Stupid Never Dies is the debut game from GPTRACK50, a NetEase owned developer composed of ex-Capcom veterans who previously worked on some of the studio’s most influential action games, including Devil May Cry and Dragon’s Dogma. As one of the titans of the industry, it’s no surprise that many well-known creatives have cut their teeth through the walls of Capcom and gone on to deliver fresh, unique takes on the action genre once they’ve moved on. 

From the handful of hours I spent with Stupid Never Dies’ ‘First Bite’ demo, it’s clear that founder Hiroyuki Kobayashi and his team have set out to deliver a fresh combination of character action combat with dungeon crawler progression, but what impressed me most were the endearing characters and a charming premise, capped off by a captivating aesthetic.

Stupid Enough to Love

This aesthetic makes itself apparent immediately with the opening menu’s blaring pop-punk banger, the lyrics of which offer a brief prelude for what’s to come once we start and meet our protagonist, Davy. 

Davy is a hopelessly weak zombie who, upon becoming trapped in a freezer amidst a war between monsters and humans. There, he meets a frozen girl named Julia, whom he immediately falls head-over-heels for, vowing to save her after he is saved by a scientist and tasked with scaling a mysterious dungeon to grow stronger and defeat the King of Monsters.

The premise and its presentation should be familiar to those fond of Grasshopper Manufacture’s 2010s output – especially Lollipop Chainsaw. The heavily stylized anime aesthetic creates an interesting bridge between the grittier in-game visuals and vibrant, expressive anime cutscenes, and I was immediately endeared to its bombastic world and cast just by the presentation alone.

The strong presentation gives way to some characters and writing that managed to get a few chuckles out of me while playing. A headless guitarist boss known as ‘Bob Dullahan’ was one such case, coupled with the comedic pitifulness of Davy himself, especially in his weakened state in the game’s mall hub area, where he is forced to ride around on a Roomba due to the fragility of his zombie mind in the human world. There’s a familiar crudeness to some of the humour too, as Davy’s main point of entry to the dungeon is through a toilet he is sucked through, which feels plucked straight out of No More Heroes.

Combat With Hidden Depth

As for the combat, the jury is still out on how its ideas will coalesce; there’s a lot of potential in Stupid Never Dies’ character-action/action RPG mashup. Dungeon crawls begin with Davy in a heavily weakened state and with a simple set of straightforward melee combos. These can be shaken up by equippable special skills and stat modifiers that become available as enemies are defeated and Davy levels up. Progression is reset each run; however, Davy’s “Growth Rate” is increased with every death, which seems like it will offset the repetition of completing the same early floors each time.

A few runs in, the game reveals what seems to be one of its most important central mechanics. Davy gains the ability to absorb the powers of certain enemies by consuming their cores, allowing him to transform into beasts such as Werewolves and Harpies. These offer completely unique skillsets, with their own combos, special abilities, and stat properties. I already got a taste early on for how these will affect the flow of combat, as I found myself getting swarmed in early fights on a few runs before I could absorb the Werewolf core.

Davy absorbs the cores through his ‘Chomp’ ability, which, when used on other enemies, allows certain traits to be absorbed and mild health restoration. Floors are also randomized with each run; however, after a certain amount are completed, players can switch Davy’s special skill loadouts or use currency to restore health and Chomp bars. It’s hard to get a solid sense of progression, but there’s plenty of room in these systems for completely differentiated runs that will be heavily influenced by the abilities the player has access to through the absorption mechanic, and the randomization of the dungeon itself.

As the mechanics open up, there’s a sense that the depth of combat comes from the increasing complexity of its RPG mechanics more so than the freedom of expression found in more traditional character action games like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. While this seems like a good fit for a game more interested in its dungeon crawling and progression than the style of its action, I do fear that the moment-to-moment action could grow repetitive in the full game, especially if a lock-on system is not implemented. As of right now, the lack of one led to a few deaths from hard to reach flying enemies and made aiming special attacks somewhat of a chore, especially since they operate on cool-downs.

Final Thoughts

After a few hours making my way through its opening, I’m optimistic for how Stupid Never Dies will land once it releases next month. The game’s character-action influenced RPG progression sets it apart from contemporary dungeon crawlers, and the transformations seem like they will offer enough variety to keep things from becoming stale too quickly. I’m more eager to see where its narrative goes and learn more about its eccentric, oddball cast.

Stupid Never Dies launches on October 21 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Thank you to GPTRACK50 and Sega for providing Gamer Social Club with access to a demo build.