Preview Stupid Never Dies - from the producer of Resident Evil and Devil May Cry

Screenshot of Stupid Never Dies by Davy — Stupid Never Dies – new game, new developer (GPTRACK50)

From one of Capcom‘s most experienced producers, and a new team that has worked on everything from Monster hunter THE Far Cry 4a new exciting action is coming RPG with a deceptive undertone.

With the constant stream of news about game developers around the world closing down or suffering layoffs, it’s always nice to welcome something new to the industry. Japanese outfit GPTRACK50 first appeared in December 2025 at Game Awardswith an intriguing trailer for his first game, Stupid Never Dies.

It features a zombie protagonist, a cartoony, hyper-colored art style, and a brief hint of some epic-looking action. Now, the developer has given us the first in-depth presentation (hands-off) of the game and our intrigue has turned into anticipation.

With its unusual story and distinctive visuals, Stupid Never Dies has a slight flavor of a Suda51 game, such as the latter Romeo is a dead man. But before diving into his gameplay, it’s worth putting it in context by examining the background of this young developer.

GPTRACK50 was founded and is directed by Japanese development beast Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who previously spent 28 years at Capcom, with production credits that included many Resident Evil AND The devil may cry games; Kobayashi was also the driving force behind Dragon’s Dogma and was a producer on Suda517’s killer.

He also led Capcom’s efforts to turn its intellectual property into films, and is keen to point out that among the team of around 30 are developers who have worked on the likes of Resident Evil 4, Monster Hunter: WorldFar Cry 4, Final Fantasy 15 AND Gear Solid Metal 5.

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Kobayashi talked about how keeping his 30-person team allows the studio to remain nimble, and even though the company has only been around for three years, he was confident that Stupid Never Dies will be released in 2026.

Through a trailer and various gameplay sequences, Kobayashi explained what Stupid Never Dies will be about. The overall tone of the game seems to be defined by the phrase ‘funky zombie action’ and he noted that it is an attack-focused game with no guarding or dodging. Although there will be an unfavorable move that deals huge damage if timed.

Stupid Never Dies has a simple but strange story. You play as Davy, a low-level zombie who is described as: “The weakest of the monsters.” In the post-apocalyptic game world of Stupid Never Dies, Davy wanders, in classic zombie fashion, into a shopping mall where, in a cold storage room, he meets Julia, a beautiful woman who has been frozen; Davy immediately falls in love with her and his desire to bring her back to life becomes his driving motivation.

Stupid Never Dies battle screenshot — You can tell many of the developers who worked at Capcom (GPTRACK50)

Davy meets a mad scientist named Dr Frank, who explains that the zombie outbreak is caused by the King of Monsters, who resides in a vast underground dungeon. Dr. Frank produces a phoenix egg, which Davy eats, giving him powers that will enable him to face the monsters in said dungeon, with the King of Monsters’ death returning the world to normal and enabling Julia to be resurrected.

The developers weren’t quite forthcoming about all of Stupid Never Dies’ gameplay mechanics, but they did confirm that the game’s action and role-playing style elements reside in the monster-filled dungeon. Each time Davy visits the dungeon, the speed at which he will level up will increase, and he will essentially start over with each new visit. Later in the press conference, the company admitted that the mechanism has a deceptive feel.

After swallowing the phoenix egg, Davy gains the ability, while in the dungeon, to bite monsters, eat their cores, and learn how to take their physical forms. Thus, Davy’s ability to shapeshift (and, the developer adds, body hacking, allowing him, for example, to attach a sword or weapon to one arm) allows him to take on and defeat a multitude of monsters at once.

Stupid Never Dies screenshot of a wolf — Turning into a wolf looks useful (GPTRACK50)

The developer used that mechanism to enable Davy to take on no fewer than 11 wildly different forms. That is, a wolf (agile, with claws); harpy (flying, with a beam attack); golem (as a tank, and good against swarms of enemies); vampire (puts Dave at the head of a pack of bats that attack from mid-level); do-o-the-wisp (ghostly and ethereal, good for avoiding environmental traps); cyclops (large and deadly at close range); snow fairy (freezes enemies, making them more vulnerable); merfolk (sinks into the ground as if it were water); lich (commands an army of skeletons whose ranks can be augmented by dead enemies); and demon (uses whips and gravity to control enemies’ positions).

The gameplay of Stupid Never Dies hinges on dynamically changing between those forms according to the enemies you’re facing – apparently, each pass you make through the dungeon will introduce Davy to new fighting forms, until in the final stages, he’s mastered all 11 of them. The body hacking system will remain consistent in whatever form Davy transforms into. He was shown a gun, a sword, a rocket launcher, and a gravity gun that sent mini-black holes, with devices attached to his right arm, legs, or head.

On top of that is Davy Burst: a mode that powers up as he knocks out enemies and boosts all of his abilities, effectively giving him a special attack. In the time-honored fashion of action role-players, there will also be boss battles, though we didn’t get to see any in the rather brief demo.

While the preview left a lot of questions about the game – such as how well its unusual leveling structure will work, what gameplay exists outside of the dungeon, and what a different experience the dungeon can present each time you visit it – it certainly whetted our appetite to try the game out for ourselves.

Stupid Never Dies certainly looks pretty impressive, and its combat is undeniably fast, loud, and empowering. As always with a first-look, open demo, it’s impossible to tell how well it will hang together as a structured game or, for example, how long it will take to complete and how much replayability it might offer. At first, it will be available for PlayStation 5 and PC only; GPTRACK50 hinted that he could transfer it to Xbox keyboard, but not until it’s been on sale for a while.

But if you’re into action RPGs, it’s definitely one to look out for as it promises satisfying action, plenty of characters, and hopefully a certain amount of originality in its gameplay. We’ll report back when we get to play with it.