Stupid Never Dies Review — Take a Bite

Stupid Never Dies says that sometimes the most interesting hero is the loser nobody expected to step up. The game puts you in the shoes of Davy, who at the start is considered a wimp even by zombie standards, only to claw, scrape, and, most importantly, bite his way up the chain of command, going toe-to-toe with the most dangerous monsters around and doing all of it for the sake of his frozen love interest.

There is a lot to take in with that concept, and like many other Japanese spectacle fighters, there is a lot to take in in general. Stupid Never Dies is the first release from GPTRACK50, an Osaka-based game development studio founded by industry veteran Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Kobayashi was a programmer on the original Resident Evil, a producer on many of the Devil May Cry games, and executive producer on Resident Evil 6, among other titles, so the NetEase subsidiary certainly had bragging rights before its first title even launched.

Said title, in my opinion, absolutely lived up to the hype. Stupid Never Dies is a spectacle fighter with roguelike elements that is filled to the brim with style, and I’m not just talking about the game’s gorgeously ugly use of photo-bashing techniques throughout the cutscenes and UI. “Style” seems to have been the operating word behind every character design, gameplay element, and worldbuilding beat: Stupid Never Dies clearly wanted to stand out from the crowd and succeeded with flying colors. It would seem that in the world of strikingly creative Japanese brawlers, SUDA51 now has a bit of competition.

The entire story follows a zombie delving into the world of monsters to defeat their king and restore the life of a frozen corpse he found and subsequently fell in love with. The creativity of such a concept, I think, speaks volumes about the worldbuilding around it, which only gets more wacky, unique, and memorable from that point on.

Mechanically, Stupid Never Dies plays as a progressive dungeon crawler where your goal is to take on increasingly difficult dungeons under time limits to grow progressively stronger. In practice, this leads to a loop of fighting through multi-floor dungeons, defeating a boss, and returning with the loot drops you collected to upgrade your character’s body through Frankensteinian modifications and by unlocking new buffs you can discover in your runs.

These dungeons are cleared through some pretty basic fighting mechanics: You have a regular attack and a special attack, three abilities, a so-called “stupid parry,” and a bite attack. Instead of dodging, you mainly avoid death by reducing damage through parries and building up your bite attacks, which restore your health. When you really get into the flow of things, the combat can be pretty simple, though more challenging enemies and a time limit will keep things interesting even as you start to master the systems.

The most unique part of the gameplay is your ability to steal the forms of enemies by eating them. These powerful transformations change your moveset while still allowing you to use your body modifications, and they are your expected way to efficiently clear combat encounters. It is a fun, creature-collector-esque element that makes the combat much more interesting.

The combat really needed it, too. As interesting as so many aspects of the game are, the combat can easily feel repetitive, unintuitive, or basic to a fault. Transforming and ability usage keep things fresh, but basic combat feels underwhelming, with a lack of impact frames or staggering on enemies, making it feel like you’re punching drywall until it eventually falls down. The game lacks any sort of targeting feature, which can make sticking to enemies difficult, especially flying enemies. Those flying enemies are even harder to take down when you realize you can’t use abilities in the air and your air juggle time is incredibly limited. Plus, since enemies don’t stagger, it becomes even harder to stick to them when they interrupt your already limited attack pattern by moving away or striking back.

The concept of upgrading Davy’s body through modifications and delving ever deeper into the dungeon is exciting, but it can become a bit repetitive and grindy, especially when the rewards you collect start to become just higher-tier rarities of the stuff you’ve already seen in action. Dying in the dungeon doesn’t reward you quite like other roguelikes do, with permanent upgrades earned mostly through victory, which can make progression feel kind of awkward at times. Overall, I would say the game definitely gives you an itch to play it, but you have to be really invested in the mechanics as they are, because progression can be tedious and repetitive.

In the end, Stupid Never Dies is an excellent title, especially for GPTRACK50’s first release. What it lacks in mechanics or progression, the game makes up for with striking creativity, presenting a world, characters, and visual style that are utterly unique in its genre. The form-swapping combat keeps the mechanics fresh, and progression is thematically exciting even when there is a bit of a grind to unlock it. I highly recommend giving this unique gem a try, because it feels like the start of a promising studio’s career.

Try Hard Guides was provided a Steam key for this PC review of Stupid Never Dies. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Stupid Never Dies is available on Steam and PlayStation.