Sand Land Review – An Ode to Akira
Sand Land is Akira Toryiama’s early 2000s manga of the same name, made into an open-world role-playing game. The game design is a mashup of many different elements in a world filled with an arsenal of vehicles. Each vehicle is uniquely equipped to engage in both combat and traversal. On foot, the game turns into a simple 3rd person beat ’em up with a sprinkle of character action characteristics. This mix of elements presents a game with a variety of simple systems, all of which exhibit a nostalgic charm.
Developer & Publisher // Developed by ILCA, Bandai Namco Entertainment
Platforms // Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 4/5
MSRP & Release Date // $59.99, April 25, 2024
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X
Sand Land Story
The plot in Sand Land is split into two parts. The first section brings a smaller story about bringing water back to the deprived Sand Land. Second, is a grander tale that takes the crew to a whole new land. Although it devolves into saving the world, what resonated with me is witnessing the humanity in the world. Inhabitants of these pockets of civilization are going through it. This world is full of all types of creatures, monsters, and bandits. Demons live amongst humans. Although humans coincide with demons, they are frightened by them. Staying away from the Demon Village, but this is where our story begins.
The game contains revelations and themes that reflect our own history. The powers that be are manipulating the land to their benefit, which leaves citizens to suffer. The past is relentless and haunts us. The Discrimination humans have against the demons. These themes are what gives the world its humanity. The first half exhibited a better pacing, while the second half went on for a bit longer than expected. Overall the narrative wraps up with a neat bow which leaves no loose ends, everything is concluded.
Characters
Rao is an older man who searches for the good in the world and its inhabitants. He now lives his life in old age as a Sheriff. He is an ex-general who hides his real identity and carries a heavy burden. His true intentions are however undeniably pure. Rao shows up at the Demon Village and asks to speak to the leader, he seeks allies to aid him in a journey to find the hidden spring.
Beelzebub relishes being perceived as evil but is willing to help anyone in any way he can. Beelzebub is also the only character that we have direct control over. Belz (Beelzebub for short) is also accompanied by Thief who serves as the story’s comic relief. Thief is an older grumpy demon. Belz, Rao, and Thief make up our party for the first part of the story.
While looking for a tank, the crew stumbles upon a blondie named Ann. The game’s writers took creative liberties with Ann. She was introduced early on compared to the 13-episode miniseries, but it worked well. She fits the role of being our mechanic for the vehicles before ultimately joining our party.
The crew worked well for me. The characters have layers that get peeled back and gut-wrenching revelations as we progress. The only one that gets left out is Thief. His only revelation is he’s good at stealing things and has a Santa Claus outfit. Good thing he is at least provides some comic relief.
The World of Sand Land
Ann is looking for a specific town named Spino. We help her reach this town but quickly learn they’re running out of food and water. It is rundown, their morale is low. The mayor of the town is on the verge of giving up, but eventually, he gains the trust of Belz and his crew.
Gaining his trust allows us to help build up Spino. This town starts barren but gradually is built up through side quests. These quests are completely optional and can be skipped. However, I advise building up at least some of Spino. Side quests give access to shops that make the grind easier in the early-mid game. The shops that unlock via doing the Spino side quests are the painter, furniture shop, and the workshop. In the workshop, players purchase materials that are used to upgrade and craft vehicles. Purchasing materials instead of farming them in the world helps reduce the grind.
Side Content
One of these side quests has the crew stumbling upon an artist named Lutemis. She was enamored with Belz, this is in stark contrast to how most other NPCs react to the Fiend Prince. The interaction with her was different, it was almost raunchy. Finishing her quest results in her opening a furniture store in Spino, allowing us access to decorate our room. The only tangible reward for decorating this room is to unlock an achievement. Belz can display his most prized vehicles in this room which is a nice touch, but overall it is just for fun and offers no real benefit.
Not all of these side quests are tied to building up Spino. Most are just simple fetch quests, but there is an effort here to give each a story. There are deep cuts that strike an emotional chord. For example, there’s a quest titled Vow of the Family. Reya is a small child and has lost her “father”. Belz finds her “father” in a cave and after spouting revelations about Reya, he’s determined to leave her behind. Offering Belz money to leave and deal with the girl.
Players can accept his money or refuse and force the man to go back to take care of the girl. I chose the latter because I felt like it is what Belz would actually do, he is an honorable demon. This outcome exudes the feeling of being loyal to the person who is loyal to us.
Dungeons of Sand Land
Dungeons and mini-dungeons found in the world come in the form of battleships and ruins. Battleships are taken care of in the golden path, while ruins are optional. The design of these dungeons quickly becomes repetitive. A few moments in these battleships play with different camera perspectives. Putting us into 2D side-scrolling segments but these are brief and rare.
Military camps and specific moments in the campaign require stealth. It is not a dynamic system, Belz can not attract roaming guards, as they strictly stick to their routes. Press the left trigger to enter stealth and the militia patrolling the base have a white, yellow, or red triangle over their heads. The yellow will signify caution and the red arrow signifies players are in their line of sight. Belz has one maneuver to get rid of the patrolling militia, sneak up behind and scare them. These sections are brief so I did not mind them. But I can see players getting frustrated by the lack of options.
Vehicular Combat
Players choose between 2 control types for the vehicles. Option A and Option B. I experimented with both, but I preferred the default control scheme. In option A, the acceleration and steering are done via the left thumbstick, similar to the driving in Halo or Borderlands.
It takes time to get used to each vehicle and its quirks, but this option simplifies vehicular combat. Aiming in with the left trigger and using weapons with the right trigger. In option B, vehicles accelerate and break with the triggers but engage in combat via the bumpers. It’s a more cumbersome system.
Belz can hold up to five vehicles at any given time. There are 13 in total aside from the rideable raptor. Certain vehicles are obtained through the story, whilst others are obtained through blueprints. Players acquire blueprints by completing bounties or completing specific race objectives.
Certain vendors in the world sell blueprints. However, a set of parts are also required for crafting vehicles. These parts have a simple rarity system and are found as loot for taking down enemies, finding them in chests, or built through the garage.
Each vehicle serves a different purpose. The tanks are slow but deal a lot of damage. The motorbike is quick and covers ground quickly. The jump bot allows for platforming and can jump massive heights.
Don’t Neglect Certain Vehicles
The tank served as a mainstay in my repertoire. Early on, I relied on the tank, jump bot, and motorcycle. The tank was for enemies and the other two for traversal. However, during the late game, I experimented with more vehicle types. Those being the hopper, hover jet, and battle armor.
My one tip is to not neglect the other vehicle types. Each one has its own use case. For example, there’s a boss we face near the middle of the game named Krowa’s Hoverjet. He’s racing around in a dome-like arena. Instead of taking potshots with the tank, I chased him around with my motorcycle. It was fun. The cool thing is we choose which vehicle to use, and certain vehicles may be better for different bosses.
Vehicle Leveling and Customization
As mentioned above, Ann is in charge of the garage in Spino. The garage is the player’s one-stop shop when it comes to outfitting the vehicles, switching out parts, and creating new vehicles. This is also where we level up our vehicles.
To customize the look and color scheme of the vehicles you’ll need to go to the painter. Through a side quest players get this in, you guessed it, Spino. I spent a lot of time here giving each vehicle their own colorway. Below are my customized designs.
Sand Land On Foot Combat
On foot, Sand Land is a simple beat ’em up. The semblance of character action is through the skill tree. There are a few skills that unlock new combos and moves. While some of these combos and moves are simple, they help alleviate the feeling of just button-mashing. My go-to combo for Belz is a 3-hit flurry which flings enemies into the sky, which then is followed up with air attacks. It’s simple but effective. Enemy locking is toggled with the press of the right stick.
The right bumper allows Belz to use one of his special moves. These moves consume dark energy. Players replenish dark energy by attacking enemies or by consuming a dark energy potion.
Skill Trees
Thief, Rao, and Ann have skills of their own. Their skill trees are full of active and passive skills. Skills used in both vehicles and outside of vehicles. I didn’t use the allies’ skills much aside from Thief’s very useful item-picker ability. It is a neat skill that is great for farming resources in the world. Later on, Ann has some useful vehicle repair and quick reload abilities at the player’s disposal. There is an achievement for unlocking most of these skills. However, I rarely used them outside of a few I mentioned.
Graphics and Performance
I played Sand Land on an Xbox Series X. By doing a little bit of research, I’ve deduced that ILCA (the developers) used Unreal Engine 5 (UE) for this title. The game offers a vibrant and beautiful cell-shaded art style. It captures Akira’s original vision indubitably. Loading times are quick and fast travel happens in a matter of seconds. The only knock against the graphics is textures throughout the world look unappealing when examined up close.
Resolution is dynamic 4K and it is quite sharp. Frame rates run at a mostly smooth 60 FPS. Traversal stutter does show up here, especially when blitzing through the world in a speedy vehicle. This can be a UE-related problem. I also did note FPS dips in the final dungeon and the last two bosses. I’d like to see frame rate toggles and HDR (High Dynamic Range) added in future updates.
Sound and Voice
Music serves as the ambiance. It’s repetitive and players will hear the same tunes, but it does a decent job at setting the tone. While traveling the world there’s an ethereal song that plays, contrarily battles bring a more upbeat one. The village and town music are excellent. These small pockets of civilization have a cozy feel to them. The soundtrack aids in providing that feeling.
Since I watched the show in Japanese it only felt right to play the game in Japanese. The VO is great. Each actor is emotive but fair warning, there’s a lot of dialogue while driving around. If you are playing in Japanese you might need to stop and read quite a bit.
Accessibility/ Settings
The control setting has the most amount of customization. As I mentioned earlier, there are two different control setups but each can be tweaked individually. My complaint here is players can’t choose control types based on the vehicles. The choice is universal so you have to pick one or the other.
The rest of the options in control settings allow players to tailor the gameplay to their liking. Selecting toggles or holds for various actions. The different menus outside of the controls allow players to adjust the difficulty, text size, and brightness, and add 3 colorblind filters. I find the amount of options lacking here. There are no other accessibility options here outside of the colorblind filters There is no photo mode either.
An Ode to Akira
Sand Land has a peculiar energy. It’s not all that difficult but it is a ton of fun. Akira’s deep and playful spirit is present in all of his works and that comes through here. Sand Land has weight to it, being his last work before his passing.
In my research of this IP, I stumbled upon an interview starring Akira Toriyama about the original Sand Land manga. It gives great insight into his mind when creating this world. In the original serialization, Dragon Quest XIII is even a featured title on the PlayStation 6, which just might very well be true. What incredible foresight.
The interview also shows how faithful the developers are to Akira’s original vision, doing their best to capture it with no compromise. The mind of Toriyama is special. He was imaginative and his creations all exhibit a soul that can not be replaced. The stories that came from his artwork spoke to the hearts of many. I find warmth in those days of just waking up, getting a bite to eat, and doing nothing but watch Dragon Ball Z.
Final Thoughts on Sand Land
I recommend Sand Land and enjoyed the combination of different elements. The vehicles remained varied. Gameplay systems combine together to create a simple and effective piece. The open worlds are large and there’s a ton of quests to complete, and there’s a diverse set of enemies to conquer. Sand Land sustains blemishes, but it serves as a wonderful sendoff to Toriyama while being a good nostalgic romp.