I consider myself to be someone who proudly wears his heart on his sleeve, but even then, I don’t usually get emotional over the death of celebrities. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:I was sad whe🎉n Kevin Conroy pa💖ssed away last year and got a lump in my throat when rewatching Friends following Matthew Perry’s death, but I&rsquꦑo;ve never let myself go any further.

That all changed earlier this month when legendary mangaka Aﷺki💛ra Toriyama, the creator of and Dr Slump, passed away. I’m a lifelong Dragon Ball fan, and the impact Toriyama’s work has had on me over the years is difficult to put into 𝔍words. I cried like a baby when I heard the news and spent most of the day .

It’s nearly been a month since Toriyama passed away, but I still find myself getting wistful whenever I see a new trailer ඣfor Dragon Ball: Sparkiℱng Zero or when his art pops up on my timeline. As much as I expecℱted to find Dragon Ball tough to rewatch since it’s been with me all my life, I was surprised to find that I’ve had an even harder time with ’s resurgence.

Sand Land might not be as well known as Goku and Arale’s adventures, but its previously niche status as a one-shot manga from 2000 and deeper themes of ecologism and prejudice made it feel like one of Toriyama’s more intimate works. Having read through Sand Land before it became mainstream, it felt like a personal story just for me, one that I was happy to see more people get on board with, but still, something that had a special, almost private place in my heart. I was sharing Dragon Ball with the whole world, but as a kid, Sꦯand Land was mine.

This made previewing the video game adaptation a very strange time. Just weeks after Toriyama had passed away, I had the chance to sit down and play around four hours of the upcoming open-world adventure, and found it surprisingly emotional as I saw the world I haꦿd experienced many years ago brought back for a whole🦩 new generation.

Beyond finding the vehicle combat to be in-depth and engaging (even if the on-foot sections are a little barebones), what stood out to me the most during my time with Sand Land is how faithful it is to the original story. It clearly understands the characters, world, and themes that were introduced in the manga and lovingly builds on them, giving us even more time to see Beelzebub’s relationship with Rao and Thief grow as they jour💜ney across a desolate wasteland.

The focus on vehicles, s🅘omething that Toriyama was especially passionate about and what actually led to Sand Land’s creation in the first place, also had me grinning from ear to ear. Beyond knowing his impact on games like Blue Dragon and Dra🌺gon Quest, I have no idea if Toriyama was ever a gamer himself, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that he would have loved seeing his world and drawings adapted so lovingly to the medium.

As emotional as it was hearing Toriyama’s dialogue spoken word-for-word as Beelzebub, Rao, and Thief drove around in a tank, what hit the hardest was getting a sneak peek at how the Sand Land game expands on the original world with Forest Land. This new area, which Toriyama had a big hand ♎in creating, is the heart of a brand-new story for Beelzebub, and one that feels like it’s just scratching the surface of how much potential the world of Sand Land has outside of its one-sho𒀰t beginnings.

I have no idea what the future holds for Sand Land, 🎃Dragon Ball, , or anything else that♍ Toriyama lent his immeasurable talent to, but I do know that we’re lucky to have seen so much of his work adapted across so many mediums. Time will only tell if the Sand Land game lives up to expectations, but the love and care that has been put into its world makes for a heartfelt final tribute.