Developer ILCA's Sand Land was one of the last projects to feature input from legendary manga artist Akira Toriyama.
An action RPG based on Toriyama's popular one-shot manga that preceded generational hits like Globe and Dragon Ball, Sandland is an interesting game with a focus on vehicles. It embraces play and customization, and is shaped by RPG trappings that perfectly match the iconic art style.
Until Toriyama's death in March, which added emotional weight to many, Sand Land had the appearance of being one of the most interesting entries in a stacked release calendar. It was impossible to ignore the unmistakable art style, expressive characters, and promise of unique mechanics and deep replayability.
And now, Sand Land is here to achieve those goals and meet expectations.
graphics and gameplay
Even non-manga and anime viewers have long admired Toriyama's familiar style, particularly the circular, steampunk-inspired vehicle designs that pervaded series like Sand Kingdom, Dr. Slump, and of course Dragon Ball. I've touched on it over the years.
This style makes for a great backdrop here, and the desert environment-based game is surprisingly vibrant and colorful, with fun lighting and shadow effects. The characters are very expressive in the expected anime style, and the complementary sound design provides interesting dialogue (if not a little stilted in the voice acting department) and thumping explosions that underpin battles. means.And the enemies you encounter can be downright terrifying Huge It is large in scale and provides memorable encounters.
In short, it's absolutely wild, stylistically, to see a comic pop off the page and into a video game like this. Previous Dragon Ball Z games and others have sometimes experienced slight style changes during transitions, but this one doesn't feel like that.
The design choices that bring the manga pages to life allow the details to really shine. Things like the smoke animation are a big plus, as is the stunning lighting, especially when moving around the spotlight in the shadows. Given this choice, it means no more messy textures, bad pop-in from a distance, or other graphical issues that plague blockbuster titles that strive for realism.
As players navigate the world (and not just the desert) in third person, it quickly becomes apparent how big things feel. Again, art that doesn't negatively impact performance.Thanks to his style, there are some amazing draw distances on the horizon, adding depth to the immersion.
The controls can be a bit wonky, but there are several different configuration types that players will want to try out. It seems most logical to move the tank in the direction it is facing, rather than where the camera is facing.
Combat on foot is centered around melee attacks, with an emphasis on evasion. It's by no means central to the gameplay, but it's solid enough to avoid standing out in a bad way. It doesn't rewrite the genre, but the stealth mechanics are there and functional, and stealth “takedowns” can be interesting.
Vehicle-based combat puts specific vehicles into traditional RPG-style roles. For example, motorcycles are very fast, but cannot do much damage. As the name suggests, tanks are good at medium range and have slow movement times.
It's a fun mix that keeps things fresh as players adjust their vehicles and encounter all kinds of enemies.
Thanks to the iconic capsule-based device featured in Toriyama's work, players can ride multiple vehicles at once and switch between them on the fly in a way that makes sense from a story perspective.
This is a good thing, considering that a stable of different types of vehicles will help you explore. Jump-specific vehicles can reach great heights, and hover cars can bypass difficult terrain.
Much like the combat itself, there's a bit of fun strategy involved in finding the right vehicle for the job, and the exploration is often well worth the extra look at the gorgeous art style.
stories etc.
For those familiar with Sand Land, this will feel right at home.
Players control Beelzebub and his colorful crew as they travel through a desert-dominated world where water is the most important currency. They seek the legendary spring, and along the way, they meet a bevy of interesting characters, both friends and foes, and keep an overall upbeat, cartoon-like pace.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Sand Land is that players have extreme control over modular vehicles, character skill trees, how the world is spread out, and even the ability to upgrade what starts out as a small town into a city.
The last part is the highlight. Players can recruit her NPCs to move into emerging communities and later help upgrade their cities. When this happens, settlements passively help players acquire further resources, creating a nice feedback loop and a great reason to engage with content outside of the main story.
There's also a really big and fun element to town-based gameplay as players customize their own living spaces with furniture and more.
Players also have an element of control over how the world opens up. It's become something of a meme in open-world games, but Sand Lands does indeed have radio towers dotted throughout, which when completed add even more detail to the map.
Other important items in the open world include water stops that allow fast travel. The map is huge and has just enough life to keep things interesting, but having DBZ-style instant submissions makes it more of a challenge, so to speak. Exploring landmarks like ruins and caves, participating in races and saving NPCs makes for fun, anticipated, and time-consuming side content.
Next is character customization. Leveling up your party creates different styles of play, allowing players to really lean into specific skills and styles for variety and increased replayability over time.
For example, Thief's skills focus on acquiring items. Beelzebub gradually unlocks skills such as large area attacks while on foot. Other characters' skills are focused on combat, support, etc., allowing RPG-lite players to build a party.
Adding vehicle customization only gives players more control over the experience. Collecting parts and combining different combinations to create vehicles can sometimes yield interesting results, and it's fun to experiment with character, party, and vehicle combinations.
There's also a lot more proverbial meat on the bone here than you'd expect. In addition to the impressive list of weapons and other parts that you install on your vehicle, details that can only be seen in racing he simulators, such as the engine and suspension, also affect performance.
In addition to a powerful suite of options, there's a solid tutorial within the menu that appears to be able to handle most questions on a whim. And, as suggested, performance is also a net positive.
conclusion
Some may wonder why a short manga from the Shonen Jump era from decades ago is being treated as a full-fledged video game here.
However, Sand Land answers this within minutes. It's perfect for this medium.
Not only is the modular capsule mechanic a fascinating gameplay element and an iconic art style, but whereas the likes of Dragon Ball Z have been done ad nauseum, this game has a world and plenty of room to expand and explore the story.
Perhaps the legend's most underrated manga turned into a comprehensive and heartfelt RPG, Sand Land is a fitting tribute to Toriyama and one of the year's top surprises. is.
