GPTRACK50 recently revealed that its forthcoming zombie action RPG Stupid Never Dies will debut in Fall 2026, accompanied by fresh trailer footage. After a live demo event in Los Angeles, game director Eiichiro Sasaki (known for directing Resident Evil 6) and producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi (who worked on numerous titles in the RE, Devil May Cry and Dino Crisis series) spoke with Famitsu about what players can expect from their new studio’s debut title. They also addressed speculation about the game being a “soulslike.”
From what we know so far, Stupid Never Dies is a dynamic fast-paced action RPG that emphasizes character progression. You play as Davy, a low-level zombie boy, who embarks on a quest to bring his beloved Julia – a frozen human girl – back to life. The basic game loop consists of timed dungeon runs during which you battle enemies, gather unusual items and level up. A key gameplay mechanic is “Style Eat,” which allows Davy to steal defeated enemies’ abilities by consuming their cores.
This can unlock up to ten different monster combat styles (in addition to Davy’s original zombie style), with species ranging from werewolves, vampires, harpies, lizardmen and more. Since different abilities will be useful in different scenarios, you can equip up to two combat styles at once and switch between them in real time, though there’s no guarantee you’ll encounter the styles you want when you want them.
Additionally, an “Overtech” mechanic will let you biohack Davy’s body with various weapons and implants, which function regardless of what monster style you’ve transformed into. The game also features a burst mechanic – by landing attacks in combat, you’ll fill up a Davy Burst gauge which, when activated, will instantly boost Davy’s stats and level him up dramatically.
Speaking to Famitsu, Kobayashi states that if you’ve never held a controller in your life, completing Stupid Never Dies will be a difficult task, but aside from that, the game has been balanced so that anyone with a reasonable amount of gaming experience can reach the ending (which will take about 20 to 30 hours on average). Addressing fans’ concerns, he clarifies that the game is not a soulslike-style title. In fact, during development, he explicitly told his team that wasn’t the genre they’d be going for. This aligns with sentiments Kobayashi previously expressed talking to AUTOMATON, when he mentioned he was aiming for a good balance between technical and tactical, rather than pure, punishing action.
Director Sasaki notes that in Stupid Never Dies, certain aspects of progression are reset when you die or clear a dungeon, but there are also plenty of abilities that carry over and accumulate, so you never get thrown back to zero. “I think the interesting part of this game is that it mixes progression you can control with progression you can’t. The fact that not everything is under the player’s control is what gives it a sense of challenge, and I think we’ve struck a pretty good balance there.” As Kobayashi puts it, the reset mechanics mean you won’t be able to win just by leveling up, but you also won’t be able to rely just on technique.
With development work about 90% done, Stupid Never Dies is scheduled to launch in Fall 2026 for PC (Steam) and PS5.