Preview: Sand Land shines when you’re in the tank

Enter Sand Land

Sand Land is an odd situation. Announced during the Summer Game Fest 2023 live show, Sand Land is an interesting pick for an ILCA-developed, Bandai Namco-published action-RPG adaptation.

While many in the west are familiar with Akira Toriyama’s work, Sand Land isn’t quite as popular as, say, Dragon Ball. But that relative disparity is what made Sand Land interesting to me. I’ve seen tons of Dragon Ball. I don’t know much about Sand Land. And after playing a little bit of the latter at Summer Game Fest 2023, I’m curious to see even more of its Mad Max-like arid wastes.

For those unfamiliar, Sand Land is a single-volume manga from Toriyama set in a world with little water. After years of disasters and war have ravaged the land, a single king lords over the water supply. The elderly Rao partners with Beelzebub, the prince of the demons and playable character in Bandai Namco’s Sand Land, to find a new water supply.

Follow me into the desert

My demo kicked off with a bit of action, as I was driving the crew’s car and dodging attacks from a sand beast. They were a bit hard to discern, but it was an interesting little introduction to the chaos and danger of the world.

What also immediately popped out at me was the art. Akira Toriyama’s work is quite recognizable, and it’s been adapted well in the slice I played of Sand Land. Character models looked great, and the designs had a visually distinct look that represented Toriyama’s work well, especially the vehicles.

After effectively fleeing, we made it to a town; I couldn’t go in to check the area out, but it did at least seem like a hub of sorts. The producer, who was shepherding me through the demo, directed me towards the next area. And to get there, I’d be making use of a special vehicle: the tank.

3, 2, 1, let’s jam

While there was some on-foot fighting towards the end of the demo, that section felt mostly as-expected. Beelzebub can beat people up, stun enemies with a charged attack, and unleash various powers from a radial wheel. It’s not bad, it’s just what I thought I would find in a 3D action-RPG. It’s solid!

But what caught my eye, what I kept thinking about after the demo, was the tank. You get to hop into a tank with your whole crew at one point, battling a giant dinosaur in the process. First off, it’s a gorgeous tank. Toriyama’s design looks great in-game, and it gave me some vague 3D Metal Slug vibes. Any time I get Metal Slug vibes, that’s a good thing.

Actually driving the tank feels mechanical, in a good way. There’s rolling forward or backward, as well as turning. It straddles a good line between mobility and the tactile sense of operating a vehicle on treads. The weapons themselves are divided into two slots that you swap between for firing; one can reload while the other is operational, too.

The whole tank fight section felt very different, and that’s why I enjoyed it. I like a good action-RPG as much as the next guy, but it was the little breaks from the formula that made Sand Land stick out. I’m curious about the promise of pathways and areas to find, as there were breakable walls sprinkled around the demo area.

Overall, Sand Land feels like it could be a solid action-RPG with some interesting twists. And those twists are what will make or break the game for me, in the end. We’ll see if the sand and tanks hold up when Sand Land arrives.