Sand Land (PS5)

Sand Land bietet ein einzigartiges Abenteuer, eine schöne abgeschlossene Geschichte und eine vorbildliche Adaption des Mangas von Akira Toriyama. Kleine Unstimmigkeiten und manch langatmige Strecke trüben die fesselnde Gesamtatmosphäre nur geringfügig.

Sand Land bietet eine schön erzählte Story und mit seinen Fahrzeugen und den vielen Anpassungsmöglichkeiten eine Besonderheit innerhalb der Anime/Manga-Umsetzungen. Die Optik und der Charme von Toriyama sprießen durch das gesamte Spiel und lassen es einen warm ums Herz werden. Leider bleibt da die komplette musikalische Untermalung arg dahinter, die Kämpfe außerhalb der Fahrzeuge überzeugen nicht und manche Dungeons ziehen sich ganz schön.

Sand Land is all set to be your new favourite anime, with compelling characters, enjoyable combat and great anime visuals in video game form. You might just find that Akira Toriyama has saved the best for last.

Sand Land proves once again that Akira Toriyama and video games are a perfect match.

A lighthearted yet emotional open world adventure with some great exploration and progression held back only by its lack of diversity.

Toriyama's love of vehicles shines through in Sand Land and is where its most enjoyable moments reside. It's disappointing that it flounders in other areas, particularly when it comes to stealth and melee combat, but ICLA has still managed to capture the heart and spirit of the original manga through its story, characters, and vehicular combat and traversal. Sand Land is bittersweet in many ways, but it'ss a testament to Toriyama's talents as both an artist and storyteller that, despite its numerous flaws, it's still worth playing.

Sand Land has its shortcomings and feels a little overlong despite seeing credits around the reasonable 20-hour mark, but it maintains a charm throughout. Toriyama’s fun sense of humor is front and center with Beelzebub taking on the adventure primarily so his dad will give him an extra hour of video game time every day. I may not have had strong connections with most of the cast and was annoyed with a number of specific sections, but I liked spending time in Sand Land (and beyond) and seeing my garage upgrade and grow.