Sand Land's City of Spino Explained

Summary

Sand Land's upcoming action RPG adaptation blends traditional combat with a heavy focus on vehicle options for a unique gameplay experience.
The game diverges from the manga to fully realize elements such as open world exploration, and perhaps most intrugingly, city customization.
Upgrading the hub city of Spino appears to be crucial for player progression, as not only will they get to fill out an interior base with furniture, but gamers will foster a community of NPCs that results in incremental growth for Sand Land's hub.

Continuing the revival of one of Akira Toriyama’s most underrated works, Sand Land is an upcoming action RPG adaptation of a manga from over 20 years ago. Coinciding with an animated film and anime series releasing in a similar timeframe, this title seems to be setting itself apart by making the most of its source material and featuring an open world experience. As players step into the shoes of Beezlebub as he leads his companions through their barren world, mechanics such as base building in Sand Land's hub city are set to deliver a sense of satisfying long-term progression.

The style of an action RPG is a fitting choice for adapting the linear plot of Toriyama's Sand Land manga, but ILCA's take on the IP blends gameplay elements from outside the typical mold for a more substantial offering. Sure, there's traditional combat that sees Beezlebub at close quarters with enemies, but there seems to be an especially heavy focus on properly utilizing the game's multiple vehicle options. This is further established through Sand Land's impressive vehicle customization, an ethos which has also reached the player's ability to personalize their own base.

Sand Land's Twist on the Open World Formula

Enhancing the Manga's Source Material

It's likely apparent to any reader of the original story, but the footage that has been shown off so far has indicated that Sand Land's game diverges from the manga for the sake of featuring more engaging gameplay opportunities. The plot of Sand Land is a streamlined, single volume that was only briefly able to touch on some concepts, but the upcoming Bandai Namco title has taken some of these elements and fully realized them. Featuring an open world doesn't necessarily portray the narrative with the most accuracy, but it's a format that may seriously contribute to player immersion.

A Major Emphasis on Customization

There are hardly large parts of the manga dedicated to showing how Beezlebub and his allies work on their machines, but Sand Land's video game adaptation is committed to allowing players to build freely in several different ways. Not only can the player access different vehicles freely through capsules, but these can further be personally customized through the NPC Ann for both functional and aesthetic purposes. Yet another feature that reflects this side of Sand Land is the ability to completely transform the game's hub city, Spino.

Spino Functions as a Growing Player Base in Sand Land

Upgrading the Hub Area is a Key Aspect to Sand Land's Progression

Players will likely spend a lot of time exploring the open world of Sand Land, but there's also a place for them to return to between excursions. The city of Spino is more of a decrepit ruin than a proper settlement, but it contains the player's garage and can support a fully customizable indoor base. Beezlebub has access to a personal room which can be filled with a multitude of unlocked furniture and made to fit different aesthetics, but this type of development can affect the greater city of Spino as well.

Developing Spino Will Foster a Community of NPCs

As shown in Sand Land's gameplay overview, Spino is able to be built up over time with the help of certain NPCs who will periodically arrive as the city improves. It starts out with just merchants and a garage, but the city has been shown to have new buildings and unique NPCs that show up later in the game. This will probably take no small amount of resource investment on the player's part given the state Spino begins in, but this sense of incremental growth could turn out to be one of Sand Land's biggest lasting appeals.

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