Hades meets Devil May Cry is one of the most bonkers games you'll play this year

One of my first appointments for Gamescom 2026 was a superb roguelike called Stupid Never Dies.

It’s like the antithesis of Hades. Instead of fighting your way out of hell as a charming and handsome demigod, your objective is to break into hell as a bumbling zombie.

This set-up piqued my interest immediately, and while I was drawn in by the premise, I stayed for the Devil May Cry-esque combat. The game was actually created by Capcom veteran Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who worked on the first Devil May Cry game.

Like most video games nowadays, going toe-to-toe with variously challenging enemies consists of attacking, dodging, and parrying.

However, Stupid Never Dies takes the simple defensive art of the parry and makes it…well…stupid. It’s literally called the Stupid Parry, and lovingly plays with the idea of a small-statured protagonist somehow deflecting a truck-sized attack.

Parries are often high-risk but high-reward techniques, though Stupid Never Dies makes the risk more fun than the reward. Instead of expertly blocking and capitalising on an opening, you charge head-first into the blow, taking a little bit of damage and following through with a lethal counter.

It’s silly, it’s goofy, but most importantly it’s fun. The instant gratification of a Stupid Parry kept combat flowing. There were no breaks in the action for flashy deflections, just constant pummelling from all sides.

Speaking of breaks, Stupid Never Dies feels like a flavour of roguelike many won’t have tasted before. Every run doubles as a time attack.

The timer starts when the run begins, and the clock can be extended by skipping the underworld’s many floors. Again, there’s high-risk but high-reward here, because while you level up constantly through combat, you’ll need to be confident in your ability to bite off more than you can chew. Luckily, if there’s one thing a zombie is good at, it’s biting things.

Stupid Never Dies - NetEase Games

In addition to your basic combos, you’ll also be charging up a Bite Meter. Once it’s full, you can bite an enemy to replenish some health, but only the enemies with plenty of meat on their bones.

Like other roguelikes, you’ll unlock boons to bolster this ability, and it’s smart to invest as it’s a literal life-saver. It’s a nifty mechanic, and I enjoyed how, depending on the situation, it could be a desperate attempt to restore some health, or a calculated finishing move that sets you up for the next opponent.

Sometimes, depending on the enemy, your bite can absorb their power, allowing you to turn into that creature at will. Each form has its own playstyle, and I favoured a spirit that could lob ranged attacks. They’re not permanent and will run out after descending a few floors, but they mixed up the gameplay well and gave me more options for each encounter.

By the end of my hands-on session, I’d done two runs. The first ended with me running out of time, and the second ended with me taking on one of the game’s several bosses. Together I had about half an hour with the game.

In that short timeframe though, I felt like I’d accomplished a lot. The jarring Stupid Parry took some time to get used to, but once I’d noted the timing, it became my favourite part of the session.

Despite ending my second run with such an exciting final encounter, I was still eager to keep exploring, which is exactly the feeling you’d want from a roguelike.

Stupid Never Dies launches on PlayStation 5 and PC on October 21, and I can’t wait to play it again.

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