Starbites

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Starbites is a Turn-Based JRPG released in 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2 (unfortunately with no upgrade path). This game is set on the colony world of Bitter, which suffered a great calamity 45 years ago in the midst of a great war but suddenly and inexplicably saw all of its spaceships crash, putting a sudden end to the war and largely cutting off Bitter from the rest of humanity. In this game, players follow the story of a young woman named Lukida and her friends after Lukida comes into possession of what she claims to be a ticket to get off of Bitter and out of the oppressive indentured servitude that the majority of its residents suffer under.

Despite the game’s overall dour setting, Lukida’s upbeat optimism still brings this game some levity, and this is thanks in part to good voice acting for her and the game’s other characters, with both English and Japanese voice options. Still, this game’s setting drowns out much of that with its oppressive browns and greys and omnipresent corporatocracy, and its plot sees Lukida contending with a series of setbacks without an overarching goal beyond finally getting her MacGuffin so she can finally ditch this setting. This may be a timely satire of the direction our own world is heading into, but it’s not an especially biting one, and even if it was, that doesn’t make it more enjoyable.

However, on Nintendo Switch, the biggest problems with the presentation come from a multitude of graphical issues. Absolutely terrible muddy-looking textures even in the facial features of some of its main characters, framerates that shudder even in places that don’t seem like they should have issues, and an overall lack of polish add up to make this game look like an eyesore, despite that there’s actually some good character animation here. I should also note that I have seen others complain about the overall game being extremely buggy in some game-breaking ways, though I didn’t encounter this myself, and I can definitely see some improvements from post-launch patches.

As for the gameplay itself, this is a decent Turn-Based JRPG with a sci-fi theme, but it’s far from a great one. Progression is slow, and while the game does have a decent combat mechanic where enemies become stunned when they repeatedly receive damage from particular attack types or weapon types… well, the Octopath Traveler games did that too, and they have a lot more going for them than this game does.

Despite my negative tone, I don’t think Starbites is a bad JRPG, but it fails to give me anything to be enthusiastic about. The characters are decent but they story they’re in doesn’t grab me, the character animation is good but everything else about the presentation is an absolute mess, and there are some good game mechanics here, but they’re mechanics that were put to better use in other games, and they’re trapped here in a game with slow progression. And without some area where it truly excels, it’s hard to recommend Starbites when Nintendo Switch players have plenty of RPGs to choose from that excel in numerous areas. Play one of those games instead.

tl;dr – Starbites is a Turn-Based JRPG set on a colony world largely cut off from the rest of humanity, where players follow the story of a young woman trying to secure her way off the planet and out of debt and indentured servitude. While this game has some good qualities, it’s bogged down by an ugly presentation, slow progression, and a depressing setting, all in an unpolished game that is difficult to recommend when there are so many better alternatives on Nintendo Switch. Play something else instead.

Grade: C+

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Starbites – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Starbites is a game that I had lined up a review for and surprisingly before I was able to actually release the review, it received a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, with a $5 price to upgrade from the Nintendo Switch version of the game. Given that one of my biggest issues with the Nintendo Switch release were graphics, performance, and overall lack of polish, it seemed like this would be a prime choice for a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, so I was curious to see how much of a difference this release makes.

Honestly… this Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is a huge improvement in numerous ways, despite the eShop description of these improvements being quite modest, only claiming resolution and framerate improvements. I think that’s seriously underselling things. Both the overall resolution and framerate are improved in ways that are immediately noticeable here, with additional improvements to textures even in areas you might not expect, like static menu images, as well as textures on 3D models. Plus, the places where framerates inexplicably chugged on Nintendo Switch no longer cause any problems whatsoever. The jump to Nintendo Switch 2 improves this game’s visuals immensely, giving it the polish it lacked on Nintendo Switch.

In addition to graphics and performance improvements, the loading times are also improved. On Nintendo Switch, it took 36 seconds to load to the main menu, another 22 seconds to load a game save file, 13 seconds to transition from the starting city to outdoors, and 3 seconds to transition into a battle. On Nintendo Switch 2, all of those times are cut down, with the new times being 21 seconds, 9 seconds, 7 seconds, and 2 seconds respectively.

I still think Starbites has its issues, but those issues are no longer its presentation and performance on Nintendo Switch 2. And while I’m not a fan of this depressing setting or reheated game mechanics, the likeable characters and great animation still shine through enough to make this game a worthwhile RPG on Nintendo Switch 2.

tl;dr – Starbites is a Turn-Based JRPG set on a colony world largely cut off from the rest of humanity, where players follow the story of a young woman trying to secure her way off the planet and out of debt and indentured servitude. While this game has some good qualities, its depressing setting and slow progression both still keep this from reaching the same heights as some other entries in the genre. However, the Nintendo Switch 2 version doesn’t suffer from the graphics and performance issues the Nintendo Switch release had, and the great characters and expressive animation make this a game worth playing despite its flaws.

Grade: B-

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