as every dragon ball As fans know, Akira Toriyama sadly passed away in March this year. I won’t spend too much time singing his praises, many people close to him can say it much better than I can, but this is obviously a huge loss to the world of animation and comics. There are also games.
Literally, no Dragon Quest or timed trigger, among other things, his work was inspired by video games, so Sandlot – based on his own world and story – ended up both in film form (later released as a series in the West) and as a video game It couldn’t feel more right. It felt like this was always meant to happen. Of course, the end result isn’t perfect, but I particularly like it because of how strong the themes you find in Toriyama’s work are. Before we get ahead of ourselves, though, let’s set the scene.
iGamesNews
Sandland is a little-known manga by Akira Toriyama that was originally released in 2000 and contains only one volume, featuring Beelzebub (the prince of all demons), Rao (the aforementioned old man), and Thief (another demon). as Beelzebub’s guide). The game and series actually add a fourth member, Ann, a mysterious young woman and mechanic whose story ventures into spoiler territory. They all live in the Sands, a desert region devastated by climate disaster and war, and the main setting of the game, where you embark on a journey to find the legendary spring so that the country’s people can easily obtain water. again.
It’s also a delightful narrative. One that remains irritatingly relevant more than two decades later, and one anchored by a highly likable protagonist with an effortless Toriyama charm. I can’t really tell you all about the story – spoilers – but also because if I did, I’d be revealing too much. There’s nothing overly exciting, and the stakes are typical of RPGs, but I never got bored, and I did feel the need to watch it to the end.
Since the whole original idea behind Sandland was that Toriyama wanted to tell a story about people and tanks, the obvious assumption was that a lot of what you do in the game is driving tanks – which is correct! The game actually has a variety of vehicles that can be slowly unlocked, but the first permanent addition is a tank, which of course features Toriyama’s incredible mechanical styling, perfectly realized by developer ILCA.
Control-wise, the tank behaves pretty much exactly as you’d expect. It moves slowly, you have cannon and minigun attachments, and thankfully you never have to worry about ammo since there’s only a cooldown. Of course, each vehicle also comes with a range of customization options, allowing you to prioritize speed, defense, attack – the usual stats. It all works very smartly, allowing you to build a loadout that works best for you, but it’s not so in-depth that it might overwhelm you or make you overly picky.
You won’t spend all your time driving a tank through the sand, though, as you’ll sometimes be playing as the Demon Lord himself, and the occasional battle will ensue. He handles well, with basic combos that you slowly unlock more through the skill tree, as well as certain abilities that come with the story. Your companions can also join the fight with their own abilities, though most of the time it’s just Beelzebub standing alone. This is really nothing special. “Useful” is probably the best word, but I’ve never been frustrated by a fight, so it worked. After all, the vehicle is the main part.
The story mostly follows the anime – with some deviations into new territory – but you can obviously spend time with the characters in other ways, namely side quests. I think Beelzebub and his friends are here. Both in terms of their personalities and their models are well recognized.To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a game based on Toriyama’s work that does this Feel Like before taken out of his pages this way – it’s a truly beautiful game, with the best sunset skybox I’ve seen since Kingdom Hearts 2’s Twilight Zone one.
Back to the side quests; for the most part, I don’t think they’re all that good. As mentioned, I do think it does a good job of characterizing the main cast and giving you a chance to hang out with them and see their identities fleshed out, but in general, side missions are either fetch missions , either a “defeat the bad guy” mission. Sure, they could be fun, and there was even one where a choice I made actually resulted in the death of a character (yes, that did mess me up a bit), but they weren’t actually very fun to play.
Sand Land’s open world features a major hub town that you’ll return to frequently as you play the game, as the garage where you repair your vehicles is located. Sadly, it’s also a ghost town, with the remaining villagers hanging on by a thread. Years of bad weather and a war thirty years ago have left it teetering on the edge of death, and some residents are considering leaving because its condition is so bad.
However, as the game explains to you, playing the main story and especially the side missions changes Spino. Over time, in places with piles of junk and dilapidated buildings, you’ll find shops like vehicle parts, or buildings where you can customize the appearance of your vehicle. Yes, sure, they’re all designed around the vehicular aspect of the game, but I still think it touches on something fundamental about Toriyama’s work: there’s nothing like coming together and facing it head-on when faced with insurmountable odds Powerful now.
This is obviously a theme you see in Dragon Ball more than anything else, and Goku even befriends almost every villain he faces, fighting for a better tomorrow, arc after arc Wire. While “The Sandlot” is more about climate catastrophe and the mistreatment of a struggling country’s people by fascist militaristic rule, there’s some palpable connective tissue there. Akira Toriyama’s intentions are evident from this.
Having more gaming options is obviously worth helping Spino, but residents clearly feel their home is seeing a better tomorrow, which is reason enough to keep doing it. I don’t think it’s the most revolutionary design, but it does remind me of Tarrytown from Breath of the Wild, which was a highlight of that game.
Ultimately, the game’s story is interesting and touches on some heavier themes. But Spino’s collective action makes it feel special. Sand Land feels like an incredible game that wasn’t originally released on the PS2. The fact that you can feel Akira Toriyama so strongly in the game makes it feel like a wonderful, imperfect send-off to one of the most influential artists of all time. It’s not going to blow your mind, and I doubt it’ll be part of the annual gaming discussion going forward. But I don’t care. I’m glad I stepped into an old yet new world of Toriyama for the last time.
Sand Land will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on April 26.
