It’s hard to capture the spirit of an original work when you’re adapting it into a game. But instead of dragging on, Sand Land brings the manga to life perfectly—and I couldn’t put it down.

Sand Land was originally a short manga released in the early 2000s by legendary manga artist Akira Toriyama. It tells the story of Sheriff Rao and demon prince Beelzebub as they embark on an adventure to bring water back to a land ravaged by drought. It was short, sweet, and fully fleshed out until Bandai Namco announced a few years ago that it would be adapting the manga into an anime and a video game, featuring an expanded story and new characters partially created by Toriyama before his tragic passing.

Knowing that this might be the last original work I get to experience from Toriyama, I took the plunge into a world of sand, demons, and utter nonsense. Now, 30 hours later, I don't regret the journey, although the road wasn't without its bumps.

It took about two hours of Sand Land to convince me that it's not just another open-world anime game that will take up my time with side missions and too many chefs in the kitchen.