It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
I think maybe because I never read manga the first time I had heard of the late Akira Toriyamas, Sand Land was when the trailer for the game was shown at the “Ge-Off’s’. Since then, I have been watching the anime and fallen in love with the world and characters of Sand Land. So, I was just as excited to jump into the game, hoping that it was going to pull me in just as much, and well; in some ways it did and others it didn’t.
Sand Land centers on a desert world suffering a water shortage and just as in Dragonball, Toriyama manages to blend action and comedy but manages to throw in a dash of fantasy and sci-fi. Players will jump into the boots of the young pink-skinned fiend prince Beelzebub. A demon with a heart of gold who really just wants to play video games like every other kid nowadays, teams up with his wise old fiend friend Thief and the human sheriff Rao. The trio embark on a quest to find the legendary water source that will hopefully bring life back to Sand Land.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $59.99
As of the time of this writing there are 11 episodes of the anime and I am caught up, the first half of the game follows the anime pretty faithfully, I found out the later part is something of a sequel by Toriyama. Our heroes end up embroiled in a war after venturing into the neighboring Forest Land. Seeing this area come to life in the game is quite the sight after seeing all the sand, I am not complaining I know the game is called Sand Land after all. All of the visuals in this game were wonderful, Toriyama’s style is beautiful to look at evoking many feelings of Dragon Quest, Ball and even Blue Dragon.
One of the things that really resounded with me was the narrative in Sand Land, the game carries a theme of being careful to not judge a book by its cover. For God’s sake the main character is a demon whose father is literally Lucifer. Yet, this fiend has a fierce love for his friends and helps out those in need. There is no bigger example than Sheriff Rao though, I can’t go into it here without spoiling but he’s forced to come to terms with some things from his past in a big way. All of the characters that are met really feel fleshed out, and that’s something people don’t generally think to find when playing a game based on an anime but Sand Land does a great job of making you care.
Most of the combat in Sand Land happens thru vehicles, mainly the tank that has been seen in all the media. Players will unlock various vehicles like a hover-car, motorcycles, bi-pedal jumping mechs and more. All of them glide and control effortlessly across the sandy surfaces, it makes for a fluid and extremely fun battles. Players will have to collect various resources that they will find across the open-world map to build and upgrade these vehicles. Beyond just stat boosts to enhance attack or defense, players can customize their vehicles with paint, stickers and more. The vehicular combat is my second favorite part of Sand Land, with the story being my favorite; I just wish the open world map gave more opportunities for some of the fun battles.
Sand Land is a big world, a big and barren world. Well that makes sense due to the lack of water, but while players will find various ruins, caves and other things to explore. The world only has a handful of enemy types, players will fight snakes, scorpions and of course raiders and soldiers but that’s really it. There will be lots of downtime as players navigate the desert as enemies just feel few and far between at times. This remains the case in Forest Land, even though arguably the scenery is better. The forced stealth segments are also something that was iffy for me, having to play trial and error isn’t really fun but its more forgiving than other games. The other thing I wish Sand Land had was better side quests, this big open world is full of characters, some of which have personalities that really shine through. But with all that the side quests in this game are extremely bland, which is honestly a bummer.
I enjoyed my time with Sand Land, the adventures of Beelzebub and team was often times funny but really had a great story to tell. I loved the banter between them, and even helping to build up Spino City, which opens up new venders. I wish the team had put in more interesting side quests and enemy types but even though it felt kind of repetitive, as I said I had fun in Sand Land and that’s what it really is all about anyway.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
