Summary
Sand Land, as it was known before today, has been around for two decades in the form of a manga series written and illustrated by the creator ofDragon Ball, the late Akira Toriyama. Now, the beloved manga has come to life in the form of an open-world action RPG by ILCA and Bandai Namco Entertainment that faithfully adapts the world ofSand Landand its characters to deliver a heartwarming adventure worth experiencing firsthand. While the execution of its open world leaves a bit to be desired,Sand Landdoes plenty of things right that fans of JRPGs and fulfilling progression will enjoy.
Sand Land’s storysees the Fiend Prince Beelzebub setting out on an adventure with an unlikely team of companions in search of the Legendary Spring, as the desert world of Sand Land suffers from an extreme water shortage. As Beelzebub, players will lead this group of misfits on a journey across a massive open world teeming with enemies to defeat and interesting characters to meet. It is a one-of-a-kind experience and a rather surprising addition to the JRPG genre.
Sand Land Is a Heartwarming Adventure With Memorable Characters
The highlight ofSand Landis undeniably its story and characters. The story has a bit of a slow start but quickly picks up after its first false ending. Intypical modern JRPGfashion,Sand Land’s story is cheesy but endearing, as what begins as a quest for the Legendary Spring leads to a much bigger problem than Beelzebub and his friends had originally anticipated.
Sand Land’s charactersare what make the whole adventure worth experiencing. As the story progresses, the relationship between Beelzebub and his companions improves and the game’s charm increases as a result. Beelzebub is one of the game’s most likable characters, mainly due to his playful personality. As a demon, he tries his best to appear as evil and tough as possible, and yet his kindhearted nature always gets the best of him. His faithful companion, Thief, despite being named for his ability to pilfer others' valuable items without being seen, is a very honorable and trustworthy friend and often takes on the role of wise advisor to Beelzebub during their travels.
When it comes toSand Land’s main characters, most of its character development happens with Beelzebub’s human companions, Rao and Ann. As it turns out, Rao has a much more extensive history than the rest of the characters are initially aware of, and it all comes to light as the game’s first act comes to an end. Despite having one of the poorest vocal performances inSand Land, Rao is still a compelling character in the ways that matter most. Ann is another likable character with an important backstory, but her primary role in the team is outfitting them with powerful and effective vehicles that can help them accomplish their tasks.
Sand Land’s Progression Reinvents the Wheel
Unlike mostaction RPGs, which usually tie progression to the player’s gear,Sand Land’s progression largely revolves around its vehicles. As players make their way throughSand Land’s story, they will unlock several different vehicles for use in combat and traversal. Each vehicle comes with its own benefits and abilities, and they can be swapped almost instantaneously whether players are in or out of combat.
Sand Land’s vehicle customizationis very deep, as it is the primary means players increase their combat power. Each part of a vehicle can be customized — including its primary weapon, secondary weapon, engine, and suspension — to allow for a highly personalized experience and satisfying progression. InSand Land’s endgame, players will begin acquiring special parts (Epic, Legendary, and Mythical) for their vehicles that will make them even more powerful, so it’s worth getting to that point sooner rather than later.
While most ofSand Land’s combat is spent behind the wheel of a vehicle, Beelzebub and his friends are not without their own combat skills when fighting on foot. Beelzebub has a skill tree with several different combat abilities to unlock, and his companions have their own as well, with passive and active skills that can benefit the Fiend Prince and his vehicles. Unfortunately, skill points for unlocking these abilities are hard to earn inSand Land, as kills and quests provide a trivial amount of experience.
Another key aspect ofSand Land’s progression is thecity of Spino, which doubles as the team’s home base and is one of the game’s most innovative features. An increasingly popular feature in open-world games is an ever-evolving world, and that’s precisely what Spino brings to the table. InSand Land’s early game, players will visit the rundown, dilapidated city of Spino and will be tasked with ensuring it gets rebuilt. Rather than physically building it or gathering materials for it, players rebuild Spino by completing side quests. Certain side quests in the game, once completed, will see various characters moving to Spino where they will set up a new shop or offer cosmetic additions that will spruce up the city’s visuals.
Vehicles are such a central focus ofSand Land, in fact, that there is arguably no reason for players to ever attempt to fight or travel on foot unless the game explicitly prevents them from being in a vehicle.
Once players completely rebuild Spino, they will have access to almost every kind of material and vehicle part in the game, so long as they have the funds and materials to either purchase or trade for them. This effectively makesSand Land’s side questsmore than worth completing, which often proves to be a tough obstacle for open-world games to overcome.Sand Land’s side quests are fairly typical for an open-world title, meaning they usually involve players either fetching or killing something, but their stories can be surprisingly captivating and emotional. However, the true reward comes when these individuals move to Spino and the city changes.
Sand Land’s Open World Is Repetitive But Rewarding
In one sense,Sand Landworks as anopen-world game, as the premise revolves around a massive desert wasteland that is in dire need of water. Giving players miles of land to traverse between objectives helps to reinforce that feeling of emptiness that the story is doing its best to drive home. However, in another sense,Sand Landmight have been able to get by without such a large open world, primarily because much of the land in the game is far too underutilized to justify its existence. Thankfully, later in the game, players can acquire a much faster vehicle that can get them from one point to another rather quickly, and there are plenty of fast-travel points to allow players to easily skip what can otherwise be long, empty trips.
For the most part,Sand Land’s open world is vast and empty, with not much innovation to show for it. It takes after more infamousopen-world models, such as Ubisoft’s, by having a sprawling world to explore that is filled with often meaningless and uninteresting activities. Modern open-world games have been known to receive criticism on account of their maps being cluttered with icons, all but making their activities more like chores than anything else.Sand Landisn’t quite as cluttered as some, but it’s not the number of activities that creates bloat — it’s the quality of those activities.
Sand Landmight have been able to get by without such a large open world, primarily because much of the land in the game is far too underutilized to justify its existence.
Exploration can be rewarding for the materials and vehicle parts that players can find. Still, the copy-and-paste nature of most of the game’s dungeons, caves, and other explorable locations makes for a largely unfulfilling experience. It can quickly lead to burnout if players don’t pace themselves.Sand Land’s dungeonsprimarily consist of ruins that are generally visually and structurally identical to one another, but exploring them can reward players with valuable coins that they can trade for worthwhile items. Caves are very shallow and there are an overwhelming number of them, but they often contain plenty of materials and sometimes even rare vehicle parts. Much like Ubisoft’sFar Cryseries, players can find and repair radio towers inSand Landthat will reveal the surrounding area and any activities in the immediate vicinity, but doing so often only serves to clutter the map even more.
During exploration, dialogue between Beelzebub and his companions can get repetitive very quickly, to the point that players will begin hearing the same statements repeated within the first hour of the game. If a conversation is ever interrupted for any reason, it will start over again at the next available opportunity, meaning players could hear the same conversation repeated dozens of times if they don’t exhaust it before moving on. That being said, this dialogue changes slightly over time as the story progresses and the characters develop their relationships with one another, and this all serves to add toSand Land’s charm and heartwarming nature.
Sand Land Can Prove a Bit Rough Around the Edges
Despite everything it has going for it,Sand Landisn’t without its rough edges. There aren’t many technical problems to speak of butSand Land’s most glaring issues come down to its quality of life and certain gameplay choices. Withopen-world explorationbeing such a huge part ofSand Land, one would expect its map to be intuitive. Unfortunately,Sand Landis full of winding roads and cliffs and the map fails to depict those features on a three-dimensional plane, so it can be very challenging to discern how to get from point A to point B when it’s generally not a straight line.
As far asSand Land’s gameplayissues go, the most troublesome issue comes into play with the game’s stealth segments. For the most part, they feel out of place in the whole experience and are just not executed very well. There are no skills associated with stealth, so each of these segments usually ends up being a trial-and-error experience more than anything else. Additionally,Sand Landoccasionally provides opportunities for player agency, like choosing between two NPCs to move to Spino City. However, these moments are few and far between, so it’s difficult to feel like there isn’t some missed potential here. Still, any amount of player agency can be a refreshing change of pace.
Sand Land’s story, characters, and progression are among its best features, all of which stand out in theJRPG genreand are fondly remembered, even after the credits roll. While its open world may rely a bit too much on the open-world model that many gamers have come to dislike, its exploration still proves to be a rewarding venture that feeds into its satisfying progression system. ILCA and Bandai Namco Entertainment have created something worthwhile inSand Land, suitable for fans of the original manga and newcomers alike.
Sand Land
Reviewed on PS5
Dive into a desert world where both humans and demons suffer from an extreme water shortage - SAND LAND. Meet the Fiend Prince Beelzebub, his chaperone Thief, and the fearless Sheriff Rao, and follow the team on an extraordinary adventure in search of the Legendary Spring hidden in the desert, and much more. The end is only the beginning, as beyond this arid ground lies a mysterious new realm to explore - Forest Land.This action-RPG is a nostalgic and heartwarming world created by Akira Toriyama, where you will become the main character, Beelzebub. Learn how to control his powers and lead your company of heroic misfits, exploring the legendary world of SAND LAND and the brand-new Forest Land. But beware of the many dangers that populate them: between bandits, fierce wildlife, and ruthless Army Generals, reaching the spring and saving the world won’t be easy!Use your tact and imagination to develop tanks and other vehicles that will help you navigate these vast resourceful lands, using a wide array of part combinations. Build up your base of operations into a thriving city, with the help of the people you meet along the way in this desert.
Sand Landis available now on PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Game Rant was provided with a PS5 code for this review.
