Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama gives posthumous praise for Sand Land game

Legendary Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama has posthumously praised new release Sand Land, a month after he passed away.

Sand Land, from Bandai Namco, released this week and is based on Toriyama's manga series that debuted in 2000.

In celebration of the release, a statement from Toriyama has been shared on social media following the sad news of his death last month. The statement is from January this year.

“I haven't watched through all of the gameplay yet,” said Toriyama. “However, it greatly expands the worldview of the original manga with many new exciting elements. It is high-quality as a stand alone game and I can tell it is a highly satisfying action-RPG game!”

Toriyama praised the graphics and the representation of the manga, as well as the new world of Forest Land.

“I myself can only play casual games, but I do check out the trending games my family plays, and I think I know a little something about them even for an old man,” he said. “I seriously recommend the game Sand Land!”

The official X account for the game shared the statement, but bizarrely without mention of Toriyama's death beyond small print with the date of the comment.

Toriyama was best known as the creator of the Dragon Ball manga, but was also responsible for character designs in games such as Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon.

He passed away aged 68.

“It's our deep regret that he still had several works in the middle of creation with great enthusiasm. Also, he would have many more things to achieve,” read a statement on the official Dragon Ball website.