Shane
From the developers of Pokémon and One Piece games comes something truly unique, an adventure title, Sand Land (and there’s an animated series too).
ILCA has created a world that has dried up, where humans have warred to the point they destroyed everything and water is the new gold.
But this is an existence where humans and Demons live together, and not in harmony.
Having destroyed everything they once had, and themselves, humanity is now a minority with Demons and creatures (as well as Bandits) filling the gap… along with sand. A lot of sand.
Once rivals, the human’s realise that the only way they may survive is to enlist the aide of the all-powerful Demons, and this sets forth the adventure semi-RPG game, Sand Land.
You play as Beelzebub. A young Demon, braver than his stature, who joins forces with humans to try and restore the world they once shared. But first, he has to ask his Dad Lucifer for permission.
Sand Land is an open world explore game, with a narrative path. While on a mission, it pays to sidetrack, go off path and explore the vast desert environment. There’s a lot to be found, discovered, stolen or looted. And you may pick up a bonus mission or two.
Beelzebub will level up, and you can hone his skills, existing or new, via an easy-to-use Skill tree as well as some NPCs that you may be teamed up with.
Items you collect are stored in your Inventory with some being able to be assigned to a D-Pad hotkey, and most can be traded with merchants sporadically found throughout the land.
Graphically Sand Land is stellar. With its semi-cell shaded characters.
Gameplay and in-game dialogue tends to lean towards younger gamers, but given the darker nature of the game (and parents who may not be keen with their kids taking on a role of a Demon in a video game) I’m a little confused as to what ILCA’s target market was for Sand Land.
Nonetheless, Sand Land has got it all, vehicular exploration, excellent combat, dungeon crawling (sort of) and it is a game that you can spend hours on regardless if you’re a kid or kid at heart.
Released: May 2024
Rating: PG
Platforms reviewed: Xbox Series X|S
Genre: Adventure
Developer: ILFC
Publisher: BandaiNamco