Sand Land is a fascinating game that largely follows the original manga, but also takes liberties with the story and characters.
Developer: ILCA. Available: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series. Tested: PS5. Peggy 12
★★★★
Last died unexpectedly last month at the age of 68 Akira Toriyaman death leaves a void that cannot be filled.
Toriyama was one of the greatest manga artists ever. An open-minded trend setter who took the good news of manga out of Japan from the 1980s to the whole world.
When Toriyama’s most famous work, portraying the life of Goku, a boy who collects dragon balls Dragon Ballappeared as a magazine version between 1984 and 1995, a total of more than 2.9 billion magazines were printed.
Later, when the 42 manga were compiled into a package Dragon Ballia sold over 260 million copies, and the series spawned spinoffs, TV series, movies, and video games.
Dragon Ballin mega success defined Akira Toriyama’s career, but the man was much more. He created several manga, including the popular sand dystopia True Landin (2000).
Most of the game takes place in a sandy desert, but after advancing to a certain point, you move to a new, different area. Toriyama designed it as part of a new TV animation series, in which it is now included.
Now Sand Land adapted into game form, an open world action adventure.
These are the last projects in which Toriyama was involved. And thus the circle closes, as Toriyama will be remembered equally for his love of both manga and video games. Above all, he designed the characters for the long-running successful role-playing game series Dragon Quest (1986–).
Sand Land turns out to be a fascinating game. It largely follows the wonderful original manga (which has been translated into Finnish and whose TV series just started on Disney+), but also takes liberties and fills the story with new scenes and characters. Advance knowledge of the events is not required.
Free action adventure Sand Land remains one of Akira Toriyama’s last projects. It is a great reminder of the joy and expressiveness that the prolific Japanese artist expressed in his work.
Still life is rude. Through wars and natural disasters, the world has drifted into a state where the water shortage does not subside, but there is an endless desert all around.
Post-apocalyptic despair is emphasized by the main character of the story. He is Beelzebub, a purple-colored, spiky-haired, bushy-tailed little devil whose father is Lucifer, Satan himself.
A similar end of the world has hardly been seen before.
When Beelzebub decides to go out in search of water, he first has to ask permission from the ten-meter-tall wise-guy daddy. The laconic father agrees on one condition: Beelzebub can only play his game console for an hour a day, in a well-lit room and not too close to the screen.
It begins an adventure that follows the traditions of the genre. Abilities are developed, the environment is explored and enemies are defeated. The world is big and free, so it’s good that the journey also involves special means of transport over the dunes.
The elegantly energetic Sand Land manga from 2000 is worth reading, but the game does not require prior knowledge of it. The events follow the manga, but the story is expanded and changed.
Game mechanics is fast-paced, the rhythm is surprising and the progress is attractive. The whole thing is fine, but Toriyama’s art takes it to the next level.
This is perhaps the most visually expressive of them. Sand Land has been implemented with the new Unreal Engine 5 graphics engine, to which the gaming industry is slowly moving. In other words, it means a very impressive appearance that rivals the fresh one Sand Land– for the animated series.
Positivity always comes to the surface. Lively, energetic characters find themselves in ever more wonderful situations, and the solutions are always extraordinary to say the least.
When you have to steal food while playing with a white-bearded old man, the solution is to disguise yourself as Santa Claus so that no onlookers suspect anything bad.
All in all Sand Land offers a great adventure in an open and unpredictable world that is easy to immerse yourself in.
But the most important thing is how this always good-natured game reminds us of how Akira Toriyama looked at the world.