Highlights
- Sand Land game stands out with its unique boss fights, balancing vehicular and hand-to-hand combat. A fun and challenging experience awaits.
- From intense tactical encounters like Cargo Airship to emotional battles like Rosetta's Tank, the game offers diverse boss fights.
- Get ready for epic final battles against Muniel and Bred's Robot, utilizing both combat systems for a fulfilling conclusion.
Sand Land is a new video game adaptation of the classic manga by the great late Akira Toriyama. One aspect of this game that truly stands out is its action, as it is divided between vehicular combat on a variety of machines and hand-to-hand combat, in which the player controls Beelzebub directly.
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The game does an excellent job at balancing both styles of play, which is highlighted during its frenetic boss fights. From gigantic desert-dwelling beasts to dangerous humans who are also efficient at using war machines, Sand Land has some unique and interesting boss fights, and that's quite unexpected for an adaptation like this one. This is a ranking of the best bosses in the entire Sand Land adventure.
10 The Swimmers
A Group Of Wacky Characters
TheSwimmers are some of the most bizarre and memorable characters from the original Sand Land manga. So it was only inevitable that they would end up being one of the first bosses of the game.
The fight starts off with a fun platforming section in 2D in which Beelzebub has to avoid the boulders that the Swimmers are throwing at him. Then it switches to a brief brawl against Papa. While this is not a particularly challenging opponent, this is one of the earlier melee battles in the game, so it also gives the player a good taste of how most encounters are going to work throughout the adventure.
9 Cargo Airship
Reenacting One Of The Manga’s Most Intense Moments
While most of Sand Land’s campaign consists of new content that Akira Toriyama specifically created for this game (and it’s anime adaptation), some of the earlier moments of the playthrough are taken straight from the original manga, and the initial encounter with General Are’s Cargo Airship is a perfect example.
This is not a boss fight where the player will be able to go all in and attack directly. Instead, it’s better to position the tank behind the rocks and hide until a projectile can be launched. This results in a really intense tactical encounter that stands out from the other bosses in the game.
8 Defense System
Half Puzzle, Half Boss
Unlike most of the enemies in Sand Land, the Defense System is mostly stationary and instead relies on the environment and its drones to damage the player’s vehicles. This is a fight in which it’s important to pay attention to the surroundings and the other enemies, not just the boss itself.
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These bosses have multiple different phases that players will need to go through to defeat them, making them incredibly difficult to beat.
It can be quite tricky at times, but it ends up being a surprisingly challenging and fun battle. A second encounter against the Defense System near the end of the story even adds a new element: a bunch of explosive mines that can be thrown back at the machine with the Battle Armor, which is really satisfying.
7 Rosetta’s Tank
An Emotional Encounter
GeneralRosetta may be one of the most complex characters in Sand Land. She is Ann’s childhood friend and Bred’s daughter, so she’s conflicted because she’s not even sure if she’s fighting on the right side of the war between Sand Land and Forest Land. It’s a fascinating dynamic, which turns her into a really tragic boss.
Rosetta drives a giant armored tank, so this battle is not so much about firepower, but rather about resistance. Players will have to avoid her projectiles and never stop attacking back if they want to deal enough damage to the machine. It may be slow-paced, but defeating Rosetta is an important turning point for this game’s narrative.
6 Insect Man Brigade
Beelzebub Embraces His Demonic Power
Similarly to the Cargo Airship, this is another memorable boss fight that reenacts one of the best moments from the original manga. The encounter between Beelzebub and the Insect Man Brigade was the climactic final battle of that story, and the game does a very good job at representing this amazing fight.
The Insect Men are intimidating and resilient, but defeating one alone is not that hard. The problem is when Beelzebub has to fight several of them at the same time, but this leads to an amazing moment: Bel unleashes the full Power of Darkness and the player takes control of his most powerful form. This way, each Insect Man can be taken down with just one hit, and it feels really great.
5 Epi’s Mech 3.0
Taking Down A Very Annoying Character
General Epi of Forest Land is arguably the most despicable character in all of Sand Land, and even though he’s fought several times throughout the adventure, he always manages to come back with a stronger Jump-Bot. As such, the final battle against him near the end of the story is the hardest one, but also the most satisfying one.
Epi will jump around with his powerful mech, avoiding Beelzebub’s attacks and launching powerful projectiles against the player. He even sends in his soldiers to fight for him. This battle is all about patience and good timing, because eventually defeating Epi for the final time feels truly amazing.
4 Kraken
Using The Hovercar At Its Full Potential
In a game where most of the bosses are either humans or giant machines, having to fight a giant organic monster is a breath of fresh air. Luckily, the battle against the Kraken inside the Cardamo Lake Ruins is pretty good in and of itself. This entire dungeon was designed around the use of the Hovercar, and this boss is no exception.
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The Kraken is a tricky opponent that will try to hide under the water and use its tentacles to damage Beelzebub’s Hovercar at unexpected times. If the player makes good use of this vehicle’s features though, it won’t take long before the Kraken is defeated. This is a fun fight, and for players who really enjoy it, it can be replayed in one of the game’s many side quests.
3 Battleship Defender
An Action-Packed Clash Between Robots
Most of the battles in Sand Land rely on projectiles, but this fight is different because it’s all about close combat. The Battleship Defender is meant to be fought with the recently acquired Battle Armor, so the game expects the player to fight it up close and personal. To make things even better, this is one of the best robots that Akira Toriyama ever designed.
This setup results in one of the most intense, challenging, and memorable segments of the entire game, as the player will have to keep a close eye on the Battleship Defender, avoid its sword & tail attacks, and approach it at the right moment in order to strike back. This feels like a boss battle from an entirely different action game, and that’s a good thing.
2 Muniel
An Epic Final Boss To Conclude The Game
As one of the main antagonists, Beelzebub has to fight the angel Muniel several times, but he seems to be a pushover in most of his initial encounters. That is, until the final battle of the entire game, where he’s powered up by Aquanium and he shows his true colors.
The first phase against regular Muniel introduces a few new tricky abilities, like teleportation and a bubble shield that Bel will have to quickly break out of. But the second phase of this battle is where Muniel truly shines. As he absorbs more and more Aquanium, he becomes a hulking giant that can only be taken down by vehicles. This climactic final boss utilizes both combat systems of the game perfectly, and it concludes Sand Land in a fulfilling way.
1 Bred’s Robot
The Most Epic Boss In The Game
Supreme Commander Bred is definitely the most interesting antagonist of the two main ones in the game, since he has a really cool design and a tragic background. He’s a cyborg who's not entirely sure if he’s fighting for a good cause. So he is already a character that the player will look forward to fighting during the entire adventure, and the ensuing battle against Bred and his giant robot does not disappoint.
This is a really challenging fight. Bred can deal a lot of damage with his punches, missiles, and lasers, and hitting him when he goes airborne can be quite tricky. The player will have to make good use of every single vehicle if they want to defeat him efficiently, and eventually doing so is extremely satisfying. Not to mention that Bred’s subsequent redemption makes this epic boss fight even more worth it.
Sand Land
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS5 , PS4 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Released
- April 26, 2024
- Developer(s)
- ILCA
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
