I suppose you could say that this is my "first impressions" even though I am about 10-15 hours into the game.
Sand Land is an interesting game that is told in a rather different way and will appeal to fans of anime. It is silly, it is easy to pick up, the story is OK I guess, and it is kind of open world. I would say that this game is definitely casual but even though it is "open world" many parts of the map are inaccessible on purpose until you get a certain item or vehicle that opens that new part of the map up.
You control a group of 3 active characters in the land of sand that is unironically called Sandland. These characters are an ex General for the now oppressive human royals, Beelzebub- the literal son of Satan whose very friendly looking demons also inhabit the world, and Thief, who is just some dude that accompanies Beelzebub everywhere he goes.
The art style is unique and even though I don't know a great deal about anime, I was thinking "Naruto" when I was watching it and the running style of Beelzebub appears as though it is trying to mimic exactly that.
You can navigate around the land on foot if you want to, but the real bread and butter of this game is that you are able, quite early on actually, to switch between various vehicles that make getting around a lot easier and faster. You start out with the tank and this is fun because you have a machine gun and tank rounds that you switch back and forth with. This is exceptionally easy to control and aside from one specific boss battle, it's not really all that challenging because the enemy always shoots directly at you so the only thing you have to do is constantly strafe and they are not going to hit you.
The only time I ever took considerable damage outside of the aforementioned boss battle - which has you contained inside of a valley where there are a bunch of boulders in your way so you cannot strafe - is a time I accidentally drove my tank off the side of a cliff. In the tank you take fall damage but as far as I can tell you do not do so on foot or in the other vehicles I have gathered.
For a casual gamer like myself, this is all fine and dandy because on the normal setting this is a game where when I come back a few days later after not playing and have to re-familiarize myself with the controls, it doesn't result in insta-death like it would in other open-world games i have played in the past such as RDR2 or Witcher 3.
The combat is fun and even though it could be seen as being somewhat repetitive the fact that it takes place in vehicles that you can choose between (thanks to a magical case you find that allows you to carry multiple vehicles with you in your pocket) you are able to mix up the sort of combat you are in as much as you want. I think for most people that they are going to be using the tank for the most part, and that is fine.
There are a few things that I don't much care for in the game though and these are minor gripes.
There are mandatory stealth sections and for me, I don't think I have ever enjoyed this in any game that I have ever played. I amazed, looking back, that I ever made it through any of the Metal Gear games.
These stealth missions are kept short though and even though it might be a bit annoying to get caught, you don't get sent back a long ways and the game loads exceptionally fast.... so this is good. I recall in Windwaker one of the first missions was stealth and if you got caught- and you will - it would send you back to the very beginning each time. God I hated that part of the game.
Anyway, the other gripe is that a lot of the story isn't very engaging and it is, dare is say, stupid. This is all fine and dandy if you can skip it and for the most part, you can... However, certain larger sections are inexplicably not skip-able and this annoys the crap out of me.
Also, each line spoken during these sometimes rather long story sections will pause at the end of a sentence and wait for you to hit the X button and it will hold there for an inordinate amount of time. I went to go take a shower and brush my teeth during one particular unskippable section thinking it would be done by the time I returned only to discover that it had advanced something like 3 sentences. So not only can you NOT skip it, but you also have to sit there the entire time.
For others, this might not be a big deal but one thing that is always annoying to me in any game is for cinematics to not be able to be skipped. Not everyone wants to watch that shit.. you know?
You can wander the world looking for elite mobs to kill, you can go on optional side missions or you can just follow the main story. None of these things are particularly difficult. The voice acting is pretty good and although I think they get too wordy, the story is actually pretty good. They get a bit wordy about it but overall the story is about redemption as well as how sometimes it is better to not judge a book by its cover (in regard to the demons being feared even though they are quite nice creatures.)
I have no idea how long this game is but based on how much of the world map I have revealed I am thinking that it might be a 30 hour game.
I have found it enjoyable so far and if you are a PS-Plus Extra or above member, you can download and play it for free.
This is super casual though, and any of you hardcore folks out there that are looking for a parry-filled game of pinpoint accuracy on buttons, well you are going to find this boring.
I'm a filthy casual who often won't even game for days in a row despite having nothing else to really do. For me, this game is perfect and well, you can't beat the price!