10 Things to Know Before Playing Sand Land

10 Things to Know Before Playing Sand Land

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 10 things you need to know before playing “Sand Land”.

Story

“Sand Land” takes place in a world that is suffering; years of seemingly endless war has caused water to become scarce. What once was a commodity is now a rare and valuable treasure, and the desperate need to survive has caused crime to skyrocket. It is quite literally Hell. And so, a lone sheriff enlists the help of demon prince Beelzebub (you) and his trusty companion, Thief, in order to steal water from the rich to give to the destitute. Yeah, it’s not exactly a pleasantly sounding setting, even withAkira Toriyama’s cartoon-y aesthetic.

Combat

“Sand Land’s” combat should feel very familiar as it doesn’t really deviate much from standard action game mechanics. You’ll have your light attacks, heavy attacks, dodging, maybe a parry, and a wealth of skill trees to invest in and really enhance your powers. However, melee only makes up half of the combat. The other half is vehicular, which will often be required when dealing with bigger foes or foes too cowardly to come out of their machines. As for allies, you will also have to make sure you’re investing in their skill trees as well.

Vehicles

Vehicles are going to be detrimental in your adventure. This isn’t just in terms of traversal. As we said earlier, vehicular combat makes up half of the game. If you aren’t too great with games like “World of Tanks”, “Mad Max”, or “Twisted Metal”, you might wind up struggling. Collecting and customizing vehicles will be the key to your survival as each type of vehicle will boast different properties. Some can jump, some can hover, and some excel in defense and combat. And just to make you feel comfortable, you’ll get to give your vehicles a bit of style in the paint shop.

Side Quests

If you’re ever wanting a break from the main story and need a good excuse to get more XP and materials, “Sand Land” will come packed with a variety of side quests to take on. In addition to your normal one-offs with mini-stories, you can take part in activities like racing to refine your driving skills. You may also take on arena challenges and bounty hunting if you’re itching for more combat practice. Some of these missions may lead you to meeting more characters or obtaining new parts for your vehicles!

Setting a Base

Your main hub in “Sand Land” will be Spino, one of the many towns suffering from the King’s gluttony and water-hoarding. This will be the spot where you’ll buy items for battle and upgrading as well as housing your vehicles and fine-tune them. You will also be given your own room to upgrade and decorate with whatever items you stumble across. Even though Spino looks desolate when you first find it, you will have opportunities to expand it and evolve it into a thriving city.

“Sand Land”, the IP

In case you’re out of the loop, allow us to fill you in on what “Sand Land” is. Though it is new to the world of video games, “Sand Land” was actually a manga way back in 2000, created by Akira Toriyama. It did not last as long as some of Toriyama’s other works, only running for fourteen chapters in a single volume. It wasn’t until 2022 when “Sand Land” started gaining some real traction, mostly from within Japanese companies. The video game was teased in 2022, and during its final stages of development, there has been a CGI movie and even an animated series. There’s quite a bit of money being injected into this IP for unknown reasons.

Toriyama’s Part

As many of us are already aware, Akira Toriyama passed away on March 1, 2024. Those keeping up with “Sand Land’s” development will already know that the game will be one of his last works. But what exactly was Toriyama’s involvement with the game? Well, it honestly isn’t much different than his roles in some of the “Dragon Ball” video games. Toriyama was primarily a supervisor, most likely to ensure the game stays true to his manga. Shueisha, the publishing company that owns “Sand Land”, also assisted in supervising the game’s development.

ILCA

ILCA is the developer of “Sand Land”, and for some, it may be concerning. ILCA is a game development studio that was founded way back in 2010. Most of the studio’s career consists of lending support to other studios, primarily the internal teams at SEGA, Square Enix, and of course, Bandai Namco Entertainment. As far as making games on their own goes, they’ve been hit-or-miss with most players. On top of several mobile games, the company has been more notable for “One Piece Odyssey” and the 2021 remake of “Pokemon Diamond and Pearl”, neither of which gelled with fans. But judging from the way Bandai Namco has been marketing the game and giving extensive looks, “Sand Land” could very well become their first major hit.

PC Specs

Now, we can understand why PC players might be cautious in buying a AAA game. Many titles in recent years have been demanding more power from more expensive components that most folks don’t have. Luckily, “Sand Land” doesn’t seem like it will demand much from PC users. According to the game’s Steam page, you will only need at least 4GB of RAM, and the graphics card and processor required for minimal settings are pretty common these days. The recommended settings are 8GB of RAM, and the graphics card and processors recommended are also somewhat easy to obtain. Really, this is one of those games you may not be able to run on a potato exactly, but most computers should be able to run the game in a playable state.

Launch

It feels like we’ve been waiting on this game’s launch for ages, but it’s shockingly right around the corner. “Sand Land” will launch on April 26, 2024, and it will be available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PC. A demo is available for players on all platforms to try a slice of the game for themselves. This demo is not meant to show off the story, but rather let you get a feel for the world, the combat, the driving, and exploration in a small sandbox. Just make sure you have about 20GB of storage space available so you can pre-install and play the game the second the clock strikes midnight.

So, tell us - will you be picking up “Sand Land”? Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!