With just months left before its release, Capcom’s Pragmata remains a mystery in many ways
2026 preview: Will Capcom’s numerous delays result in a masterpiece or a missed opportunity?
Now that Capcom’s officially announced that Mega Man: Dual Override is coming in 2027, maybe the conspiracy theories that Pragmata is secretly a Mega Man will stop. Maybe.
Players can be forgiven for creating such theories, of course. Capcom has been unusually cagey about Pragmata’s story, and even though it was originally announced five and a half years ago there’s still so much about the plot and its protagonists that remains unanswered, so it’s only natural that speculation will run rampant.
Central to all this is Diana, the little android girl who accompanies space explorer Hugh as they take on the hostile AI robots who are attacking them on a lunar research station. Depending on how the game’s trailers sit with you personally, the idea of a cherubic youngster helping to protect you is either an adorable one or a deeply creepy one.
What makes it interesting is that, even with just a few months to go until the game is finally released, we’re all still none the wiser on how we’re supposed to feel. So much of Diana remains shrouded in mystery – who created her? Why is she helping Hugh? Is she secretly evil and can we expect a Chucky-style heel turn at some point where we’re going to have to fight her? We just don’t know yet, though the last one might be a stretch – Diana is getting her own amiibo figure to accompany the Switch 2 version, so I’m assuming she stays on the good side throughout.
What we do know is the game’s central combat mechanic, but even that brings its own questions. As anyone who has already played the recently released ‘Pragmata Sketchbook’ demo on Steam will know, it’s an interesting mix of straight third-person action game combat and puzzle-solving. The enemy robots have a security system which protects them from attack, but Diana can hack into this system and expose their weak points.
The twist here is that the combat continues on while the hacking mini-game plays out, meaning while you’re working your way through its grid-like puzzles you still have to keep an eye out for enemy attacks. It’s very much the combat equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time, and some of the demo players have responded to it positively when it all clicks into place.
Will it continue to hold up throughout the entire length of the game, however? Will it continue to feel like a unique and innovative new way to fight enemies, with variations on the mechanic appearing as each chapter is reached, or will it start to feel like a repetitive gimmick six or seven hours in, when all you want to do is shoot things? Time will tell there.
The other general unknown at this stage is exactly why Pragmata has been delayed so many times. The game was originally planned for a 2022 release before being pushed back to 2023, then indefinitely, then to a vague 2026 window before Capcom finally confirmed its April 24, 2026 date.
When a game is delayed so many times, there’s often one of two outcomes – great success because of the extra time spent refining it, or a huge letdown when the studio had to release it because it was kicking the can and ran out of road.
Of course, the final mystery is just how well Pragmata will perform when all is said and done. In recent years Capcom has found itself in an interesting position where its major releases are either enormous hits, or critical or commercial failures, with no real middle ground. For every Monster Hunter or Resident Evil there’s an Exoprimal (which failed to impress critics) or a Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (which was critically acclaimed but didn’t meet Capcom’s sales expectations).
It feels like Pragmata is unusual enough to initially sell well among players who are keen to try a new Capcom IP and want to see if the quirky battle system works. The opinion of that initial wave of players – and their willingness to reassure others that the combat works well – will be crucial if the game is to continue its sales momentum and establish itself as a key new Capcom IP. Well, ‘new’ if it isn’t Mega Man, of course.
