An adaptation of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s lesser known mangaka, Bandai Namco’s SAND LAND is a gorgeous recreation of the artist’s unforgettable aesthetic. Unfortunately, the title’s stunning visuals don’t make up for repetitive open-world gameplay and a stretched-thin plot.
SAND LAND follows the Demon Prince Beelzebub as he joins a human sherrif to bring water back to the desert from a secret oasis. After decades of war ravaged the world, very few sources of water remain, and you’ll need to find and liberate the oasis to save not just humanity, but demonkind as well.
On this journey, Beelzebub is joined by a cast of colorful characters such as Thief, a tiny old goblin man who dresses up as Santa Claus when you play one of his clunky stealth sections. There’s also Ann, a Bulma stand-in, who will help you construct tanks, mechs and other goodies to help you in your quest.
With the passing of Akira Toriyama hitting hard earlier this year, SAND LAND ’s use of the artist’s stunning art style is lovely to see. Toriyama’s whimsical mix of fantasy and technology is here in full with tanks and motorbikes sitting alongside dinosaurs and demons with chiseled jaws and exaggerated proportions.
Just like all of Bandai Namco’s modern Toriyama games, SAND LAND looks fantastic. The manga’s cast of characters is represented very well with expect texture work and the usual zany animations you’d expect from such an electric property.
Almost all interactions with the main cast are lovely with the rare exchange between Beelzebub and his father Lucifer always managing to at least result in an exhale of the nose. It feels like Toriyama through and through, but it still manages to fall behind when it comes to its gameplay.
As we mentioned earlier, SAND LAND is an open world game, and a rather rudimentary one. Kind of an anime version of the 2015 Mad Max game, you’ll explore the desert, pick up missions and upgrade your vehicle to fight against increasingly higher leveled enemies.
If you get tired of skirting around in a mech or chugging along in a tank, you can always exit your vehicle for a bit of fisticuffs. Beelzebub is a spry little fighter, capable of combos and special moves that make enemies go flying.
However, no method of combat in SAND LAND is particularly great, just fine, and the longer the game goes on the more repetitive it becomes. Outside of the occasional puzzle dungeon, you’ll largely be moving from place to place to kill a certain amount of monsters, your interest being occasionally sparked back to life on the occasion you find a new weapon for one of your vehicles.
It doesn’t help that SAND LAND also has a habit of extending nearly every sequence in the game. Missions will require you to trundle back and forth through the same land in fifteen minute journeys just to talk to someone and go back. While there are combat opportunities on the way to your objective, they end up just feeling like work after a while.
Nevertheless, you’ll still find yourself charmed by Beelzebub’s journey. Even amongst the repetitive combat, empty world and annoying mission design, there’s an element of charm that few other games manage to capture. Whether it’s from the cutesy animations or quirky dialogue, there’s always something keeping you going forward.
SAND LAND was reviewed on Xbox Series X with code provided by the publisher.
