I have to be honest, I really didn't expect to love Pragmata as much as I do.
Early trailers were certainly intriguing, but from a gameplay standpoint, I thought it looked bland and uninspiring. Maybe Capcom’s uncharacteristically lengthy development for the game played a part (it was originally revealed in 2020), but it’s been sitting near the the bottom of my wish list for a pretty long time. I’m happy to say, however, that I was very, very wrong. After 40 minutes with Pragmata on Switch 2, I’m ready for more – much more.
Taking place in a futuristic space station of sorts, the demo introduces the basics with a few combat encounters and a sprinkling of light puzzles, all before ending with a challenging yet cinematic boss battle. Protagonists Hugh and his android companion Diana must work together to defeat their enemies, with the former focusing on ranged weaponry and the latter providing crucial support with a unique, engaging hacking mechanic that manifests in real time.
Before I even get onto the gameplay, I absolutely adore the relationship between Hugh and Diana. Several games have attempted to portray the father/daughter dynamic over the years, and they've often been laced with tragedy or drama that makes the father figure in particular seem overly gruff in nature. Hugh, by comparison, is lighthearted and whimsical, teaching Diana how to do a high five after defeating the demo's boss. It's lovely.
The bulk of Pragmata controls like your average third-person shooter. You navigate Hugh through the environment (with Diana sitting comfortably atop his back), jumping up ledges, dashing to dodge attacks, and chipping away at your enemies’ health with a basic pistol. You can pick up beefier weapons on the fly, but these tend to come loaded with pretty limited ammunition, with the game often encouraging you to mix up your loadout.
If it weren’t for the hacking, Pragmata probably would be a bit bland. But by targeting your enemies, you instantly initiate a real-time minigame in which you navigate a 4x4 grid with the right analogue stick.
Your main goal is to move through this grid and locate the green completion tile, while other tiles offer up additional perks along the way. Some, however, immediately kick you out if you accidentally land on them, so you’ll need to quickly load it up again and start from scratch.
The key is to create a path and activate every available bonus before completion in order to dish out maximum damage. While this probably sounds simple on paper, it’s all done in an average of about 3 or 4 seconds with no pause in the action, so you’ll need to complete each hack while keeping a close eye on your positioning and what your enemies are doing.
The combination results in an incredibly satisfying gameplay loop that has the potential to keep me hooked throughout the entire game. It also, however, has the potential to be somewhat repetitive if this is really all there is to it. My gut says that it’s not, and that Pragmata will introduce a bunch of fresh twists on the concept as the story progresses. For now, however, I’m quite eager to jump back in as soon as possible.
In addition to the combat, some light puzzle-solving focused entirely on Diana's hacking abilities. These consisted almost entirely of activating nodes within the environment to open doorways or activate elevators. Like the combat encounters, each hack brings up a separate UI, so you might have to simply tap a combination of face buttons as displayed on-screen, or use 'ABXY' to rotate arrows so that they're facing the right direction. It's not taxing in the slightest, but it's quick and intuitive.
As for how it runs on the Switch 2, Pragmata is about as good as I could reasonably expect. It was only available in docked mode with the performance locked at 30fps, but it felt pretty stable and consistent during my time with it. There are a few visual downgrades compared to the likes of PS5 with some muddy textures and a slightly fuzzy resolution, but it’s a handsome game nonetheless with impressive lighting and a strong art style.
All eyes are on Resident Evil Requiem for this year, but Pragmata definitely has the potential to be something really special come 24h April 2026. Unlike Kunitsu-Gami, it feels like Capcom is making a real solid attempt to create its next big IP here, and while it certainly still has much to prove – I didn’t get a whole lot of narrative context during the demo, for example – its gameplay has done more than enough to bump it up to the top tier of my ever-growing wish list.