SAND LAND

Sand Land is a magnificent experience. The combat is thrilling, the story is affecting, and the world demands to be explored. More than that, though, it’s incredible how adept it is at everything it tries. Yes, most of the time spent here is third-person vehicle exploration or on-foot brawling, but the developers are never afraid to mix things up, and all of it works just as well as the central mechanics. More than that, though, Sand Land is a deeply sweet game about fighting prejudice and division, and making a more perfect future by working together.

The game is about 40 hours long if you want to fully complete the side quests. If you’re looking for a charming new action RPG to explore, I would recommend Sand Land — even with some of the game’s hollow aspects, there is much fun here. The Akira Toriyama story is worth the price of admission alone, and you won’t want to miss an opportunity to play in his sandbox.

If you love Toriyama-san’s art style and world-building and share his love for vehicle design, then Sand Land is the game for you. With its unique blend of exploration, vehicular combat, unparalleled customization, and engaging narrative, the Sand Land video game is a manga brought to life.

Sand Land revolutionizes the concept of anime-licensed games by delivering an experience that combines thrilling vehicular combat with a compelling narrative and expansive world exploration. The game not only adheres to the source material’s spirit but also expands it in meaningful ways that engage both gamers and anime fans alike. With its beautifully crafted environments and deeply immersive story, Sand Land sets a new standard for what anime games can achieve.

SAND LAND is a gorgeous and heartfelt game that brings together unlikely allies on an epic quest. It is fun to play, beautiful to look at, and an unforgettable journey for everyone to enjoy.

SAND LAND is an unexpectedly beautiful game that's filled with heart, super-fun vehicle-based gameplay, plenty of laughs, and some of the most rewarding exploration out there. Definitely don't let its dry-looking world fool you into thinking any less.

He doesn't invent the wheel, but his recreation of the desert world and, above all, his vehicle battles give him a lot of personality. Ideal for those who want a light and very Toriyamesque adventure.

Sand Land is a very enjoyable action RPG focusing largely on driving vehicles, but neatly combining a wide variety of gameplay mechanics. Although the limitations of the not-so-high production budget sometimes manifest themselves, the whole game is a well-done tribute to Akira Toriyama.

Sand Land is all set to be your new favourite anime, with compelling characters, enjoyable combat and great anime visuals in video game form. You might just find that Akira Toriyama has saved the best for last.

Sand Land offers a unique adventure, a beautiful self-contained story and an exemplary adaptation of Akira Toriyama's manga. Minor inconsistencies and some lengthy stretches only slightly spoil the captivating overall atmosphere.

With a extraordinary art style, touching story and interesting gameplay loop, SAND LAND ended up really hitting home with me.

Sand Land manages the tough task of translating an enjoyable story without overdoing the open-world mechanics in the process. It’s rough in places but is a respectful adaptation of Toriyama’s work and a pleasant experience throughout.

SAND LAND is an RPG that pays homage to the legendary Akira Toriyama. Featuring stunning graphics, previously unexplored narratives within the franchise, and robust combat mechanics, the game stands as a commendable option for fans, notwithstanding a few minor missteps.

Sand Land is a competent and occasionally excellent anime tie-in game. It's a good way to experience the franchise for the first time, and even if you're not a Sand Land fan, I can see it scratching the itch for a simple, open-world experience. It might be a tad too easy for more hardcore gamers, but for younger players, it seems like a great introduction to open-world gameplay.

Sand Land is a nice anime adaptation and an action JRPG for those who have difficulty with the genre or want to get started. Each character we meet has their own story to explore, and there's always something to do thanks to numerous side quests. At the same time, the tasks are not very demanding and the stories are quite flat. Stress only occurs in the boss fights.

Definitely not the perfect job was done in terms of gameplay, but at least it is a good tribute to the original work and therefore, to the author, who unfortunately was not able to see the finished project. So, if you were looking for something different and with a concept that is not just about fighting, it is very possible that you will find this game fun with the good customization options on vehicles.

Vehicles of all kinds, large scenarios and epic and endearing characters are the keys to Sand Land. A game that may not be a powerful triple A, but has plenty of elements to make manganime fans fall in love with an adventure that is one hundred percent Toriyama.

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 is a fitting farewell to Akira Toriyama as the game elevates itself above most digital adaptations of his work, delivering a well-presented story, solid action, and satisfying exploration. Some aspects of the game’s design may be a bit overfamiliar for open-world veterans, but newer players and fans just looking to explore a fresh world from the master will likely enjoy burying themselves in this sandy adventure.

Sand Land immediately caught my attention due to its ties to Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball and character designs in the Dragon Quest series. With a manga, anime, and now a video game adaptation, Sand Land has quietly become a full-fledged franchise, seemingly over night. Despite its simple premise—a search for water in a desert wasteland—Sand Land offers a mix of action RPG, vehicle combat, and stealth gameplay that’s just plain fun. The game stays faithful to its source material while offering surprising depth and variety in gameplay mechanics. Despite some challenges with the stealth sections, Sand Land provides a fun and engaging experience and retains the nostalgic charm of its origins in Toriyama's work.

Overall, the genre-bending elements of Sand Land and its lovable cast of misfits all work in its favor. The story is engaging, and the ancillary content like developing Spino and taking down bounties is quite enjoyable. Vehicle combat and customization are highlights, but the real standout is how the game captures not just Akira Toriyama's art style, but also the spirit and humor of the manga and its characters. It may not be an instant classic, but Sand Land is some of the most fun you'll have this year.

Beyond being a fun game to play, Sand Land is a great and timely example of the work of Akira Toriyama, and a reminder just how much more he was than just the Dragonball Z guy. Sand Land is its own thing – it was actually exciting to have a demon called a slime appear, and have it NOT be the dollop-shaped slime of the Dragon Quest series. While the vehicle combat system isn’t breaking any new ground, it still goes about things in its own, slightly odd way. It’s a breath of fresh, desert air – and I think there’s a few miles left in the tank yet.

Sand Land's story, characters, and progression are among its best features, all of which stand out in the JRPG genre and 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 in Sand Land, suitable for fans of the original manga and newcomers alike.

Player exploration is actively encouraged by a gorgeously animated world that’s filled with sights and sounds to keep you engaged, even having that Zelda: Breath Of The Wild feel of ‘Hey, what’s that over there?’ as you get side-tracked for the umpteenth time. While I wish it would have baked its ideas for a little longer under the desert sun, I’d happily recommend this to any and all anime fans, especially those who love the work of Akira Toriyama.

Broken down into individual pieces, Sand Land doesn't do anything particularly amazing, but when taken as a whole, this is one of the best anime-based games that we've played in a long time. It's got plenty of great story moments, its open world structure is moreish, and combat is satisfyingly solid. A robust and lovingly crafted adventure that charms from start to finish.

Sand Land is a charming desert adventure that wonderfully captures the spirit of Akira Toriyama's work in its atmospheric game world, thrilling vehicle battles and exciting story. Even if there are a few game mechanics that are a bit sandy, this action RPG is a little insider tip.

Sand Land from Akira Toriyama, developer ILCA, and publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment is a good game. It is driven by a large world to explore, some crazy characters with meaningful plights, and a fun crafting system that keeps you motivated in the overall journey. Its faults lie with repetitive enemies, empty areas to explore, and spotty character development. Overall, it’s a fun game.

Sand Land captures the heart and soul of Akira Toriyama’s classic tale. Jumping in a vehicle and fighting creatures is a highlight of the experience and overshadows the lackluster melee combat. Side quests are a little dull but the main campaign is varied and an accurate interpretation and interesting extension of the Manga. With its stunning visuals, fans of anime will love this thrilling journey through Toriyama’s iconic universe.

The SAND LAND manga sees its translation into a game with this title that comes out just fine. This is thanks to the fun combat, the cool characters and the hefty amount of content. Fans can therefore completely lose themselves in this. At the same time, we should note that side missions can be monotonous and you have to deal with invisible walls. Also, some conversations are repeated quite often, which can get on your nerves.

Despite the dry environment, a refreshing experience, especially in the first hours. When you immerse yourself in the game and start burning through the story line, you can enjoy it and absorb a good plot and actions of the characters.

I also wager that ten years from now, Sand Land will be a slam dunk video game in “hidden gems” lists and “underrated games” essays. Once its price crawls below $25 and its bafflingly pointless “Deluxe Edition” content is packed in (or, better yet, deleted altogether), the game will be value caviar for hungry backloggers. Partially in honor of you future value seekers (hello from 2024, if so), I don’t want to outright pan the game for being an inconsistent and unnecessarily SaaS-ified jumble as it is now. It has plenty going for it, especially in its visuals and its vehicles. Just don’t give Bandai Namco your hard-earned ten extra dollars for shit they probably forced ILCA to shovel (the Deluxe Edition content) right as they were wrapping up development. Better yet, wait until Sand Land is on sale. That is, unless the 8 to 16-year-old in your life asks for it, in which case I guarantee they’d get sixty bucks worth out of the game.

Sand Land is a by-the-numbers anime adaption that is filled with great character design and some enjoyable vehicular combat.

Sand Land is a fun filled game that offers players a lot of different things. Easily the best part of the game is the vehicle combat and puzzle solving, but the narrative doesn't always deliver.

Sand Land is an open world RPG game that carries all the charisma of Akira Toriyama, it is a game with very customizable and fun gameplay. Its mechanics lack depth and can be very simple, but this is compensated by a plot that expands as in the original manga.

A light and light-hearted but no less interesting ARPG, Sand Land. It doesn't have deep gameplay nor the slightest revolutionary ambition, several game elements are so canonical that they make it appear flat to those who are more accustomed to it, yet it can still be played with a certain gusto. The vehicles give an extra something to the journey of Beelzebub and his companions, not only from the point of view of traveling in an unfortunately unexciting open world. The rest is taken care of by the pleasant touch of the late artist who many of us, from an early age, have learned to consider as a loved one.

With Sand Land, a little less would have been more. For an open-world game, the JRPG doesn't offer enough varied content that motivates beyond the main quest. I would probably have liked a linear story experience including a fun fleet of vehicles a little more.

Akira Toriyama's manga receives its first video game, preserving its original story and adding very interesting new features. It has illogical design flaws but overall it is not a bad game.

Sand Land, peppered with great characters, is a real feel-good adventure for Toriyama fans, but the gameplay is too shallow in the long run.

A stunningly realised rendition of Akira Toriyama’s work, Sand Land matches its aesthetics with fun, breezy systems and a charming, if clumsy, tale of war, friendship, and hope.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I booted up Sand Land, but I was surprised by my experience. While I had no familiarity with the property, I found myself loving the quirky characters, the charming narrative, and the wide world to explore. On the other hand, the combat and the game’s side content leave a lot to be desired. At no point is Sand Land a bad game, it’s a quick, charming romp full of humour, but definitely has room to improve should a sequel be made.

You’ll want to get lost in the well-realised world. No single element is a revolution, and it’s sometimes a little thinly spread, but it’s still a successful adaptation. [Issue#41, p.86]

Sand Land is for better and worse, will be Akira Toriyama's last addition to his legacy, the changes to the story with new character is very welcome, but the desert is big and will get repetitive fairly quickly, and unfortunately this will be another addition to the growing anime games that I might forget later.

Sand Land successfully conveys Toriyama's vision in an interactive format, offering players a unique adventure full of action, strategy, and personalization. If you're a fan of oversized vehicles and RPG systems with occasional platforming elements, this game will be a great fun for the upcoming hot summer days.

Sand Land definitely isn’t essential, but if you have an interest in vehicle combat or a classic story written by one of manga’s greats, it’s worth playing. If you see Sand Land at a reasonable price, you’re going to have a good time.

A gift from Akira Toriyama, bringing back childhood memories. The original story depicting events after the original work is pretty enjoyable to watch. However, the overall monotonous core gameplay is somewhat disappointing.

Sand Land is a gorgeous game that is far larger than you might expect, and it's ultimately worthy of a journey, but there are several factors that are holding it back from being one of the biggest anime games of all time.

The video game adaptation of Sand Land brings one of Akira Toriyama's lesser-known works into the spotlight. It follows the source material well and cleverly expands on the story, but the gameplay is lacking.

Sand Land is an enjoyable game for those who love Toriyama's works, but it fails to fully stand out for its narrative quality or all the mechanics underlying its gameplay.

It’s unfortunate that Sand Land isn’t quite up to the standard that one of Japan’s all-time great artists deserves. It’s not that it’s a bad game. It’s very entertaining, especially when you start messing around with the tank battles. It’s just nothing more than a well-made licensed tie-in, something that you’ll forget soon after you play it, and never feel the need to return to. It really does look great, though. Akira Toriyama is going to be missed.

Sand Land is a solid action RPG with a significant amount of vehicle customization and combat, gorgeous graphics, and extensive activities, making for a fun experience.

Sand Land is an adventure that keeps you entertained throughout its main storyline thanks to an interesting plot and endearing characters. However, it feels overly ambitious as it tries to do many things, ending up in its simplest state. Additionally, its side quests fail to captivate the player.

With Sand Land, the late Akira Toriyama lays the last stone of a prestigious building. Enriched with new storylines, this video game adaptation is the ideal extension of the manga and anime. On a playful level, the adventure is far from perfect, but the scenario and the events are faithful to the original work and the progression offers several notable moments. With its ultra-endearing characters and its universe, this production has enough assets to satisfy fans of (semi) open world games. If the idea of playing an action-RPG in a Mad Max-style universe interests you, this title may satisfy you.

Sand Land is just a good game, as some would say: an enjoyable but in many ways dated experience, that brings Akira Toriyama's style to the screen with stunning cel shading that, however, is not supported by animations up to the mark, while the desert maps that characterize the main setting prove to be very uninteresting to explore. The vehicles work well in the game, however, as does the combat, and in the end ILCA takes home a decent result that Sand Land fans will appreciate.

Much like the vast desert making up nearly everything in it, Sand Land can be rough and coarse at times, yet also provides a lot of beauty in various ways. The story is great, the characters are an enjoyable lot, and the vehicular combat and traversal are superb, marred only by annoying travel dialogue and bland levels at times. Whether you're a fan of the great Toriyama's work or not, there's still something special here to check out if you're willing to put in the effort.

Sand Land is therefore a tie-in that is not fully successful on the gaming and content front, but it is a video game adaptation that expresses a lot of affection towards the work from which it is based. A fun and varied management of the arsenal of vehicles and a cast of charismatic characters contrast with a lackluster open world and a rather cumbersome combat system. For everything else, nostalgia reigns supreme, in an adventure aimed mainly at fans of the adorable Beelzebub.

Sand Land is the latest video game adaptation of one of Akira Toriyama's works, presenting us with a world devoid of water, tyrants, bandits, and numerous secrets. With a simple open world and outdated combat, Sand Land falls short of offering a complete experience to the player.

Sand Land is both a good licensed games, since it relies heavily on fidelity to the source material and good dialogues, and a formulaic open world action rpg, with a static structure and bad AI. It can still appeal to al Toriyama fans, thanks to its love for the original manga, but all of the other players will surely find much better options in both the ARPG genre and in the open world one.

If you're a big fan of Akira Toriyama's work, perhaps it's worth taking a chance on the world of Sand Land. Otherwise, it might be better to stick with the manga or the animated series.

SAND LAND has its merits in respecting and expanding the original work of the legendary Akira Toriyama. But what it gets right in terms of narrative and design, it fails in combat and exploration systems: , which are as generic and uninteresting as a desert full of sand and... more sand.

Anyone who read the manga in the 2000s must acknowledge: what this game looks like is how the static manga images came to life in your head. It is of the last things Akira Toriyama did before his death: congratulate the developers for bringing his creation to life so beautifully. Rightfully so. So really one for the fans, because the gameplay is okay, but it doesn't break any pots: it's a typical action game in an open world.

Sand Land is a fine game, thanks to a fun story and a loveable cast of characters. The gameplay is just a bit too simple at times, while some frustrating design choices can leave you frustrated at certain points.

Sand Land offers an action-packed RPG thrill ride, highlighting the importance of the friendships formed during the adventure and emphasizing the bonds between the characters. However, the game is marred by excessive repetition of activities and discouraging melee combat.

While the game feels like a filler episode, particularly as you trample through the same patches of deserts and other terrains, completing similar quests with similar goals, it remains a pleasant experience, thanks to its stylistic touches. It might not be a perfect adaptation of Sand Land, but for those who wish to inhabit its world and expand the tale of the iconic manga, it’s a fine road trip that brims with enough style and personality to paper over its biggest flaws.

Ultimately, the game's story is a fun one that does touch on some heavier themes, too. But it's the collective action at Spino that helps it feel special. Sand Land feels like a game that you can't believe wasn't originally released on the PS2. It's the fact that you can so strongly feel Toriyama within the game that that results in it feeling like a wonderful, imperfect send-off for one of the most influential artists ever. It won't knock your socks off, and I doubt it will be part of the game of the year conversations further down the road. But I don't care. I'm just happy to step into an old, but new, Toriyama world once last time.

Sand Land is a visually stunning adaptation of Akira Toriyama's cult hit manga. Though it showcases some interesting gameplay concepts, the game ultimately suffers from repetitive mission structures as well as bloated crafting systems.

Part of a project that also includes an anime series and a film, the video game adaptation of Sand Land highlights, in many ways, a less celebrated side of Akira Toriyama: its talent for building worlds and technology. And there's probably no better way to showcase this than in a game.

Our feelings about Sand Land The Video Game are mixed. On one hand, this is a perfect adaptation of the manga from Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball). It's absolutely gorgeous with phenomenal cel-shading and all the characters that we love. But the open world formula is too classic and the game suffers from a slow pace, narratives issues and a lack from impactful moments.

Sand Land is a definitive adaption of a great Akira Toriyama manga, but just fine as a game.

Sand Land’s vehicular focus shows potential, but devolves into a by-the-numbers open world action game with storytelling that only occasionally manages to live up to the joys of the original work.

Unfortunately, Sand Land seems like a game that only fans of Akira Toriyama could enjoy. Fans that would overlook the shallow combat system, lack of enemy variety, and the non-existent challenge.

There are points of interest here, but they're scattered too far and wide to make this a worthwhile excursion. [Issue#398, p.118]

Sand Land offers great vehicle combat and a strong array of customization options, but sluggish brawler combat and a vehicle imbalance with the tank let it down. It's a crying shame that character development gives way to boring corridor missions in the latter stages of the RPG.

I enjoyed my time with Sand Land, despite its many flaws. The vehicle gameplay feels great, and it’s the main pull for me – I didn’t mind that the side quests were pointless and the open world samey, because I had an incredibly powerful tank that could blow up small groups of enemies in two seconds. But if you’re hoping that this game will be the best adaptation of Toriyama’s manga series, you’re out of luck. I’d just watch the anime instead.