When Pragmata was first unveiled way back in 2020, it easily made an impact thanks to its trailer’s impressive visuals and the complete ambiguity of its premise. Unfortunately, people would end up having to wait a long while before they could finally find out what Pragmata is actually all about as the game’s development and release was delayed for several years. However, the additional wait may have been worth it, as it’s looking like Pragmata may be Capcom’s best new IP in a long time.
The premise of Pragmata starts out relatively simple. You play as Hugh, a systems engineer sent with a team to the Delphi lunar base to investigate why communications between the outpost and Earth have been cut off. However, soon after your arrival, your team starts to wonder where all the facility’s personnel are. Before that question is answered though, a sudden and powerful moonquake hits and you find yourself alone in the facility being hunted by deadly robots controlled by an AI named IDUS.
You then meet a mysterious android girl you decide to call Diana and the two of you try to survive the new dangers of the lunar station whilst figuring out what happened and what exactly is going on. Because of its narrative focus, Pragmata is one of those games that deserves to be experienced spoiler-free. It’s not an incredibly complex or epic narrative, but it does, in spite of its serious premise and setting, feature a very heartfelt story with themes of found family, dealing with loss, as well as the joys and wonders of innocence and youthful discovery. The experience is further intensified with an amazing soundtrack that perfectly fits both its settings and story with its use of well-placed dramatic tunes, relaxing melodies, and electronic beats.
We don’t know if Capcom meant for Pragmata to be subversive propaganda to encourage people to have children and maybe increase the birth rate in Japan, but I’m all for it either way. Because I would also like to play the adoptive father to an android girl that can hack advanced technology whilst mumbling binary code.
Hackergirl
Like other games in the genre, the gameplay of Pragmata is a mix of combat, platforming, and puzzle-solving. However, Pragmata tries to set itself apart with its hacking mechanic. Diana is able to hack a variety of objects, including enemy bots, switches, terminals, and more, making it a core part of the game all throughout. In most cases, hacking an object involves bringing up your weapon to target a hackable object, which then loads a floating minigame on your screen that you’ll need to complete, the type of which depends on the object being hacked.
In combat, the hacking minigame opens a grid map wherein you move a cursor to reach the green square to complete the hack whilst also trying to pass through other colored nodes on the grid that add additional effects to the hack. This hacking minigame is at the core of the game’s combat as successfully hacking enemies is the only way to make them vulnerable to damage. If an enemy is not hacked or “opened,” weapons will barely do any damage to them.
Passing through blue nodes deals additional hack damage and increases the time an enemy is hacked or “opened.” Oftentimes, some of the squares in the grid aren’t passable, such as grey squares that are simply blocked and red squares that will instantly cause your hack attempt to fail, so you’ll need to route the cursor correctly to reach the green square.
Because of this, combat in Pragmata revolves around hacking enemies while also juggling shooting and dodging. Attempting a hack also doesn’t pause or slow down the game so you’ll need to keep your positioning in mind. This makes combat pretty challenging at times, especially when you’re dealing with multiple enemies and/or enemy types, but it also makes combat so much more engaging.
The game’s myriad of boss fights are when the game’s different combat mechanics coalesce and are some of the most fun combat encounters in the game. They will oftentimes have hard to reach weak points, forcing you to position and time your hacks well so you don’t end up wasting your shots. Many also introduce massive AOE attacks that will have you running around and dodging left and right whilst still trying to hack the boss and deal damage. They’re definitely a challenge and require some patience, but they’re not impossibly difficult to beat.
Hacking becomes even more interesting once you start unlocking and equipping more hacking nodes. Some augment your current hack, such as making it affect multiple targets or stunning them, while others apply debuffs to help you deal more damage, among other effects. There are also ones that introduce additional abilities or mechanics if they appear and are activated, such as a knockdown finisher if the enemy’s health is low enough.Combining hacking nodes helps deal with different combat situations, such as activating multi-hacking and freezing in the same hack. There are even Hacking Modes that change the effect of blue nodes when you hack an already “opened” enemy, such as doing increased hack damage or heat gauge build up.
For the most difficult situations though, or if you just want to clear a room quickly, Diana can use her Overdrive Protocol that hits all enemies in an area. It opens up their armor, immobilizes them, and boosts your damage. The Overdrive Protocol gauge is charged by completing successful hacks, further encouraging you to continuously hack enemies during fights.
Pragmata avoids the common situation wherein combat starts to feel trivial once you’ve unlocked most of the upgrades by introducing elements like enemies with hacking shields that block entire sections of the grid, requiring you to break them first before attempting to hack; anti-hacking towers that release red jamming lines that cause your hack to fail if you touch them while attempting a hack; enemy homing projectiles that can be hacked to send them back to the enemy.
Once you’ve opened up an enemy via hacking, you have a number of options to deal damage. Your primary weapon, which is a pistol at the start of the game, has unlimited ammo. Then there are three secondary weapon or equipment types. One is your main damage dealing weapons, such as a shotgun and sniper rifle, while the other two are a mix of crowd control, utility, and alternative damage equipment.
While hacking or “opening” an enemy is required to deal damage, many of the other weapons or equipment are still effective without doing so. For example, the crowd control type weapons can be used to knockdown or freeze the movement of enemies, allowing you time to reposition yourself or hack them. There are also defensive weapons, like a barrier generator, and even weapons that help you hack enemies.
The variety of weapons and equipment allow you to deal with tougher enemies and more complex combat scenarios in a number of ways depending on your preference and/or playstyle. Combined with the different effects that hacking can apply, the game allows you to create really interesting builds that maximize the traits of hacking and weapons. It’s also perfectly fine to be more casual with the mods and weapons that you equip.
A Safe Place
After the game’s introductory chapter, you’re introduced to the Shelter, a safe zone that serves as your home base where you can unlock upgrades, weapons, cosmetics, and more. You access the Shelter in between zones or through escape hatches that you can unlock throughout each zone. The escape hatches also serve as checkpoints for the zone. Dying also brings you back to the shelter, which means you’ll have to redo the section from the last checkpoint you unlocked.
In the shelter, you can use the resources you collect through each zone to purchase upgrades or unlock weapons, mods, or equipment. Upgrade Components are used to buy upgrades to your suit health, primary weapon damage, and Diana’s hacking efficiency, while Lunafilament and Pure Lunum can be spent on unlocking or upgrading weapons, mods, abilities, and more. Once a weapon or mod is unlocked in the Shelter, it can be equipped in the Tram terminal loadout screen before you leave.
Other features of the Shelter include the Cabin Stamps Board, which is a sort of bingo card that offers additional weapons, cosmetics, and more. The stamps can be collected through completing certain missions, unlocking REMs, or found in zones. REMs or Read Earth Memories are holographic data of things found on Earth that are then displayed in sets in the Shelter. Then there’s the Training Simulation pod, which offers challenge missions for rewards, such as resources and bingo card stamps
While the bingo cards, REM collection, and Training Simulation pod are technically optional, the bonuses they provide can be immensely beneficial. Some of the most interesting weapons and equipment are unlocked through the bingo card.
Some of the game’s character interactions, particularly between Hugh and Diana, happen in the Shelter, from short cutscenes to random dialogue. Unlocking REMs also unlock more character interactions. While they don’t directly affect gameplay, it’s a nice addition that helps establish and expound on each of the character’s personalities.
Lunar Exploration
From the shelter, you can take the Tram to the different zones of the lunar base that you’ve unlocked or progressed to. Each of the game’s zones are pretty distinct from each other and offer new enemies and puzzles. There’s a zone that’s basically the inside of a giant 3D printer and another that’s a bioengineering lab filled with manufactured plantlife. While each zone is relatively short, they’re incredibly engaging in terms of combat, puzzles, world-building, and character/story development.
Platforming mainly utilizes your space suit’s thrusters, which allow you to float for a short period of time or dash in a specific direction. The thrusters have an automatically recharging meter, which slowly drains when floating while dashing uses up larger chunks. The thrusters are also used in combat for dodging, and can be upgraded in the Shelter to extend the meter or add special traits in combat, such as slowing down time for a short period when you perform a perfect dodge.
Exploring each of the zones also involves Diana hacking switches and terminals, which can open doors, activate elevators and other machinery, move platforms or boxes, and more. Sometimes hacking terminals or switches have time limitsMany of the game’s puzzles involve traversal as well as hacking terminals and switches, oftentimes a combination of the two. The puzzles aren’t overly complex and mostly just requires looking around well to spot the right switches.
Each of the zones also have locked areas, called Red Gates, that are special challenge zones accessed by using red keys found through the game. These Red Gates offer pretty good rewards and also unlock sections of the bingo card once cleared.
There are other inaccessible areas in each of the zones that can only be entered once you eventually unlock abilities that clear the way into them. This encourages backtracking and revisiting previous zones to collect all the available items in them. The game makes it easy to keep track of how many items are available in a zone by listing them both in the map screen & in the loadout menu in the shelter. Thankfully backtracking is easy thanks to the checkpoint system.
From gathering all the resources and unlocking and upgrading all the weapons, mods, and abilities, to collecting all the REMs and finishing both the bingo card and training sims, there’s definitely quite a bit to do in the game apart from the main story, even before considering New Game+.
Conclusion
In the past half-decade or more, Capcom’s best games have either been new entries in their long-running & popular franchises, such as Resident Evil & Monster Hunter, or remakes of some of their classics. However, it looks like that trend is over thanks to Pragmata. Pragmata is a short and sweet experience that executes all of its ideas well. It features a compelling story, likable characters coupled with great character development & interactions, challenging and engaging combat, and beautiful visuals and music.
I don’t know if Capcom plans to make a sequel or spinoff to Pragmata, but it feels like it’s one of those games that doesn’t need either. In an industry and market that’s obsessed with measuring playtime & long-running franchises, this is certainly is a rare gem. In spite of its short playtime, Pragmata delivers a satisfying story & gameplay experience that may stick with you for a while. Personally, it’s one of the best games I’ve played in a long time and I can’t recommend it enough.