It's that time again for a new episode of Chichuki Plays, the show where I go hands-on with upcoming games and show them off. Usually, it's about an hour or so but I don't want to spoil too much of the game for you. This time we're looking at Starbites on The Nintendo Switch 2.
I am a huge fan of Turn-based RPGS. Starbites does a great job of turning the clock back to the past of the genre. It really makes you feel like you're playing an old school RPG. There are times when it the graphics look like a PS2-like game.
You start out your journey as Lukida and it's her mission to get off planet Bitter. Since she was a kid, she has been trying to get off that planet but to no avail. Luckily, she has her best friends, Badger and Gwendoll. Badger is the big guy who looks tough but is nice. Gewndoll is the ditzy blonde girl who also likes to drink. I really like all the character designs in the game, and I really like the writing/voice acting in the game too.
Like I said prior, fans of classic turn-based RPGs will really enjoy Starbites. I'm a fan of turn-based RPGs and I had a great time. The combat is where the game gets going. / Each character in the party has different skills and attacks. The attacks have different elements and enemies are weak to certain things. Think the way games like Pokémon have same type attack bonuses. I would advise attacking almost everything you see in the overworld so you can level up and gain experience. As you level up, you'll gain skill points that can be used to level up different skills via skill tree. A nice touch is that when you level up, you heal your stats. During battle you'll be able to knock the enemy out of commission for a little while. This is called breaching and could be what you need to turn the tide in battle. There is also a cool feature that you can attack whenever you need to in battle. It fills up a gage during battle and when full, you can activate it to get a free attack in whenever in battle. You'll have the option to use either a regular attack or a special attack. It appears that the attack has to be from Lukida but getting a attack whenever in the attack order is cool.
You'll be able to use a dash on the overworld map to travel faster on your robot that you battle in. You'll also be able to run when you are in certain locations with characters. You also have the option to control speed during battle. I like when RPGS allow the player to decide how fast battles will be. You'll be doing a lot of them so why not be able to speed through them. I'd also advise picking up everything you find on the ground. You never know what you'll find and that could be handy in crafting later in the game.
Starbites is shaping up to be a really fun RPG that pays homage to the classic era. There are some hiccups in terms of graphics at times but that doesn't take way from the fun of the game. The voice acting is really good and so is the writing. This could be one of my RPGS of the year so stay tuned. I'd like to thank the devs for a review code. Check out the hands-on video below.