Veterans warn: Stupid Never Dies is not soulslike

After a Los Angeles demo, the developers behind Stupid Never Dies said they explicitly told their team not to chase a “soulslike” feel. The debut from their new studio is instead positioned as a fast, growth-focused zombie action RPG built around timed dungeon

A zombie action RPG debut can be a risky pitch—but for Stupid Never Dies, the risk isn’t just whether players will enjoy it. It’s whether they’ll come in expecting the wrong thing.

At a live demo event in Los Angeles. the game’s director Eiichiro Sasaki. known for directing Resident Evil 6. and producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi—who produced numerous titles across the Resident Evil. Devil May Cry. and Dino Crisis series—sat down to talk with Famitsu about what players should expect from the project.

Central to the conversation was the rumor that GPTRACK50’s upcoming game is a “soulslike.” Kobayashi didn’t dodge the question. He clarified that the game is not a soulslike-style title. and said that during development he explicitly told his team that wasn’t the genre they’d be going for. He previously expressed a similar aim when speaking to AUTOMATON. saying he was targeting a balance between technical and tactical gameplay rather than pure. punishing action.

That distinction matters because Stupid Never Dies, at least on paper, feels built for momentum rather than strict endurance. Players control Davy, a “bottom-tier zombie boy,” on a quest to bring his crush, Julia—a frozen human girl—back to life.

The core loop centers on timed dungeon runs where you defeat enemies, collect strange items, and level up. Combat is driven by a mechanic called “Style Eat,” letting Davy steal defeated enemies’ abilities by eating their cores. According to what’s been shared so far. that can unlock up to ten different monster combat styles beyond Davy’s original zombie style.

Those species include werewolves, vampires, harpies, lizardmen, and more. You can equip up to two combat styles at a time and switch between them in real time, though the game doesn’t promise you’ll always find the styles you want when you need them.

Staying in control of your power growth is also tied to another system: “Overtech.” This lets you biohack Davy’s body using various weapons and implants. and those upgrades work regardless of which monster style you’ve transformed into. On top of that, there’s a burst mechanic. By landing attacks. you fill a Davy Burst gauge; once activated. it instantly boosts Davy’s stats and levels him up dramatically.

Kobayashi also addressed who the game is for. He said that if you’ve never held a controller in your life. clearing Stupid Never Dies is going to be a challenging task. But he added that beyond that. the game is balanced so that anyone with a reasonable amount of gaming experience can reach the ending. The expected playtime for that ending is about 20 to 30 hours on average.

The developers’ pitch comes into sharper focus when Sasaki explains how failure works in the game. He points out that while certain progression elements reset when you die or clear a dungeon. others carry over and accumulate. “I think the interesting part of this game is that it mixes progression you can control with progression you can’t. ” Sasaki said. “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 frames it, the reset mechanics mean you won’t be able to win just by leveling up, but you also won’t be locked into starting over from nothing.

With development work about 90% done, Stupid Never Dies is scheduled to launch in Fall 2026 for PC (Steam) and PS5.

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