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Sand Land’s vehicular combat might have potential, but its desert world is a worryI can confirm the land is full of sand
I can confirm the land is full of sand
Image credit:ILCA, Inc. / Bandai Namco Entertainment
Image credit:ILCA, Inc. / Bandai Namco Entertainment
Shown off at this year’sSummer Game Festshowcase,Sand Landis an upcomingRPGfrom the folks over at Ilca Inc, the developers of One Piece Odyssey, and the creator ofDragon Ball, Akira Toriyama. It’s an adaptation on one of Toriyama’s lesser-known mangas, which features a band of misfits who aim to right the wrongs of a king who’s hogged the desert’s vital water supply. I got to play it for all of 20 minutes, in a demo that was as stripped back as a grated cactus. Still, I got to sample a bit of roaming about in a tank, one brief stop at a town, an opening of one (1) chest, and some fighting. It seemed okay, I guess? But my main worry is whether its desert is interesting enough to hold people’s attention.
SAND LAND — Game Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
SAND LAND — Game Announcement Trailer
Otherwise, I didn’t do a great deal else. I drove a little jeep to a town, spoke to someone, then was immediately pushed to reach this large archway a few hundreds meters away. En route there were dinosaurs with level indicators above their heads, all wandering about in their little pockets of the arid desert. I entered a cave, which contained a chest. I stole a bandit’s little spherical tank, which I then used to blast the dinosaurs and bandits, all of them succumbing to the numbers I hit them with, and all dropping parts which were hoovered into my inventory. Unfortunately I couldn’t tweak my tank, or look at the nuts and bolts I’d gathered.
From my understanding, though, this vehicular customisation is going to be the main thrust of the game’s progression, as is levelling up Beelzebub. I asked the devs whether they could tell me anything about either of these things, to which the answer was a “not really”. They were very nice, though, and did put up with me strafing around a massive lizard for at least half of the demo.
Right at the end of the session, I partook in some beating up of bandits, in a realtime beat ‘em up brawl where I could punch, kick, and jump, all of them combining for some cool combos. Holding down the punch button charged a swing, which would then stagger an enemy, leaving them vulnerable if I landed it right. Hold down a trigger (I played on controller) and you’ll bring up a radial wheel of special abilities, one of which was a big area-of-effect slam that wiped out an entire group - very satisfying.
Image credit:ILCA, Inc. / Bandai Namco Entertainment
Image credit:ILCA, Inc. / Bandai Namco Entertainment
All good, all gravy, then. I just worry that I’ve come away from the demo without an itch to see what sort of sand is in said land. While the full game might introduce lots of interesting tidbits to discover, the little pockets of dinosaurs and the one shallow cave from the demo struck me as a worrying sign its slight RPG-leanings -Dragon Questsurely served as inspiration here - might be too much of a plod to transform what’s canonically a barren wasteland into an explorer’s paradise.
That’s not to say deserts can’t be done well! I mean, there’s the wonder ofJourneyandSable, the underrated wastes ofMad Max, evenMetal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Paindeserves a mention for an interesting sandy space. They all provide takes on the sand that either make it a beautiful traversal tool filled with secrets, or the perfect playground for goofing off with your scrap metal and funny gadgets.
Sand Land’s demo obviously isn’t representative of the final thing, but surely its aim is to bring you on board, right? All I really did was chunk down some health bars and partake in some fairly typical RPG exploration, all in a slice of desert which seemed a little lacking in exciting things to discover or see, even if the devs insisted that there would be later on. I suppose Sand Land’s other big hook lies in its vehicular customisation which I didn’t get to try at all, but I’m worried that even if I could slot together a rotund nail-shooter with scissors for legs, it might only result in bigger numbers popping out of enemies. Can the traditional levelling loop of an RPG uplift a dusty expanse? I worry it might not.
