I probably say this more than anybody: Capcom does not miss.
If there was any blemish they’ve had over the last five years, it’s been with Pragmata. The game has been delayed three times, with its latest delay being an indefinite one. But after the recent State of Play, the game has since been confirmed for a 2026 release according to the latest trailer (above). That said, the game was available to play at Summer Game Fest, and I’m going to say it again: Capcom does not miss.
Not a lot of people know what Pragmata is about, and you can’t really blame them either. First unveiled four years ago, all people really knew about Pragmata was it was centered around two characters–Hugh and Diana. Hugh is in some power suit ala Samus Aran or Master Chief, while Diana is a little girl doing little girl things in what looks like a post-apocalyptic world. Because of the obscure nature of each of the trailers released until now, the game has drawn a lot of comparisons to games like Death Stranding, as the series has always taken and outlandish approach to things happening beyond the future.
Pragmata plays awesome, but we need to work on the jumping and hovering.
Getting back to it, Pragmata is a sci-fi third-person shooter. After watching a tutorial video upon starting the demo, we began to see what the game is really all about. As mentioned, it’s a third-person shooter, but as soon as we started shooting at the enemy, hardly any damage was being done to it. That’s where Diana comes in.
When she hops on Hugh’s back, she begins using a hacking ability to make enemies more vulnerable to Hugh’s shots. The strange but fun part is that while you have to worry about shooting down enemies to take them out, you’re also given control of the hack mechanism at the exact same time. Check out the screenshot below to help with the explanation that follows.
As we’re taking aim at the enemy, we have to handle the little minigame on the right side. The point is to highlight as many squares as possible before arriving at the launch button. Navigating these squares is done with the face buttons. So for example, from where the cursor currently stands, if you pressed triangle, or circle-triangle-square, as you make your way to a successful hack, allowing you to damage the enemy. The more squares you hit, the more enemy weak spots get exposed, allowing you to more easily get each kill.
For the record, I only got to play the game for about 12 minutes despite having 30 minutes to do it because every station was taken and I was waiting for someone to finish to get my turn, so I was speedrunning to the best of my ability based on what I watched other people do. That said, I didn’t have time to see what happens if you fail the minigame. You probably die, but I was wondering if there was more to it.
This whole ordeal looked complicated and clunky when first seeing it, but it actually felt good. This alone could give Capcom another winner in the form of a brand new IP.
The demo required us to unlock a giant door, which led to a boss fight. The door was locked with five locks that you have to find spread out in the facility you’re in. It’s here where you learn more of the game’s foundation. In addition to gunplay, Hugh will find himself doing some platforming to get to various high places. On top of the jumping, there’s thrusters to power his jump as well as hover to make him be able to leap to even further places. I personally had a hard time with the jumps at first, especially when arriving at a part where I had to jump onto moving platforms and misjudging how far Hugh can jump even with the help of his thrusters.
Once we unlocked the door, it looked like we were headed for a boss fight… until we found out that’s where the demo ended. It’s either Capcom knows they have something and they’re teasing us, or it’s just not ready for primetime yet.
Either way you look at it, Pragmata looks to be a really exciting new IP for a company that’s been firing on all cylinders. It’s good to see that it’s real and that it’s currently scheduled for release next year on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. We’ll definitely have more on Pragmata if we get another playable build.
I probably say this more than anybody: Capcom does not miss. If there was any blemish they’ve had over the last five years, it’s been with Pragmata. The game has been delayed three times, with its latest delay being an…
I probably say this more than anybody: Capcom does not miss.
If there was any blemish they’ve had over the last five years, it’s been with Pragmata. The game has been delayed three times, with its latest delay being an indefinite one. But after the recent State of Play, the game has since been confirmed for a 2026 release according to the latest trailer (above). That said, the game was available to play at Summer Game Fest, and I’m going to say it again: Capcom does not miss.
Not a lot of people know what Pragmata is about, and you can’t really blame them either. First unveiled four years ago, all people really knew about Pragmata was it was centered around two characters–Hugh and Diana. Hugh is in some power suit ala Samus Aran or Master Chief, while Diana is a little girl doing little girl things in what looks like a post-apocalyptic world. Because of the obscure nature of each of the trailers released until now, the game has drawn a lot of comparisons to games like Death Stranding, as the series has always taken and outlandish approach to things happening beyond the future.
Pragmata plays awesome, but we need to work on the jumping and hovering.
Getting back to it, Pragmata is a sci-fi third-person shooter. After watching a tutorial video upon starting the demo, we began to see what the game is really all about. As mentioned, it’s a third-person shooter, but as soon as we started shooting at the enemy, hardly any damage was being done to it. That’s where Diana comes in.
When she hops on Hugh’s back, she begins using a hacking ability to make enemies more vulnerable to Hugh’s shots. The strange but fun part is that while you have to worry about shooting down enemies to take them out, you’re also given control of the hack mechanism at the exact same time. Check out the screenshot below to help with the explanation that follows.
As we’re taking aim at the enemy, we have to handle the little minigame on the right side. The point is to highlight as many squares as possible before arriving at the launch button. Navigating these squares is done with the face buttons. So for example, from where the cursor currently stands, if you pressed triangle, or circle-triangle-square, as you make your way to a successful hack, allowing you to damage the enemy. The more squares you hit, the more enemy weak spots get exposed, allowing you to more easily get each kill.
For the record, I only got to play the game for about 12 minutes despite having 30 minutes to do it because every station was taken and I was waiting for someone to finish to get my turn, so I was speedrunning to the best of my ability based on what I watched other people do. That said, I didn’t have time to see what happens if you fail the minigame. You probably die, but I was wondering if there was more to it.
This whole ordeal looked complicated and clunky when first seeing it, but it actually felt good. This alone could give Capcom another winner in the form of a brand new IP.
The demo required us to unlock a giant door, which led to a boss fight. The door was locked with five locks that you have to find spread out in the facility you’re in. It’s here where you learn more of the game’s foundation. In addition to gunplay, Hugh will find himself doing some platforming to get to various high places. On top of the jumping, there’s thrusters to power his jump as well as hover to make him be able to leap to even further places. I personally had a hard time with the jumps at first, especially when arriving at a part where I had to jump onto moving platforms and misjudging how far Hugh can jump even with the help of his thrusters.
Once we unlocked the door, it looked like we were headed for a boss fight… until we found out that’s where the demo ended. It’s either Capcom knows they have something and they’re teasing us, or it’s just not ready for primetime yet.
Either way you look at it, Pragmata looks to be a really exciting new IP for a company that’s been firing on all cylinders. It’s good to see that it’s real and that it’s currently scheduled for release next year on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. We’ll definitely have more on Pragmata if we get another playable build.
by Danreb Victorio
