Recently, Eiichiro Sasaki, director of Stupid Never Dies, gave an interview to Wccftech, elaborating on the game's punk aesthetics and combat design, and admitting that his creative work was deeply influenced by the spirit of Goichi Suda and Grasshopper Manufacture's titles. The game will launch on PS5 and Steam on October 22, and a playable demo with save data transfer is now available.
Director Eiichiro Sasaki stated that the team deliberately pursued Grasshopper Manufacture's signature style: crazy, playful, punk rock, dark humor, and B-movie-style absurd narratives. However, rather than simply copying the gameplay, they absorbed its spiritual core to create GPTRACK50's own cult action RPG.
The game's overall visuals and music heavily incorporate punk rock elements, featuring loudness and vibrant colors that complement the chaotic zombie theme. The story itself is an absurd romantic tragedy: David, the weakest low-level zombie protagonist, ventures into a dungeon ruled by monsters to revive Julia, a human girl who has been frozen.
The game is developed using Unreal Engine 5, focusing on a fast-paced and wild combat experience. While the basic combat framework is relatively traditional, the fun lies in form switching, body modifications, and chaotic combat presentations. The core combat mechanics include Style Eat: defeating monsters to devour their cores and steal their combat forms. Players can switch between 11 completely different combat styles, such as Werewolf, Vampire, and Harpy, each with unique moves and movement logic, allowing for free switching and combo combinations.
Body Hack: Modify the zombie protagonist's body parts to build infinite BD (Build) combinations. There are no fixed classes; all body parts can be replaced and upgraded, offering extremely high freedom.
Death Growth Mechanic: Character death does not result in an immediate Game Over. Instead, players receive "Growth Memory" rewards, becoming stronger with each death. This encourages bold experimentation and repeated challenges in high-difficulty dungeons.
Sasaki mentioned that the game rejects serious, grandiose savior narratives. The story tone is crazy and comical, with the main motivation being simply the zombie protagonist's desire to go on a date with his lover. The world is filled with bizarre NPCs, dark jokes, and numerous fragmented, manic segments, paying homage to the unconventional storytelling of No More Heroes and Killer7. While referencing the Grasshopper style, the plot will be more restrained and not overly obscure, ensuring that ordinary players can understand the main storyline.
This is the first title from GPTRACK50, the studio founded by Hiroyuki Kobayashi, with Sega participating as co-publisher. Game development has entered the final polishing phase, with the team currently focusing on balancing, bug fixing, and refining the experience of different combat builds.