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SAND LAND - Review Thread
- Thread starter Lucia
- Start date
Not my kind of game, but there seems to be zero hype around this game. I thought it wasn't releasing until later in the year.
Consensus seems to be it's a fun "B" game elevated by its artstyle, which is about perfect for an anime adaptation imo
Physical PS5 copy getting delivered today, looking forward to getting stuck in later. Didn't play the demo so going in fairly blind.
Honestly based on the reviews that go in depth on the game and don't actively dismiss the world building aspects (which I'm honestly most excited for) I'm excited. It looks like a PS2 game, and I am all in on it. Gonna crank the difficulty up though.
Seems like some people vibed with the world and early 2000's game design, and others didn't basically. It looks like a game that doesn't really challenge or expand on anything industry-wise nor does it really exemplify the best traits of the genres it plays with.
Like it has mech based armored core-ish combat, but it has less depth, and incentive to try new things based on what I assume are its normal difficulty settings. The on foot combat sounds about as by the numbers button mashing as possible (it kind of reminds me of Sonic Frontiers combat which wasn't exactly deep). The negative reviews seem to ignore a lot of the customization, and side-quests/content. There's a battle arena, races, and super-bosses too which some reviewers never touched on (including a post-game) same with dungeons.
It sounds good, but not great... and if there's one thing that's really prevalent in the industry it's high expectations. There's also just like... a disregard for anime related stuff in the West sometimes. Also I don't really consider the game an "anime game" since it's part of a bigger project which was focused on just making a bunch of cool original expanded content for a little one-shot some of us grew up with reading in Shonen Jump haha.
Seems like some people vibed with the world and early 2000's game design, and others didn't basically. It looks like a game that doesn't really challenge or expand on anything industry-wise nor does it really exemplify the best traits of the genres it plays with.
Like it has mech based armored core-ish combat, but it has less depth, and incentive to try new things based on what I assume are its normal difficulty settings. The on foot combat sounds about as by the numbers button mashing as possible (it kind of reminds me of Sonic Frontiers combat which wasn't exactly deep). The negative reviews seem to ignore a lot of the customization, and side-quests/content. There's a battle arena, races, and super-bosses too which some reviewers never touched on (including a post-game) same with dungeons.
It sounds good, but not great... and if there's one thing that's really prevalent in the industry it's high expectations. There's also just like... a disregard for anime related stuff in the West sometimes. Also I don't really consider the game an "anime game" since it's part of a bigger project which was focused on just making a bunch of cool original expanded content for a little one-shot some of us grew up with reading in Shonen Jump haha.
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Here I go!
Jealous. Mine's not arriving until tomorrow.
How's the figure? I scooped the CE because Figuarts are so pricey over here that this was the most cost-effective way to get one, especially as I was gonna grab the game regardless.
I love it!
Nice - does it include the extra hands/faces from the standard release? Also, guessing there's a peg or something on the stand to keep him upright?
Yep it does have faces, hands, etc. There is instructions to pop a peg out of the base but he is standing ok on his own 😁
I'm so salty that we didn't get the steelbook here in the u.s. I wish we just got the same C.E :/
I decided to bite because GMG has keys for $50. I am a total sucker for Toriyama, especially his mechanical designs, and I just need something cheerful and fun to play right now.
Much appreciated.
Now to decide whether to dive into this tomorrow or replay FO4 for the umpteenth time.
Totally! The game is pure vibes. Very charming so far, but I did switch to the Japanese VO because it felt more appropriate. Also really nice performance on the PC so far, which is always a relief lol.
Honestly the more of this game I see the more intrigued I am. Seems like a solid and varied effort from ILCA even if its to an uneven degree of success. Hope one day they can break 80.
E: Looking at PC footage seems like there's a ton of shader stutter. Welp.
E: Looking at PC footage seems like there's a ton of shader stutter. Welp.
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I do have an immediate complaint. The shadows on every character aside from Belz, Rao, and Thief look bad and glitchy. Like whatever shader they're using isn't highlighting skin correctly. Ann looks very strange depending on the lighting for instance. It's actually really distracting...
Fun fact though, this game seems to be using the Enlighten lighting plugin for UE4. Which the original release of Dragon Quest XI used (not Definitive S). It made that game look insanely good... but materials in this game aren't really all that great since it's focusing on trying to look like Akira Toriyama's water color stuff. (DQXI was also made by Squeenix over a long period of time).
I definitely think Enlighten (provides RT Global Illumination) makes the world look gorgeous at times though. Scenes like one's in the tank with the sun shining in look amazing. Do wish the shadows didn't flicker on characters so much though.
Fun fact though, this game seems to be using the Enlighten lighting plugin for UE4. Which the original release of Dragon Quest XI used (not Definitive S). It made that game look insanely good... but materials in this game aren't really all that great since it's focusing on trying to look like Akira Toriyama's water color stuff. (DQXI was also made by Squeenix over a long period of time).
I definitely think Enlighten (provides RT Global Illumination) makes the world look gorgeous at times though. Scenes like one's in the tank with the sun shining in look amazing. Do wish the shadows didn't flicker on characters so much though.
I can't speak to the game but in the show the dub is actually quite good (starts kind of rough in episode 1 but pretty good from there).
The English dub seems good, I just felt I liked all the demons voices better in Japanese, especially Thief. One downside to not using English VO is trying to read subtitles in battle. It hasn't been an issue so far but I can see it getting tricky as the battles get more chaotic.
That's exactly why I'm playing in english. I watched the anime in Japanese because I didn't like the dub but the dub works a little better here because I can't follow subs while I'm busy fighting and trying not to die.
The demo was terrible, it's published by Bamco, and it was developed by the folks who made the Pokemon D&P remakes... and that One Piece RPG that was only okay.
Also most people wrote it off as a generic anime tie in game.
It definitely feels like a lot more than that though.
They've added a ton of lore, characters, world building... etc. etc. It really feels like it's own thing.
Each piece of media feels that way around this IP.
- The manga was a relatively short breezy adventure and excuse for Toriyama to draw a tank.
- The anime expands the ending to original story increasing the scale of the final conflict. It also adds another short arc onto the story to expand the lore a bit (I don't like the pacing of the Forest Land arc in the anime)
- The game changes the pacing and development of the entire story. Including a ton of new characters, more politics and lore... different playing out of events... and overall feels like it's own thing entirely.
This big multimedia push for it was called "The Sand Land Project" and it's really cool that Toriyama got revisit one of his older ideas and expand on it before he passed. In a way it feels like a play to his passions (the mech and vehicle designs).
The game is also actually pretty hard if you play it on hard from the get go.
Checking in. Got a car, jump-bot, and tank now. I like the sidequests a lot. Though the game doesn't really explain things at times (getting the materials and parts for the jump bot was frustrating because the game doesn't really tell you where to get the parts and materials you need.)
That said, the game is really fun and chill as heck. Which is definitely what you want these characters haha.
That said, the game is really fun and chill as heck. Which is definitely what you want these characters haha.
Liking this more than I thought. I really appreciate how it is directly adapting the story into the framework of an open world game.
Just got to the city and the production values and attention to detail feel really solid for an anime tie in game. It just feels like they had a lot of reverence for the source material.
It certainly doesn't do anything special as an Open World game, but the aesthetic, chill atmosphere, characterization, and narrative feel well executed.
Definitely on a higher level than most tie in anime games.
Does anyone know if there's a way to turn off the HUD icons for caves and loot points? I find them too aggressive and I'd rather try to spy them myself.
Just got to the city and the production values and attention to detail feel really solid for an anime tie in game. It just feels like they had a lot of reverence for the source material.
It certainly doesn't do anything special as an Open World game, but the aesthetic, chill atmosphere, characterization, and narrative feel well executed.
Definitely on a higher level than most tie in anime games.
Does anyone know if there's a way to turn off the HUD icons for caves and loot points? I find them too aggressive and I'd rather try to spy them myself.
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22 hours in now and at 58% of the main story if the activity cards can be believed. Been doing all sidequests as they become available though which I can really recommend as they have been pretty good and also unlock features.
I am having a wonderful time. The story has just introduced a couple of hooks that immediately grabbed me and I am curious to see where they go. I'm glad I held off on watching the show before this as it will be fun to see the events of the game translated to that format.
Just wish it was easier to track down a copy of the manga 😔
I am having a wonderful time. The story has just introduced a couple of hooks that immediately grabbed me and I am curious to see where they go. I'm glad I held off on watching the show before this as it will be fun to see the events of the game translated to that format.
Just wish it was easier to track down a copy of the manga 😔
I hope they will stick to their recent words
Elden Ring publishers Bandai Namco cancel at least five games, target future “emphasis on quality”
By setting “stricter standards” and “narrowing down titles”.
shorturl.at
Grateful that they released Sand Land demo beforehand.
Played some more of this today, played about 9 hours so far and honestly this game kind of slaps.
There is a clear reverence and understanding for the source material on display, and the game manages to greatly expand on the world building and characters while competently telling the story. It also just lends itself so well to the structure of an open world game.
I think the biggest surprise to me is the in game economy seems to be relatively well tuned to the gameplay loop. Usually in these open world games they either feel insanely grindy or resources become a non-issue.
So far at least I've had enough materials and money on hand to continually improve my vehicles but not so much I can just buy everything blindly. It really makes the decisions on how to build out your vehicle roster feel impactful. Might not be as deep as Armored Core but it still manages to feel like there's a good sense of progression and optimization around your play style.
It's just so charming and chill the light kind of fare that just feels so nice to unwind with.
Really hope they patch the game to reduce the repeated dialog though. Even tuning the voices out by switching over to Japanese it's honestly mind boggling how often the same clips play over and over. The dialogs are even relatively interesting and varied for the most part they just play WAY TOO OFTEN. It's like Dragons Dogma Pawns on steroids.
There is a clear reverence and understanding for the source material on display, and the game manages to greatly expand on the world building and characters while competently telling the story. It also just lends itself so well to the structure of an open world game.
I think the biggest surprise to me is the in game economy seems to be relatively well tuned to the gameplay loop. Usually in these open world games they either feel insanely grindy or resources become a non-issue.
So far at least I've had enough materials and money on hand to continually improve my vehicles but not so much I can just buy everything blindly. It really makes the decisions on how to build out your vehicle roster feel impactful. Might not be as deep as Armored Core but it still manages to feel like there's a good sense of progression and optimization around your play style.
It's just so charming and chill the light kind of fare that just feels so nice to unwind with.
Really hope they patch the game to reduce the repeated dialog though. Even tuning the voices out by switching over to Japanese it's honestly mind boggling how often the same clips play over and over. The dialogs are even relatively interesting and varied for the most part they just play WAY TOO OFTEN. It's like Dragons Dogma Pawns on steroids.
Really wanted to grab this but tried the demo and the performance was unacceptably poor with nonstop shader stutter and not really sure if I want to run the risk again with the full release. Hope they can add some precompilation or something. Tried forcing dx11 but the game looks worse and while the performance is a bit better it was still pretty bad. Tried using dxvk async but got errors. Oh well.
I have a a 4080 so take it with a grain of salt, but the stutters while they definitely occur have been very ignorable. There's one pretty bad spot right when you get the tank and out into the open world probably due to needing to compile all the effects for the vehicle combat.
But it's not an Elden Ring situation where it happens with almost every new enemy or encounter, and has pretty much evened out for me where I only really see a batch of one off stutters every 30 minutes to an hour at this point.
I'm on a 4080 too and so far the performance has been really smooth. I haven't really noticed any shader stutter either.
I'm bummed the game is being slept on. The more I play, the more I love it!
I'm bummed the game is being slept on. The more I play, the more I love it!
Do not sleep on Thiefs skills. There's one where he sucks up all the recources around him, its super useful.
Yeah, the game is actually really good.
For those curious the game completely changes how the second act unfolds. Introducing new characters, and villains. I'd heard that Toriyama had designed and supervised/approved the writing for the Forest Land arc in the anime... but I also heard that he worked closer with the game team - which honestly shows. In a lot of ways the second arc just feels a lot better narratively in the game.
However the first arc in the game feels pretty bad if I'm honest. Everything new that happens post Ann/Spino intro feels really disjointed. Like the extra parts of the game end up feeling tacked on at times - while the original narrative runs in the background. I don't really feel like the game does the original narrative justice, where I feel like the anime did a better job at capturing Rao's character arc.
All the side content and Spino stuff is pretty good though! There's good humor, and even some decisions that change the outcome of the some of the quests (sometimes for the tragic)
The gameplay is actually really fun and rewards exploration. It feels very metroidvania-esque in how you explore too, because you always end up needing special vehicles to get places... and there are secret grottos and chests hidden away by vehicle-based obstacles. The races are fun too, and test your piloting and tuning skills.
The melee combat is serviceable, and I like it okay - but it is pretty simple and basic stuff. It's obviously just there for the obligatory Beelzebub fight scenes. It's definitely less mashy later on when you have to manage enemies, and your darkness meter (the Swimmers arena challenge is pretty tough, and tests your ability to dodge, and do air combos to take out Papas sons while avoiding him)
The game definitely has anime-game jank... but like... it's also just giving me massive PS2 vibes, and I've been feeling weirdly nostalgic as I play it.
It's really sad that nobodies talking about it, on the other hand... well... nobody I ever talked too knew what Sand Land was prior to this big multi-media project they started. I consistently had to tell people about it and loan my tankobon to friends and such. It just kind of feels like the anime, and game will go just as underappreciated as the manga was in 2000... I actually read it as a kid in middle school and loved Beelzebub and Rao when I read it next to the initial chapters of Naruto, and One Piece in issues of Shonen Jump.
It'll still go down as my favorite deepcut of Toriyama's work. I guess even after his passing people for the most part will only really engage with Dragon Ball, over his other works. (Chrono Trigger too, but I find the Dragon Quest games better. Never cared much for Chrono Trigger)
For those curious the game completely changes how the second act unfolds. Introducing new characters, and villains. I'd heard that Toriyama had designed and supervised/approved the writing for the Forest Land arc in the anime... but I also heard that he worked closer with the game team - which honestly shows. In a lot of ways the second arc just feels a lot better narratively in the game.
However the first arc in the game feels pretty bad if I'm honest. Everything new that happens post Ann/Spino intro feels really disjointed. Like the extra parts of the game end up feeling tacked on at times - while the original narrative runs in the background. I don't really feel like the game does the original narrative justice, where I feel like the anime did a better job at capturing Rao's character arc.
All the side content and Spino stuff is pretty good though! There's good humor, and even some decisions that change the outcome of the some of the quests (sometimes for the tragic)
The gameplay is actually really fun and rewards exploration. It feels very metroidvania-esque in how you explore too, because you always end up needing special vehicles to get places... and there are secret grottos and chests hidden away by vehicle-based obstacles. The races are fun too, and test your piloting and tuning skills.
The melee combat is serviceable, and I like it okay - but it is pretty simple and basic stuff. It's obviously just there for the obligatory Beelzebub fight scenes. It's definitely less mashy later on when you have to manage enemies, and your darkness meter (the Swimmers arena challenge is pretty tough, and tests your ability to dodge, and do air combos to take out Papas sons while avoiding him)
The game definitely has anime-game jank... but like... it's also just giving me massive PS2 vibes, and I've been feeling weirdly nostalgic as I play it.
It's really sad that nobodies talking about it, on the other hand... well... nobody I ever talked too knew what Sand Land was prior to this big multi-media project they started. I consistently had to tell people about it and loan my tankobon to friends and such. It just kind of feels like the anime, and game will go just as underappreciated as the manga was in 2000... I actually read it as a kid in middle school and loved Beelzebub and Rao when I read it next to the initial chapters of Naruto, and One Piece in issues of Shonen Jump.
It'll still go down as my favorite deepcut of Toriyama's work. I guess even after his passing people for the most part will only really engage with Dragon Ball, over his other works. (Chrono Trigger too, but I find the Dragon Quest games better. Never cared much for Chrono Trigger)
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