Sand Land became an unfortunate curiosity on account of Akira Toriyama being attached to it, and it being one of the first releases featuring his work following his recent passing. As far as Toriyama’s work is concerned, Sand Land delivers all the whimsical energy that you expect from his distinctive style. It’s just a pity that in many ways it’s also exactly what you’d expect from a licensed video game.
You don’t need to be a fan of the anime or manga property to play Sand Land, if only because it’s such a well-trodden and standard setting. The world has been afflicted with a curse of sorts that was causing everything to turn into a giant desert. You could say that the climate was changing, and this was not a good outcome for humanity. The few people left find themselves in a constant struggle for basic things like water, and to make things worse, demons were showing up and terrorising their human neighbours.
Sand Land puts you in control of one such demon, Beelzebub, the son of the demon lord, who finds himself on an unlikely journey with humans to find a Legendary Spring and enough water for all.
This Holy Grail quest brings Beelzebub and his allies into conflict with armies and worse, but early on he also gains himself a tank that allows him to fight back with a real punch. From there Sand Land settles into its rhythm of vehicular combat and upgrades, with plenty of opportunities to dismount and also get involved in some fisticuffs. A far more Toriyama-flavoured take on Metal Max or Mad Max, basically.
There’s a love of vehicles that permeates Sand Land, and it’s appealing to tinker around with. In the end you’ll play with almost a dozen vehicles, and you’ll be able to upgrade and tweak everything from the weapons and engine to the suspension and paint decals. The world is large enough to make moving through it using all of these contraptions a joy, and the vehicular side of Sand Land is its highlight.
Once you exit the tank/whatever else, things become significantly less thrilling, sadly. On-foot combat works, but I’ve been playing Stellar Blade, Final Fantasy XVI DLC and more in recent weeks and “works” is not a synonym for “is of the standard of excellent action RPGs” in this instance. There’s exactly the kind of skill tree and moveset that you’d expect, and there’s a decent enough flow to combos and defensive manoeuvres, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that the developer, which previously produced One Piece Odyssey, would have been much better off blending the real-time tank action with turn-based on-foot combat.
Sadly things get even worse when the developer tries to throw variety into the gameplay. There are several stealth sections in Sand Land that are about as interesting and enjoyable as pulling teeth. For these, you need to follow a set path and there isn’t nearly enough information (beyond the breadcrumb-like objective markers to properly plan out a path through the area). Worse, the enemy AI is ridiculously poor and these sections can go on well past the point of tedium. Thankfully they’re more front-loaded into the adventure, but they’re a lousy way to get things going.
Sand Land is also let down by all the issues that you’d expect from an open world game, just in B-grade form. Quests are generic and the world is too big to be particularly enjoyable to explore. It’s also discordant with the theme of the property, because for a world that is supposedly in its dying days, where the remanding stragglers are effectively just waiting for the last of the water to run out, there’s an awful lot going on. I realise that it’s in humanity’s nature to go out with a bang rather than a whimper, but still, it didn’t take long for the gritty theme that the introduction sets up to fade right into the background and be replaced with yet another anime romp.
All of this is especially true when you go beyond the sands. Sure, from a visual perspective, the break from the yellows and browns is well appreciated, but the oasis-live vibe from these further undermines the themes.
Finally, I was not a fan of the characterisation at all. The art was, yes, excellent, but Beelzebub is exactly the annoying kid character, who can be motivated to go on an epic quest across a blasted desert for a video game, and then makes the most annoying quips while exploring. Over and over and over and over again. The ensemble cast around him isn’t much better. I realise that this is based on a property that is designed for kids, but the characterisation is a little too clumsy for my taste.
It’s unfortunate that Sand Land isn’t quite up to the standard that one of Japan’s all-time great artists deserves. It’s not that it’s a bad game. It’s very entertaining, especially when you start messing around with the tank battles. It’s just nothing more than a well-made licensed tie-in, something that you’ll forget soon after you play it, and never feel the need to return to. It really does look great, though. Akira Toriyama is going to be missed.
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Since they’re already expanding the world in 2024, they should just go all the way. On the topic of desertification today, people in China, Africa and the Middle East are planting crops and raising fish on deserts. That is as magical as any anime.
The politics on desertification changed since the original was created whole they still are insufficient enough that the environmental message of the original is still valid. Acknowledging that could make for interesting stories.
Anyway, can’t wait for the continuation of this trend. Hope someone makes a Osamu tezuka’s Dr. Blackjack game or a licensed Kaiji ‘squid game like’ video-game.
It’s kinda sad that we never got a truly Toriyama design tank/vehicle combat game or an Advance Wars clone with his trademark bulbous designs. Also after watching the series (and reading the manga some time prior) I have noticed an obvious issue: why are there stealth sections with Beelzebub (who usually prefers a head on approach) when Thief is a character who actually uses stealth? Including sneaking around with the tank?