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As a lifelong Akira Toriyama fan, I went into Sand Land knowing I would enjoy my time messing with the vehicular combat and exploring the world of the manga. What I didn’t expect was how much I would end up liking it. The world of Sand Land is fully realized, easy to jump into for fans and newcomers alike, and a fantastic farewell from the late manga creator and developer ILCA.

In Sand Land, players take on the role of Fiend Prince Beelzebub, a youthful demon that teams up with his demon friend Thief and the human sheriff Rao to find the Legendary Spring in order to find a solution to the extreme drought that is ailing the titular country of Sand Land. The game is a direct adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s one-shot manga released in 2000. In addition to going over the events of the manga, the game covers the new content written by Toriyama for the recent anime adaptation that started airing earlier in 2024. One of these additions is new character Ann. In the anime, Ann only appears after the first half of the story. In the game, Ann appears very early on and is a bit more involved in the plot of the first arc of the game. This offers a nice narrative remix for those familiar with the anime.

Despite being an adaptation, players don’t need to read nor watch the source material to fully enjoy their time with the game. Sand Land offers a number of lovingly written characters. Maybe I’m biased, since I like serious-yet-gentle old men that are on a road to atone and learn from their mistakes, but I think that Rao is the standout ally in the game. And of course, Beelzebub is a dastardly rascal that I can’t help but love. I found the writing to be pretty solid and fun, and I think that Sand Land in particular stands out among Toriyama’s other works, offering a simple yet great narrative exploring an anti-militarist sentiment focused on humanitarian cooperation.

The gameplay loop in Sand Land revolves around exploring the vast desert while alternating between a growing roster of vehicles, engaging in fights with both local fauna and the King’s army, and repopulating the ghost town of Spino. The latter is a unique addition to the game, and it’s one of its most engaging aspects. As players complete side quests, people from all over the world will Spino as new residents. Some of the stories tied to these characters are simple and fun, while some can be quite sobering. New inhabitants also means more vendors and new facilities, like your own customizable room, a paint shop, or a bar where players can pick up bounties. The way in which the main story of the game and the micronarratives found in Spino combine helps enrich the world of Sand Land.

Players will start the game with a lengthy tutorial section that naturally teaches that, while on-foot exploration and combat is viable, they should spend most of their time traversing the vast wasteland via a variety of vehicles. As the mainstay in the roster, tanks are powerful and relatively fast, serving as great all-rounders. Other vehicles like cars or motorbikes are fast, but are trickier to aim at enemies, or offer alternative ways of engaging in combat, while others like hoverboards allow players to avoid dangerous terrain. However, it can take quite a while to get the ball rolling and acquire different interesting vehicles.

As part of the main quest, players will need a variety of different vehicles, each suited for different situations. I found my first roadblock during the tutorial teaching me how to build a Jump-bot. While the game takes you through the steps of where to find a blueprint and frame, it doesn’t teach you at any moment how to find the different parts to complete it, nor the materials needed for the parts. This led to me spending around 5 hours to find the requirements, only to be taught how to craft them myself after completing it. I find that altering the order of these two quests would have made for a better paced tutorial, as I didn’t have trouble finding materials after this moment of forced scarcity.

That said, vehicle customization and combat is great. There is a large number of different vehicles, each with different strong points and weaknesses. While the game is generally not difficult, some encounters had me alternating between vehicles in order to adapt to the pace and use the different weapons I equipped. For example, against groups of enemies with various tanks and several infantrymen carrying rocket launchers, I would use the gravity gun attached to my jump-bot to gather all small enemies in the same spot, switch to my tank and fire my two-round battery to eliminate them in a swift strike, and then jump into my hovercraft to strafe while shooting quad rockets at the bigger targets without the danger of being sniped. While enemy variety can be a bit limited, boss fights are great. There are plenty of unique encounters, from organized tank battalions, aircraft, motorbike fights, and even combat armor duels.

In contrast, on-foot combat is not as fleshed out, but still offers a serviceable experience. Light and strong attack buttons allow for a few combo strings, and Beelzebub can use various abilities like a rushdown of punches, a boulder throw, or an AoE shockwave. These come in handy during the scripted on-foot sequences that serve to break up the pace. Another element to combat and exploration are party abilities. Thief, Rao, and Ann can learn various ive and active abilities that help. Thief’s abilities focus on acquiring resources, while Rao can deploy his own tank and assist Beelzebub in combat, and Ann helps as the mechanic by offering healing to vehicles and ive abilities. During the on-foot fights the party will also engage with enemies, and it is very fun seeing Rao be the coolest guy in Sand Land.

When it comes to the volume of content, Sand Land can be a pretty long game. The main quest alone can take players between 30 to 40 hours to complete depending on how much side content they do, and even more if they go for completionism. Even 35 hours in, the game was still giving me new gadgets and completely unique vehicles. To top it off, the game features a variety of side content, like racing tracks, bounties, and an arena. And if the main Sand Land region was already vast enough, the second part of the game takes players to Forest Land, a green and lush new area introduced in the anime.

The visuals in the game are pretty beautiful, with characters sporting a nice cell shaded style, and the world offering a lot of visual variety. Even the Sand Land region is varied, with its different styles of deserts, like dunes and badlands. And, as one can expect, the character and mech designs by Akira Toriyama are top notch.

Sand Land shows what can be done with licensed manga and games. The game is a great vehicular action-RPG, and easily one of the best anime and manga games available. Despite some early pacing issues, the game is at its best when introducing a vast and engrossing world, accompanied by the beautiful visuals and great story penned by the late Akira Toriyama.

Sand Land will release on April 26, 2024 for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam. A demo is now available.

The post Review: Sand Land Takes You on a Wild Ride appeared first on Siliconera.

Bandai Namco Entertainment shared new gameplay details in its latest overview trailer for Sand Land. The latest video details the party, combat, vehicles, and more in the Sand Land game.

In the Sand Land game, the party will primarily consist of Beelzebub, Thief, Rao, and Ann. While Beelzebub is the main playable character, the other party each contribute during combat and in exploration in some way. Thief is able to assist with getting additional items from enemies or finding rare loot while exploring the world of Sand Land. Rao can ride on tanks and attack enemies temporarily during combat. Ann is able to increase the performance and efficiency of vehicles. Many different skills for the party can be unlocked by using skill points on their individual skill tree.

In combat, Beelzebub can utilize light and heavy attacks on ground and in the there. Dodging can also be done in midair or sideways on land. Beelzebub can also sneak behind enemies and scare them into unconsciousness.

Some of Beelzebub's special abilities include turning his body to metal, or activating his Dark Release, an area-of-effect attack that blows enemies away with a dark blast of energy from his body. While in combat, items can be utilized to power up his attack, defense, or power of darkness. Water can also be used to heal HP, and it can be restocked at water supply points.

There are plenty of vehicles available in the game, including a jump bot that bounces over high cliffs, hover cars that glide over water, and heavy armor that can clear pathways by lifting or blowing away obstacles. Only five vehicles can be carried at a time, so players must plan ahead over which ones to bring while exploring the world of Sand Land. Also, if a vehicle is destroyed in combat, then it is an automatic game over.

Vehicles can be customized by Ann in her garage. Players will be able to build, upgrade, and equip vehicles while in the garage. Some upgrades that can be made to vehicles include adding rocket launchers, lasers, machine guns, and shotguns. Engines and suspension can be upgraded to boost the performance of a vehicle, and optional parts can unlock special performance skills for vehicles. The back room of the garage is customizable with a variety of different pieces of furniture.

Spino City is also the home base for Beelzebub and his party which contains the garage as well as various merchants. As side quests are completed, items are recovered from across the world map of the Sand Land game, and enemies are defeated, Spino City will grow and upgrade with new NPCs and merchants.

There is plenty of side content in the game including races to test vehicle speed, bounty hunts against strong enemies, and the battle arena which allows Beelzebub to fight against strong bosses.

The gameplay overview trailer for the Sand Land game can be viewed below:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtuVeC8Uxjw[/embed]

The Sand Land game is based on the original manga created by Akira Toriyama and ran in Weekly Shonen Jump. The game will focus on the storyline of the manga, but features a brand new story elements and characters.

The Sand Land game will release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC on April 26, 2024.

The post Sand Land Gameplay Detailed In Latest Overview appeared first on Siliconera.

The Sand Land game will be an action-RPG in which you drive around a vast desert world and kick butts as Beelzebub. An advance demo of the game revealed how the combat works and what it feels like. However, the reporters also noted that the controls still need some further development. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

According to the Game Watch reporter who played the demo, there are a few quirks in controlling the characters and Jeep in the Sand Land video game. However, once you get used to it, even players who aren’t good at action games should be able to clear it. This is just a beta build for game reviewers though, so things might be different in the final product.

In the short demo, the reporters got to play through story parts, drive around in both a Jeep and tank, and fight enemies. Sometimes the tank would start to overheat and the characters would open the hatch. It’s unclear if this is something you need to watch out for or just an homage to the Sand Land manga. You can also greatly deplete an enemy’s HP with the tank’s attack, though it can be difficult to control. As for the combat portion, you can simply button mash the square and triangle buttons to attack. It’s also possible to dodge with R2 and slip behind the opponent.

While the Sand Land game will mostly follow the manga, there will be original content as well. Bandai Namco wrote these scenes under the supervision and with the advice of Shueisha. Though it won’t be an open-world game, there will be a large map to wander around in. Beelzebub will be the only controllable character. But Rao will also get his far share of the spotlight in the story. As well, you do not need to have prior knowledge of Sand Land to understand the game.

The Sand Land game will come out for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Windows PC some time in the future.

The post Sand Land Game Will Include Original Content appeared first on Siliconera.

A new game based on Akira Toriyama's manga series Sand Land debuted at the Summer Game Fest. The first trailer showed off melee and vehicle combat, racing, and exploring, as well as plenty of delightful Toriyama-styled machines and monsters.

Vehicles appear to play a large part in the game, as we saw mech-suits, hover cars ,and heavily-armed buggies all racing across the dunes. There also appeared to be stealth sections, during which main character Beelzebub has to sneak around armed guards and over tight ropes to avoid being seen.

You can catch the Sand Land game trailer below:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cu0j-qfutc[/embed]

Sunrise, Kamikaze Douga and Anima are also developing a movie adaptation of the work and dropped a trailer featuring the voice cast back in April 2023. That's in development. The movie itself will appear in August 2023.

The Sand Land game is currently without a release date, but it will launch on the PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X.

The post Sand Land Game Premieres at Summer Game Fest appeared first on Siliconera.