Sand Land Reviews
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.
A light and light-hearted but not uninteresting ARPG, Sand Land. It doesn't have a deep gameplay or the slightest revolutionary ambition, several game elements are so canonical as to make it appear flat to the best accustomed, yet it still lets itself be played with a certain taste. The vehicles give an extra quid to the journey of Beelzebub and his companions, not only from the point of view of moving in an open world that is unfortunately not very exciting. The rest is taken care of by the pleasant touch of the late artist that so many of us, from an early age, have learned to consider as a loved one.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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.
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 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.
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.
The end of our journey is just the beginning of your adventure. Sand Land is a work that feels very personal, leaving us with a great reflection, which is hidden with demons, humans, tanks and battles. War only brings desolation to everyone, no matter who they are.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Sand Land harkens back to a time when action adventure games were hitting their stride after the jump from 2D pixels to 3D polygons. It just feels like a familiar friend from the old days — one that you’re quite happy to see return after a long while. Yeah, he may still be sporting an outdated mullet and using old slang. But he’s still the same good guy that you know and had fun times with and, honestly, that’s really all you need sometimes. Add the late Akira Toriyama’s unique visual style and you have a game that fans of old-school 3D action adventure games just might have a super time with.
A lighthearted yet emotional open world adventure with some great exploration and progression held back only by its lack of diversity.
Sand Land is therefore a tie-in that is not fully successful on the playful and content front, but it is a videogame adaptation that expresses a lot of affection towards the work from which it is taken.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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.
Review in French | Read full review
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.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Sand Land, peppered with great characters, is a real feel-good adventure for Toriyama fans, but it comes across as too shallow in terms of gameplay.
Review in German | Read full review
Children and Akira Toriyama fans will probably love Sand Land.
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.
A bright and vibrant world filled with dull combat and a plodding story.
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.
Despite several lacking elements, SAND LAND is a solid adaptation of Toriyama's work with a well-realized setting, sharp presentation and fun combat.
With a extraordinary art style, touching story and interesting gameplay loop, SAND LAND ended up really hitting home with me.
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.
Review in Italian | Read full review