Capcom is on a winning streak with video games. Pragmata has this premise. It has had a tumultuous story. It has finally been released and is being very well received. Its combination of action and puzzles works very well. It could take the GOTY from Requiem… and we still have Onimusha to look forward to.
Capcom is on an excellent streak when it comes to releases. Even limiting ourselves to 2026, they have released The Disney Afternoon Collection together with Digital Eclipse, Resident Evil Requiem, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, and Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection in just three months. All meeting or exceeding the internal expectations of the Japanese studio.
Although for the rest of the year we currently only know of two titles, that doesn’t mean they don’t have more prepared. Or that the ones we know are not two heavyweights. One of them, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, is the return of a beloved classic from the PlayStation 2 generation and has had several recent successful remasters, but it still doesn’t have a specific release date. The other has just been released and can already be considered a great success. Because Pragmata is a new IP from Capcom and it seems to be performing much better than they expected.
A game with a whole story behind it
Pragmata is an action-adventure game that puts us in the shoes of Hugh, an astronaut, who must protect Diana, a robot in the form of a girl, after a hostile AI from a research station on the Moon infects all the robots and begins to attack humans indiscriminately. This will translate into a tremendously emotional adventure where Diana and Hugh will bond throughout the journey while confronting the threats posed by the robots.
The most surprising thing about Pragmata is that it has been released at all. Because there was a time, not long ago, when it seemed that Pragmata was going to be one of those projects that gets put in a drawer and is quietly canceled without ever being mentioned again. With a release originally planned for 2022, in January 2021 it was announced that the game would be delayed until 2023. When June 2023 arrived, the game was delayed again, but this time indefinitely. This led many people to think that the game would never come out. Until in June 2025, during a Sony State of Play, Capcom announced that the game would finally be released in 2026.
Released on April 17, 2026, although the Japanese will have to wait until the 24th of the same month, the game has received fantastic reviews. With an average score of 86 on Metacritic and 95% of critics recommending it on OpenCritic, it is one of the highest-rated games of the year. And although it is surpassed by Resident Evil Requiem in average score, there is one thing everyone agrees on: Pragmata feels like an Xbox 360 game. And that’s a good thing.
A winning combination
Pragmata combines elements of action and puzzles in a very unique way. Hugh has up to four weapons available at all times, but the robots are very resistant to his attacks. To make them vulnerable, we will have to hack them remotely with Diana, which will expose their vulnerabilities, as well as induce altered effects or other kinds of particularities as we progress in the game. The uniqueness of this is that both things do not occur in separate instances. Both happen at the same time.
As we move with Hugh using the left trigger, we control the hacking puzzle with the right. This will force us to pay close attention to positioning and managing enemies, as we won’t be able to move the camera comfortably while hacking. Hence, the game feels like it’s from the 360 era. Invent something new, original, and fresh, in a way that already feels impossible for video games; the generation of 360 games was the last to do this kind of gimmicks, which have disappeared since the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation.
It is for that reason that it is not bold to imagine a scenario where Pragmata could end up snatching the GOTY from Resident Evil Requiem. Although the ninth installment of the zombie franchise is excellent, Pragmata brings something that the former cannot: it puts something original on the table. Something that feels new and exciting.
In that sense, Capcom has managed to create an action game that will delight old-school gamers, but can also resonate with modern players due to the uniqueness of its premise. However, that doesn’t mean they are resting on their laurels. As we have already mentioned, they still have to release another major title this year, still without a date, with Onimusha: Way of the Sword. By the end of 2026, we might find that the GOTY is contested between Capcom, Capcom, and also Capcom. For now, they are on the right track for that.
