New Zombie Action RPG Is Persona Meets Devil May Cry, and I Already Want Another Bite

I went into the Stupid Never Dies demo expecting something ridiculous, and within the first few minutes, I realized I had seriously underestimated just how ridiculous it was going to get. This is a game where I play as a cowardly zombie named Davy who travels to other layers of the world by getting flushed down a toilet, all because he wants to save a frozen woman he fell in love with despite never actually speaking to her. Somehow, though, underneath all of that nonsense is an action RPG that immediately got its hooks in me, and by the time I was several dives into its dungeon, I couldn’t stop thinking about how ready I was to play the full game. Fortunately, it’ll be here soon, as it’s scheduled to launch on PC and PS5 on October 21, 2026.

But the longer I played the demo, the more two games in particular kept coming to mind. The first was Persona, mostly because Stupid Never Dies has that strong sense of style fans of Atlus’ acclaimed series know all too well. Then there’s a lot of Devil May Cry in the combat as well, and that comparison makes even more sense when you consider GPTRACK50 includes developers who previously worked on the series. Stupid Never Dies ultimately has an identity all its own, but somewhere between Persona‘s unmistakable style and that Devil May Cry pedigree is a combination I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this much.

Stupid Never Dies Has a Story That Lives Up to Its Name

Check Out the Stupid Never Dies Demo on Steam

The world of Stupid Never Dies wasn’t always run by monsters, as humans once ruled the surface while creatures from stories and movies lived alongside them. Humans eventually got the upper hand, however, and monsters were either exterminated or pushed into lives where they were treated as little more than curiosities. Zombies had it worse than most because they were considered almost completely useless, largely due to how slow they were and how easy they were to kill.

Everything changed when KOM, the King of Monsters, led an army against humanity and nearly wiped the species out altogether. After that war, the monsters disappeared from the surface and zombies were largely all that remained, which is where Davy’s story begins. Davy doesn’t care much about saving humanity when I first meet him, and he definitely doesn’t see himself becoming some kind of hero, but Dr. Frank Steiner eventually gives him a reason to start caring.

Davy has fallen in love with a frozen human woman he simply calls his girl, even though he doesn’t know her name and has never spoken to her. He only knows that she spent years frozen beside him and that he wants to bring her back, which becomes his entire motivation once Frank tells him KOM may possess the power needed to revive her. From there, Davy goes from wanting nothing to do with the dungeon to willingly throwing himself into it over and over again.

Before long, he also ends up eating a Phoenix Egg that gives him the ability to consume monster cores and steal the powers inside them. KOM apparently gained his own incredible strength through the same ability, so Davy’s path forward becomes surprisingly straightforward from that point on. If he can keep eating stronger monsters, then eventually, he might become powerful enough to eat KOM too.

I have to say that I was really beginning to enjoy the story in the demo by the time it ended, as stupid as it is. The characters are eccentric as all get out, but they’re all backed by some convincing performances and expressive animations. The world itself is really easy to get attached to, and the overall atmosphere and presentation is exceedingly memorable. I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy the narrative side of things this much, but even with it being as absurd as it is, I wanted more.

Stupid Never Dies Makes Me Want to Stay in the Fight

Stupid Never Dies‘ Devil May Cry-like combat is where it really started winning me over, mostly because I can really get down with a decent parry system, and this game certainly has one—and a pretty forgiving one at that. Davy can use what the game calls a Stupid Parry to block attacks, but doing so still inflicts recoverable damage rather than completely protecting him. The important difference is that this damage won’t immediately kill him, which means I can stay in the fight as long as I find an opportunity to recover afterward.

That’s where biting comes in, because sinking Davy’s teeth into an enemy restores all of that recoverable damage before it becomes permanent. Once I understood how those two combat mechanics worked together, I stopped treating every mistake like something I immediately needed to retreat from. I could take a risk on a parry, stay close to whatever I was fighting, then regain what I had lost by biting an enemy once my gauge was ready.

Enemies also have Heat Attacks that briefly cause them to glow yellow before they strike. Landing a Stupid Parry during one of those attacks triggers a Stupid Impact and gives Davy an opening to hit back, which made those moments some of the most satisfying parts of a fight for me. Rather than seeing an especially dangerous attack and immediately trying to get out of the way, I eventually started hoping enemies would use one because I knew what I could do with it.

I will say that, at first, I found myself wishing Stupid Never Dies had a traditional lock-on system, especially whenever I was fighting something airborne. There were moments where the camera made it harder than I wanted it to be to focus on the enemy I was trying to hit, and I’m still not entirely convinced the game is better without one. Even so, once I started getting more comfortable with the game (and it didn’t take long), that frustration became much easier to overlook and combat was legitimately a blast.

Eating Enemies Completely Changes How Davy Fights

Biting enemies isn’t only useful for recovering health either, because the type of monster Davy eats determines what he gets out of it. Weak enemies give him Instant Skills that can be used once, while stronger Elite enemies give him access to different Styles. Those Styles were where the combat started opening up much more for me, because each one changes what Davy can do and gives me another way to approach a fight.

Werewolf Style was one of the first examples that really clicked for me, largely because its usefulness wasn’t limited to combat. It gives Davy access to a wall jump that can reach places his normal Zombie Style can’t, so I started paying much more attention to the environment once I realized some areas might only be accessible with the right Style. At that point, eating a particular enemy wasn’t simply about getting stronger for the next fight, as it could also change where I was able to go.

Davy’s growth during each dive feeds into that same feeling. He earns experience rapidly while fighting, and every level increases his stats before sending out a shockwave that can hit nearby enemies. Certain levels also give him a receipt that lets me choose a new Zombie Skill, although those temporary upgrades disappear once Davy returns to the mall.

Because of that, every dive starts with Davy relatively weak and then ramps up quickly from there. One run might give me a particular set of Zombie Skills that changes how I approach combat, while another might hand me a Style I hadn’t been relying on before. The whole thing became increasingly addictive once I stopped looking at each upgrade individually and started seeing how quickly Davy could turn from a slow zombie into something completely ridiculous.

Every Dive Makes Davy Stronger, Faster

There is one thing constantly working against me while all of this is happening, though, because Davy can’t stay inside the dungeon forever. Every dive has a time limit, and once it runs out, he enters a weakened state that makes staying alive considerably harder. Reaching certain Landing Areas extends that timer, and there are other ways to buy myself more time along the way, but I was always aware that I couldn’t stay on one floor indefinitely.

That pressure works especially well with how quickly Davy grows because it constantly pushed me to decide whether I was ready to move deeper. I could spend more time fighting and hope another level made the next section easier, or I could keep moving and take advantage of whatever strength I had already built. Either way, every run felt like it was asking me to become more efficient than I was before.

Returning to the mall doesn’t erase everything I accomplished either. Davy gets faster at growing stronger with each dive, so the progress that once took me a while eventually starts happening much earlier. Even a failed run contributes to that growth, which kept me from feeling like I had completely wasted my time whenever things went wrong.

The mall also became much more useful as the demo continued, especially once I could start working with OT Gear to give Davy additional abilities before another dive. Bessie Burger also lets me improve the Zombie Skills that can appear when Davy levels, so there was always something waiting for me before I jumped back into the dungeon. Even moving around the mall fits the game’s sense of humor, since Frank eventually gives Davy a modified robot vacuum to ride because his normal zombie shuffle is painfully slow.

By the time I finally pulled myself away from the demo, though, I wasn’t thinking much about how absurd any of this sounded anymore. I was thinking about how quickly I could get Davy powered up during another dive and whether I could make it a little further than I did the last time. Stupid Never Dies immediately reminded me of Persona with its attitude and presentation, while its combat gave me that same desire to get better at fighting that I usually associate with Devil May Cry. Somehow, it also manages to turn eating monsters into the thing holding all of those ideas together, and after spending a few hours taking my first bite, I already want another one.

Systems

Released

October 21, 2026

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood, Strong Language, Violence

Developer(s)

GPTRACK50 Inc.

Publisher(s)

GPTRACK50 Inc.