Pragmata (TGS 2025) - A Revolution in Action - Preview
by Thomas Froehlicher , posted on 05 October 2025 / 2,224 Views
Revealed at the same time as the PS5 itself, Pragmata certainly took some time to take on a definite shape, to the point some feared it would become the Deep Down of this generation. But I believe those worries will be cleared in a few months' time, because Capcom’s new action IP amazed me like no other game I managed to play during the Tokyo Game Show 2025.
The demo begins soon after Hugh, a combatant sent to the Moon to check on a facility, meets a tiny android girl whom he calls Diana. The demo is too short to get much more insight into the story; I did find some documents and old recordings containing explanations on what happened before the facility went silent, but that’s very commonplace these days and not really engaging in terms of narrative. The demo contains few cutscenes, but they're remarkably well directed (especially in terms of camera work), so I hope for many more like them to serve the story as a whole. I can’t help but think that the narrative approach shown in this 2025 demo is quite different from what was hinted at in the trailer back in 2020, so I’m really curious about the outcome here.
The duo formed by Hugh and Diana is undoubtedly the greatest idea in Pragmata. Light and small, Diana rides on Hugh’s back, while he wears a high tech, hyper futuristic full armor likely required in such a harsh environment as the Moon’s surface. Pragmata has an interesting and somewhat novel approach to science fiction in its general design. That could be felt in the latest State of Play trailer, but the game is very humane in conveying the relationship between Hugh and Diana; it’s funny to hear them commenting and complimenting each other during and after fights. The dialog is lively and I found the voice acting absolutely perfect, in both Japanese and English, which is quite a rare thing for me to say. It’s a bit like a father and daughter living through the same odyssey, which doesn’t happen every day in gaming. I’m already captivated by how this relationship will develop.
Hugh’s task in Pragmata is to progress through the facility and fight, while Diana covers everything linked to hacking. For example, Hugh can hover in the air to avoid traps or reach certain places, but the range on this ability is fairly limited, so I don’t know how much it will impact the gameplay. Meanwhile, Diana takes care of locks via little puzzles, although these were really simplistic in the demo. They hopefully get more complex and varied later on. Pragmata felt a bit linear and directive too, but again this might just be for the demo. I would certainly enjoy a greater degree of freedom than shown here, like in Resident Evil Village for example.
Yet it’s the battle system that sold me on the game almost instantly. More precisely, the implementation of hacking during combat turns out to be excellent. Hugh and Diana face unfriendly robots in the facility, and Hugh’s shots can’t damage their reinforced armor. Diana therefore has to hack the enemy robots’ systems in order to deactivate armored parts and reveal weak points. Only then can Hugh’s firearms do efficient damage. Aiming with L2 also deploys a hacking panel on the right of the screen. You move a cursor within that panel via the PlayStation buttons, which act as directions (triangle is up, square left, etc.). The goal is to reach the green panel while going through positive blue and yellow panels as much as possible, and avoiding red panels.
What makes this gameplay amazing is that you have to do all of it in real time. Deploying the hacking panel doesn’t stop or slow the action, like in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Instead, everything happens at the same time, and enemies continue to attack you too. You have to think and execute the hacks very quickly, on top of aiming and firing effectively immediately after a successful hack. I instantly loved how engaging and intense this is. Of course, you have to observe and evade attacks too. The boss of the demo had a somewhat large area of effect, which definitely made the fight tricky, but the complexity is the charm here. Damage taken wasn’t huge in the demo, which I reckon is intentional to make combat manageable and correctly balanced. There are two extra weapons for Hugh: one called a shockwave gun, which deals significantly more damage than his basic gun, and another called a stasis gun. The latter is fairly important because it blocks enemy movement, leaving an opening for easier hacks, but both have very limited ammo and so that they can't be overused or wasted.
I can safely say I was quite surprised by Pragmata at Tokyo Game Show 2025. It features unique, innovative gameplay and a very charming character duo already. The boss fight was pretty awesome too, and helped fuel my now very high expectations for Capcom’s newest IP. More emphasis on story and richer developments in the progression system could make Pragmata a big contender in 2026.
