The story goes that our protagonist, Lukida, was born on the planet of Bitter, the unfortunate stage of the end of an old intergalactic war. Born into an astronomical debt from her late parents, Lukida has vowed to escape her indentured servitude along with her debt, with the help of her friends Gwendoll and Badger. She has to regain her literal ticket to a flight off Bitter, lost in a battle against a mechanical titan. Her journey takes her across the many ruined wastelands of Bitter: oceans of dunes, swamps of leaked battery acid, graveyards full of crashed starships, and the hallways of those ships whose internal batteries haven't yet kicked the bucket. Along the way, she'll meet all manner of scavengers, bandits, and bounty hunters. It's an effective yarn; Lukida is a winsome protagonist, and her friends are lovable. The story beats are effective and the characters memorable, if a bit archetypal.

As much as I enjoyed my time with STARBITES, I want to frontload some issues I've had with it. I'm not sure of the details behind its development, but there's a bit of crunch to the game, to coin a phrase. Graphical glitches are noticeable at times; one time, a town's cat spawned underneath an NPC I was speaking to, causing the cat to clip and freak out. There's a town whose entrance is a dark hallway leading to an open room; stepping past a certain point in the hallway made the whole hallway vanish instantly. There was one instance of Lukida's model t-posing during a cutscene where she was clearly meant to be walking. Graphics aside, there is also a bit of jank to the game's general structure. One quest tasked me with delivering a lost item from somewhere in the wasteland; while I found the item before even taking the quest, I had to go back to where I found the item to trigger a cutscene before the quest allowed me to deliver the item. Movement is also a bit sluggish; there's a "Dash" button that you can toggle to keep activated, but even "Dashing" feels a bit slow when crossing maps (the intended walking speed is all but intolerable). Unfortunately, when Lukida is on foot, her dash makes her skid to a stop. The music is inoffensive but not terribly memorable.

These issues never escape the fringes of my vision, but all the same, the basic mechanics work and are fun. There's a lot of customization, courtesy not just of the equipment you can find for your Mechbots, but also from the associated engines and Cores, which further modify your Mechbot's performance. The Cores are an especially fun mechanic, being built from the scraps and drops you find all over the wasteland. In my playthrough, I enjoyed granting a core specializing in counter-attacks to Badger, the dedicated tank that could farm aggro. There are some limits (you can't double-up on two cores of the same type), but there's a lot of fun tinkering to be had.

And that's just the start of the customization fun. Characters also have skill trees that can bestow bonus stats, unique types, or modify the properties of their attacks, improving their buffs or debuffs; modifying their SP costs; or even allowing you to regain limited amounts of health or SP with each physical attack. You even have the option of restarting your skill tree at any moment to redistribute your skill points (earned with each level up).

The customization comes in handy with battles. Each skill has a "type," and each enemy has shields vulnerable to specific types. Using enough skills of the right typings can 'Break' enemies, stunning them for a few actions and leaving them open to extra damage. The system is fun and makes boss battles harrowing, but in my playthrough, the mechanic was somewhat wasted; any degree of diligent exploration made my party strong enough to overwhelm enemies without breaking them. A pity, since that meant my Support characters see no action, since they only jump in to deal support damage when an enemy is Broken.

Similarly appealing is the "Driver's High" mechanic; after enough actions or damage taken, characters can enter the Driver's High with a button press, buffing their stats and allowing them to take an immediate action regardless of speed. Driver's Highs are also fun because they change the properties of some attacks, either enhancing their effects or even adding whole new types entirely. You can even choose talents that add further wild effects for skills. But again: if you gain too much experience, you'll go through whole battles without ever seeing it.

It is a shame that the tuning is ever-so-slightly off on STARBITES, because the basic experience is solid and appealing. Lukida and her friends are easy to get invested in, and the battle system works and even gives you amazing amounts of player expression. STARBITES is still just a bit noticeably rough around the edges. Don't let that scare you away: there's a reliable, well-tuned motor under the hood of this title. With some refinement, I can see this game hitting hard. Folks looking for a traditional turn-based experience, at least, should make a beeline for STARBITES, but I don't blame other folks for waiting for a sale.