Sand Land Review – Enticing Toriyama Tribute

The recently-departed Akira Toriyama left behind a rich gaming legacy between contributing to the likes of Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger and the many, many, many Dragon Ball adaptations, and that legacy will only continue to build after his death. Sand Land is one of Toriyama’s more recent, lesser-known creations, but it’s been given a serious push over the past year, receiving an anime film, streaming series on Disney+, and now a video game from Bandai Namco and One Piece Odyssey developer ILCA.

Of course, as great as some Toriyama-associated games have been, there’s also been a plenty of so-so ones. Is Sand Land a posthumous mark in the win column or will it leave Toriyama fans thirsty for something better? Time for some anime game analysis…

Sand Land casts players as Beelzebub, the diminutive crown prince of demon kind who’s secretly sort of a softy more interested in convincing his dad Lucifer to extend his daily gaming time than doing anything particularly evil. Sand Land itself is a Mad-Max-esque wasteland scarred by past wars and lorded over by royal regime that hoards ever spare drop of water for themselves. Our story is set in motion when a human sheriff named Rao requests Beelzebub and his demon friends’ help in stealing a royal tank and finding a fabled lost spring that may bring some life back to the land. Eventually, secrets about the royal water source, Rao’s past, and more will be revealed.

The first part of the Sand Land game follows the narrative laid down in Toriyama’s original manga and the first six episodes of the streaming series quite faithfully, and you might expect the story to end there, but it doesn’t. The game offers up an entire second act, featuring bigger threats and another map (Forest Land) to explore. I won’t get too deeply into what happens in the back half of Sand Land, but suffice to say, the game serves up a heftier narrative than I anticipated.

Whether it be through the sly humor of Beelzebub and Lucifer’s father-son relationship, the game’s many dramatic shouting-filled showdowns, or the occasional deeper thematic elements, you really feel the spirit of Toriyama shining through as you play Sand Land. While the world of Sand Land arguably isn’t as original or groundbreaking as Dragon Ball, these characters are likable (or hateable in the case of the villains) and the narrative kept me consistently hooked.

This is all brought to life via presentation that goes well beyond the average anime game. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, many of the Sand Land game’s cutscenes honestly look better than the Disney+ series. The scope of the world is impressive, with plenty of distinct landmarks keeping the sandy theme from becoming too repetitive. While the PS5 version of the game doesn’t offer a choice of visual modes, it runs at a very stable 60fps and what appears to be a respectable resolution. To my surprise, this may be one of the most technically-polished UE5 games I’ve played to date.

Moving onto gameplay, Beelzebub has your standard array of action-adventure protagonist moves. He can run, jump, and perform basic combos and special attacks. Party members follow along with you and can provide passive buffs or periodically be issued commands (although, honestly, you can largely ignore them). This is all fine, but things get a lot more interesting when vehicles, which can be summoned nearly anywhere and switched on the fly, come into play.

Your standby will be your trusty combat-hardened tank, but there are a number of other types of vehicles that offer their own unique traversal abilities and combat strengths. Jumper bots, hovercars, mini mechs, and more, all of which can be upgraded and customized. Vehicle types range somewhat in terms of how well they control, but your basic tank feels good, and the control schemes for all vehicles are similar enough that you can switch between them with relative ease. Most regular enemy encounters don’t present a huge challenge, with certain enemy types being repeated frequently, but as the game progresses it serves up some unexpectedly daunting boss encounters that will test your endurance and ability to juggle different vehicle types.

Of course, a roster of cool vehicles doesn’t mean much if you don’t have an interesting world to explore, and, thankfully, Sand Land largely delivers on that front. The familiar open-world tropes are there, including radio towers, bandit camps, ect, but the map also has an appealing puzzle-ish feel that requires you to use your different bots’ abilities to explore everywhere. That exploration is satisfying as the game does a good job of making sure there’s almost always some reward for going out of your way, whether it be a new weapon, crafting materials, or perhaps an NPC you can recruit for your home base. A variety of sidequests and fun extras like races further bring the world to life.

Despite the game’s name, Sand Land isn’t all sandbox-style exploration though. The main campaign will take you through various dungeon-like sections, which start out fairly straightforward, but eventually offer up more complex layouts and even some light puzzle elements. While you won’t find much in Sand Land that you haven’t seen before in other games of its type, I was surprised by the sheer amount of stuff the developers packed in, particularly compared to other licensed anime adaptations.

Working through said stuff will take some time as Sand Land’s campaign is a solid 15 to 20 hours long and those who want to buff up their home base and fleet of vehicles and clean up all the sidequests could easily sail past the 30-hour mark. This is the rare desert you want to get lost in.

This review was based on a PS5 copy of Sand Land provided by publisher Bandai Namco.

Sand Land

Sand Land is a fitting farewell to Akira Toriyama as the game elevates itself above most digital adaptations of his work, delivering a well-presented story, solid action, and satisfying exploration. Some aspects of the game’s design may be a bit overfamiliar for open-world veterans, but newer players and fans just looking to explore a fresh world from the master will likely enjoy burying themselves in this sandy adventure.

Buy for $59.99 from Amazon

The links above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Wccftech.com may earn from qualifying purchases.