Sand Land’s Wasteland Needs Work – TGS 2023

The demo opens on a strong note, with graphics that lean into its manga origins. All the characters look like they’ve wandered onto the screen straight from the page, with thick line art giving everyone sharp features. The characters all have personality, especially the protagonist, Beezelbub. He may look like an anime version of Hot Stuff the Little Devil (kids, ask your grandparents) but from minute one he’s looking for adventure and action.

With Beezelbub and his two elderly companions driving across the desert, the first challenge thrown at the player is a set piece where our leads catch the attention of a massive dragon. Beezelbub drives towards the camera as the dragon gives chase; a distance readout at the top of the screen counts down until they reach safety. I found it tough to predict where the dragon would burrow up and attack, but the vehicle is sturdy enough to survive multiple hits. I think the only strategy is to keep winding back and forth to prevent the dragon from getting a fix on your heading.

Once they escape, Beezelbub and his pals arrive in a “village” that is all but deserted. The team has a quick chat before deciding to seek a more populous area, and the game places a handy visual marker on the HUD. With that, I took off across the desert again, following a clear path of tire tracks towards my goal. We drove past some wandering dinosaurs—a staple of Toriyama’s works—and a few bandits who showed passing interest in our truck before giving up when I ignored their grenades.

As we approached the set destination, one of Beezelbub’s companions pointed out a large mark painted on a mountainside, identifying it as a pirate icon. Befitting a cocky hero, Beezelbub took the news with excitement, proclaiming he’d beat them all up. His friends exercised caution, but it proved to be a moot point as Sand Land automatically dragged our heroes straight into the pirate’s trap. A line of spikes popped all four truck tires, forcing Beezelbub to dismount and fight hand-to-hand.

I would describe the action in Sand Land as boilerplate: Beezelbub can punch enemies with light attacks or wind up to deliver a powerful blow. You can hold down the button to charge the heavy attack or tap it mid-combo to trigger a kick that sends opponents up into the air, giving Beezelbub time to land even more hits before they come crashing down. There’s a short-range dodge move to avoid enemy strikes and a lock-on command to keep the camera fixed on one threat at a time. A meter fills over time to unlock super attacks, but I can’t vouch for their usefulness. The one time I triggered it, despite having an enemy in my line of sight, they seemed unfazed.

Fighting the pirates proved to be as easy as Beezelbub said; I think I only took one hit even as the gang had me surrounded. Much like the protagonists, I thought the pirates looked like fun characters that I would welcome learning more about. They seem like barbarians from Fist of the North Star, and I do enjoy a silly recurring foe that poses no threat to the hero but steadfastly continues to attack him.

What happened next truly surprised me though: After less than 10 minutes of gameplay, the demo came to an abrupt end. I knew Sand Land had only been announced over the summer, but I had expected a more thorough cross-section of the world. I glanced at other demo players and it occurred to me that I might have made a mistake. Open-world games live or die based on what lies off the beaten path. I had followed the game’s instructions precisely and rushed straight to the finish line. Clearly I had to come back for a second excursion into the desert.

I returned to the Bandai Namco booth for another chance, somehow fairing worse at the chase sequence this time but still making it safely to the dried-up village. Instead of triggering the quest to mosey onwards, I ran around and tried talking to the few people I could find. They all reacted with extreme shock, assuming that Beezelbub wanted to eat their souls. Beezelbub scoffed every time; he must be used to humans freaking out around him. I should add that all these conversations were fully animated and voiced, adding to the comedy of the poor panicked folks who thought their lives were in danger.

When I finally did move on, I ignored the quest marker and the primary path to drive freely around the desert. I found a cave with three storage chests inside, though I don’t know the significance of the items they contained—it didn’t seem to be money or treasure. I also found a gem deposit in a rocky wall that produced resources when smashed, although a similar-looking boulder nearby didn’t yield any pickups even though it clearly reacted to fisticuffs.

I tried fighting the dinosaurs who put up a larger fight than the pirates but nevertheless couldn’t handle Beezelbub’s blows. The bandits were even less formidable, but they offered a finer prize in their armored tank. This time around I noticed that Beezelbub specifically said out loud, “We should beat up those guys and steal their tank,” so the game was trying to give me a hint that ignoring enemies wasn’t the best solution.

Once in the tank, I gained access to a powerful cannon and a heavy machine gun. These weapons made short work of ordinary enemies, as a single shell took out dinosaurs in one blast and sent bandits running for the hills, literally. However, I soon found that exploring the desert in an armored vehicle led me to encounter much stronger beasts, such as a bigger version of the dinosaurs I had so easily defeated earlier. These bruisers shrugged off direct artillery fire and charged forward to smash the tank while I struggled to reload.

Again, the demo cut me off long before the timer set by the Bandai Namco staff chimed. Such is the nature of playing at a big event like TGS, sadly. Still, my second playthrough justified my curiosity, proving that the demo did indeed offer more than a leisurely desert drive and a single fight. I left the booth wondering how many elements could change. If I managed to take the tank into the pirate’s trap, would their spike strip have still incapacitated my ride? Or would a different cutscene play, allowing me to shoot the pirates without the need for melee combat?

The real question going forward is how well the developers will fill this open world with memorable locations, characters, and loot. I don’t know the Sand Land story so I have no expectations for how it might be adapted, but I’ve played plenty of games that rely on exploration and discovery to deliver a satisfying experience. We’re less than six months removed from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s launch, a game I played for almost 200 hours before finally wrapping the main story. I could have played for twice as long, too, had I sought to complete every sidequest.

Obviously I cannot expect a TGS demo to compare to a game Nintendo devoted years of time and an untold budget to perfecting, but I can say that Sand Land has a long way to go before I’d consider giving it another look. Bandai Namco has yet to announce a release date, so perhaps the developers will have the resources they need to turn this literal sandbox into a figurative one. At present, the driving, combat, and exploration don’t entice me to dig any deeper.