Game review 25 April 2024, 05:00

author: Giancarlo Saldana

Sand Land Review: Rich Yet Parched

Akira Toriyama’s final works is now a video game that hopes to introduce you to an arid world that needs saving. Does it offer what you want in an open-world game or leave you wanting more? Find out in our review.

The review is based on the PC version. It's also relevant to PS5, XSX, XONE, PS4 version(s).

Chances are you may not have heard of Sand Land, the manga, anime, and now game, but one glance at its art style and you will immediately recognize it as a one of Akira Toriyama’s final works. What started off as a manga is now a massive open world game that is as charming as it is fun to explore and follows the efforts of a friendly demon and his band of friends trying to save the world from capitalism and ultimate destruction.

A vibrant open-world experience, Sand Land features characters that will stick with you for some time, an impressive vehicle crafting system, and plenty of charming plot points that immerse you into a world that gets more interesting as you progress through its story missions. Its gameplay elements may not be groundbreaking, but its story is what holds it together.

Storytelling That Draws You In

Upon starting your adventure, you’ll realize that the country of Sand Land, as its name suggests, features lots and lots of sand. Its arid setting make you feel like you are in the middle of an endless desert, and you’ll realize its many denizens are in a fight for survival with water as the precious commodity. This first part of the game follows the plot of the standalone manga and features an engaging cast on a mission to find a legendary spring to restore water to the land. They get more than they bargained for, and soon are the only ones that can save their home from greed, corruption, and the looming threat of outsiders.

Sand Land’s storytelling happens through conversations and cutscenes that make you feel like you are watching an interactive anime. Each character you meet has a rich backstory that the game explores in a natural way without bogging down the story with unnecessary fluff. Your interactions with your party members may not be as deep or feature dialogue trees like in a more traditional RPG, but your conversations and cutscenes paint a vivid and interesting story that fits the game’s overall theme—not too complicated but not meaningless either.

Plus, it doesn’t hurt the cast is as delightful as the world they live in. Beelzebub, the protagonist and the character you control, for example, is a softy at heart and the kind of demon who will go out of his way to protect his friends. Rao, the human ex-soldier who goes to him for help at the start of your adventure, has a past that he wishes he could erase but makes it his mission to make up for his mistakes. Everyone you meet is full of life and provides the story with that important ingredient that keeps you invested in how it turns out. Again, because the story is easy to swallow it makes following it a breeze even when it introduces a whole array of villains and side characters.

Not to mention, the game looks amazing. You can instantly pick out the Toriyama staples in the artwork, and even 3D cutscenes feel like they could be straight out of an anime. The desolate yet captivating setting slowly introduces ruins, abandoned aircrafts, and rich and verdant landscapes later on that are a feast for the eyes. Its talented cast and fitting soundtrack also make the experience all the more inviting. It’s really one of the best-looking anime-inspired games out there.

What can get repetitive, however, is hearing your party say the same lines over and over again as you are exploring Sand Land. You will often hear the same lines repeated right after each other almost as if the game forgot the character just muttered it a few seconds ago. It’s also annoying that Beelzebub will also say the same lines right after another as he jumps up surfaces or beats up enemies. Considering how well the rest of the game sounds, more spaced out lines or more variety in what you hear would have made a huge difference.

Exploration Leaves You Wanting More

When it comes to how it plays, Sand Land fits the mold of an open world combat RPG without breaking it. Its map is impressively large with plenty of areas to explore, side-quests to take on, and treasure to loot, but don’t expect it to show you something you haven’t seen before. Instead, the game’s quaint world and characters are what will keep you wanting to explore its vast areas even if some aspects of that exploration could be more fleshed out.

Sure, it’s fun finally getting to an old ruin on your map, but it’s disappointing to discover it’s just one room with some chests to open and not an actual explorable dungeon. Its initial story missions provide you with a great variety of things to do, but the later part of the game feels almost like you’re doing the same thing again just in a totally new map. Plus, it doesn’t help that the various side missions the game offers feel weak and consist mainly of beating up enemies without much else to do.

On the other hand, one of Sand Land’s saving graces is the many vehicles you will be able to craft and customize to both explore and engage in battle. You can cruise around on a motorcycle, for example, or get to higher surfaces on a jump-bot. These vehicles make exploration more varied as you will sometimes need to hop on a specific one and utilize its power or speed to solve area-based puzzles. These aren’t that complicated, unfortunately, but they do provide a mix-up to your exploration.

Tanks To the Rescue

Combat also happens in the moment so you can go up to any hostile human or creature you see and pick a fight with it until their HP gets to zero. As you defeat enemies and gain experience points, you can unlock new skills for Beelzebub that increase his attacks, health, and special abilities to do even more damage. Combat is very simple and even leveling up feels rather straightforward. Don’t expect to customize Beelzebub too much as he feels more like a one-trick pony. You can, however, unlock passive and active skills for your companions Rao and Thief, who provide an edge in battle but also increase the chances of scoring rare items from enemies.

Hand-to-hand combat, unfortunately, is perhaps my least favorite aspect of the game due to how barebones it feels. You mainly just switch off between a light and heavy attack and occasionally use up your charged-up meter to win. The real draw to battles is when you are in one of your vehicles deploying your guns, cannons, and turrets. Your powerful tank will be your go-to for most of these fights, but you may also need to switch to other more nimble vehicles during certain boss encounters.

Vehicles can also be customized in more ways than Beelzebub can, which speaks to how important they are in both exploring and fending off foes. Enemies will drop crafting materials for more advanced vehicle parts, but you can also find them in chests hidden around the world allowing you to upgrade your mechs, add whatever part you want, and create a machine that works for your play style. You will still have to work with the general framework of each vehicle so you can’t make a Frankenstein of a machine, but you can create powerful mechs (mainly tanks) that do a lot of damage if you have the parts and money for them, of course.

Final Thoughts

When it all comes down to it, Sand Land’s biggest selling point is its charm. Whether you’re in the middle of a battle, mid-conversation with one of your party members, or cruising down the desert and seeing the sun set in the background, the game easily puts a smile on your face. It’s like one of those anime shows you tune into not thinking it will suck you in, but then you’re watching it for 30 plus hours wanting to see how it all plays out.

However, because it’s a game, you want your interactive experience to offer more variety, more substantial missions, and even a more fleshed-out combat system. Sand Land definitely has moments that are fun and worth the price of admission, but it will also leave you scratching your head wondering if this is the best it could do. It may be leagues away from being a Dragon Ball epic, but it does its best to introduce you to a series that you may want to watch or read first.

Reviewed on PC with PS5 controller