Portraits are a real giveaway in some games. I remember in Persona 4 in particular. "Ah, this random NPC we interacted with for thirty seconds has a portrait. Bet he's coming back again..."

Since most people think the sand plague is mythical, I guess that's why people aren't necessarily alarmed on that point? It's not clear what causes it, so 'plague' may be a misnomer. This being a JRPG, it's probably caused by an Evil Pope or something anyway.