A little over a week ago, I was hot-dropped into the world of SAND LAND, the new action RPG from the mind of Akira Toriyama. I got to experience a little over three hours of gameplay, spanning various regions and playstyles and covering many of the game’s mechanics.
That’s barely a dent in the full experience, though. There is just so much content to cover in SAND LAND. Let me be the first one to tell you: fans of the manga and brand-new anime have a lot to look forward to.
The first step was traversing on the motorcycle, my preferred method in the desert, at least while getting from point A to point B. I will be the first to admit that vehicles in games are just not my thing, especially when it comes to combat while driving.
You will use tanks, battle bots, hovercrafts, and more. The game features 14 different vehicles, each with around six to nine ways to customize it. You’ll find and unlock colors, weapons, and styles throughout the game, with plenty of ways to mix and match. Did I make a hot pink Battle Bot? Yep!
Bandai Namco didn’t just reskin the desert map to add more space. SAND LAND features two completely different open-world maps, the Sand Land and the Forest Land, but there are more differences than just that. The desert map feels like a huge, wide open space that you can traverse around with few limitations.
Through my free play time in SAND LAND, I found myself just endlessly exploring. It took priority over taking on quests because I wanted to see what kind of different things I could find. There was such a variation in areas, like fully lived-in cities, ruins, makeshift bases, and nature, that I just couldn’t stop exploring.
The gameplay in SAND LAND consists of various mechanics as you progress through the story. There’s melee combat, vehicle combat, stealth, special abilities, and more. You can change the difficulty level in the menu. Still, each mechanic needs to be utilized. If some of these aren’t your favorite, you’ll have to get on board to really experience the game.
SAND LAND stays very faithful to the manga with its cute but gritty art style, but don’t let the adorable graphics and tiny main character trick you into thinking that the game will be a walk in the park. With so many moving parts, a lengthy campaign, and a ton of end-game content, SAND LAND is for hardcore action RPG players.