Inferno Makes You Rethink What A Character Even Is

One of the strangest things about Let it Die: Inferno is how quickly you stop thinking of a ‘character’ as a character at all. Your body is just another resource. When you die, you shed it as easily as you sheathe a weapon, and slip into a fresh one with a different skill, a different stat spread, a different personality stitched into its design. In a game where death is a feature, not a failure, who you are becomes something you decide over and over again. The body-switching system is the spine of the whole experience.

I interviewed Hideyuki Shin, director of Let it Die: Inferno at Supertrick Games, to talk about this mechanic. What I got was a peek at the design philosophy behind it.

Designing Bodies With Purpose

“There are several body types to choose from,” Shin says. “Some offer a balanced mix of stamina and attack power, others specialize in high-damage output, and a few prioritize expanded inventory capacity. Each body type comes with its own distinct strengths, giving players plenty of room to tailor their playstyle.”

That variety isn’t just about numbers. Each body unlocks its own unique skill, separate from the Core abilities you gain through rank-ups. “These range from healing and drop-kicks to enhanced scanning and other powerful techniques that can dramatically influence your approach to combat and exploration,” he says. Mastery upgrades deepen those differences even more and create what feels like an evolving toolkit rather than a static template.

For a game built on repetition – descend, fight, survive, die, repeat – this system makes every life intentional, and reinventing your physical form every run isn’t a tacked-on gimmick. Shin explains that the decision to let players inhabit multiple bodies was fundamental from the beginning.

“We have multiple body types to give players the freedom to create characters and builds that match their playstyle,” he says. “It’s not just about ability parameters and skills. Players can also choose from a variety of characters to enjoy their distinct visual designs and personalities.”

Something is fascinating about the way those designs intersect with the high-stakes brutality of the arena, Hell Gate. Every run demands aggression, opportunism, and a willingness to shove everything into your backpack before time collapses the world. But your approach shifts dramatically depending on the body you’re wearing.

“All body types share the same objective: gather SPLithium and survive,” Shin says. “However, each one is equipped with abilities that support different playstyles, whether you prefer all-out combat or efficient item collection. For example, the attack-focused type has lower stamina and a smaller inventory, but it boasts the highest combat power of any character, making it an appealing choice for players who want to excel in battle.”

Refining Bodies And Shaping Identity

The bodies weren’t invented for Inferno; they were inherited from the previous game. Now they’ve evolved to meet a much more demanding ecosystem. “For this title, we carried over those foundations and refined every body type to ensure they perform effectively in the PvEvP environment,” Shin says.

It’s a balancing act that requires plenty of iteration, and some abilities didn’t survive development. “We considered many different abilities and skills, including those commonly found in other games, but anything that disrupted the balance required for PvEvP was removed. Rather than settling for abilities that were only moderately balanced, we intentionally adjusted them so each character would have clear strengths and weaknesses.”

The team put a lot of thought into body-switching beyond just the gameplay. Shin hints it also has a role in the story’s bigger mysteries. “It’s been woven in as a surprising narrative element, so we hope players will discover it for themselves as they play.”

In Let it Die: Inferno, bodies are extensions of strategy. They shape how you fight and how you think about risk. By making death a recurring mechanic rather than a failure, Inferno frames each run as a chance to experiment. The body-switching system challenges you to think differently about your choices in a game built on repetition – what’s one more run when you’ve got a brand new body to do it with?

Let It Die: Inferno

Systems

Released

December 4, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood, Violence, In-Game Purchases

Developer(s)

Supertrick Games, Inc.

Publisher(s)

GungHo Online Entertainment

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op

Cross-Platform Play

All platforms

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