Sand Land grabbed a hold of my attention unexpectedly after its reveal this summer, and I’ve been waiting for more news on the upcoming RPG since. Developed by ILCA and published by JRPG king Bandai Namco Entertainment, Sand Land is shaping up to be nothing short of exciting. The new game is inspired by Akira Toriyama’s manga of the same name. If you don’t know who Toriyama is, he is the creator of Dragon Ball and pretty much a deity among dedicated manga readers.
While Sand Land features an art style reminiscent of Dragon Ball’s own, the upcoming RPG game packs its own unique story and cast of quirky characters. You play as protagonist Beelzebub, the Fiend Prince, as he explores a legendary desert-scape inhabited by devilish demons and humans suffering from a water shortage. Joining Beelzebub is a crew of heroic misfits, accompanying him along the way in his action-packed adventure.
The game just got its first developer diary, where the game’s producer, Keishu Minami, discusses Sand Land’s ins and outs. In this first video, Minami explores the game’s enemies and vehicles. Vehicles are central to gameplay, especially when taking on the bigger enemies. It looks like we’ll get to make use of everything like battle bots, motorcycles, tanks, and hovering vehicles to gain an advantage.
We’ll get to customize our vehicles to suit our playstyle by changing up engines, primary and secondary weapons, the undercarriage, and more. The Fiend Prince is powerful on his own, too. Outside of vehicular combat, the developer says that “Beelzebub can connect combos with normal attacks, or activate skills to use powerful techniques that are different.” As you progress, Beelzebub’s skill tree will unlock and the number of skills available within it will increase.
You’ll want to stick to vehicles when you’re not going up against humans, though. The dev recommends using vehicles against large enemies “to fight as equals.” I can’t wait to see more combat and hopefully lore too in future diaries. Personally, I’d say that Sand Land is definitely shaping up to have a power level of over 9,000 so far. If you agree, you can wishlist the game now on Steam to keep yourself updated.
If you’re interested in the manga-style aesthetic but don’t know what else you can play with the same sort of art, you should browse through some of our favorite anime games out there. Alternatively, you can look around our roundup of the greatest JRPGs on PC for some similar role-playing action.