. As you use talent points, you can unlock new areas of the skill tree. You can go to different levels of the skill tree after every 20 talent points a certain level receives. At any time, you can reset the amount of points in the skill tree and change where you invested the talent points.

Inspirations

The visual aesthetic of STARBITES is one from the past. Polygonal models with smaller mecha designs that are more about implementing them as vehicles instead of as giant full-body Gundam machines. Not only do the machines give an art style similar to Akira Toriyama, having a lot of detail for these smaller devices, but the terrain, being a barren wasteland, makes it almost a perfect homage to Sandland. The characters are colorful and show a lot of personality with their expressions when we do get scenes that showcase the high-quality visuals. Similar to the games of the PS2 era, there are cinematic character models that showcase the full expression and vibrancy of the design, and character models that are lower quality that show up in gameplay.

STARBITES does use its game design as an inspiration to JRPGS of old as well. You have hubs you reach by progressing the story. These hubs you can fast travel to, but you will still have distances you may have to backtrack to for dungeons and other segments of the map. You can grab a whole bunch of side quests to help make the backtracking worth it, so you don’t have to keep going back and forth. It is a cozy experience, and grinding enemy experience is also part of that cozy experience. At least it is to me. It might not be if you are used to the newer design of JRPG’s where you seldom grind or backtrack.

STARBITES

Overall, STARBITES is a game that scratches that old JRPG itch I get frequently. It has experience grinding, mecha customization, fun character dynamics, and a cast of characters that is fun to adventure with. It is probably a game that won’t jive with everyone, but it certainly did for me.

STARBITES is set to release on May 21st, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. It will be released eventually for Nintendo Switch 2.

If you enjoyed this review, explore more of our in-depth video game reviews across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Review Disclosure Statement: Starbites was provided to us by NIS America for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.