#pragmata

#pragmata

The Nintendo Switch was a massive success, but it was built primarily on the strength of first-party and less-demanding third-party games. We all knew you didn't turn to the Switch for the visual splendor offered on its competitors. The Switch 2 has brought things slightly more towards parity, and we've seen a few third-party standouts like Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Outlaws that push the hardware.

"From the start, the core vision was a buddy-action experience where you would control two distinct characters with a single controller," Pragmata director Yongchee Cho tells me. The team explored giving protagonist Hugh a small drone that aids him in combat, but once the developers landed on the android Diana as a second protagonist, this idea evolved into the hacking system. This created various layers of gameplay that all happen at once, and when coupled with the mysterious narrative and various locales warped and twisted by Luna Filament, the name Pragmata makes a lot of sense.

"The RE Engine is, first of all, something that we've all really built to create something that's important for us as a backbone for our games," he said. "And so, with that, we also have the ability to always request stuff when we want to add this or that to the RE Engine. One of these which is visually easy to understand is Diana's hair, which is made up of strands."

In Pragmata, players process a unique gameplay dynamic where the human character, Hugh, battles while the android, Diana, hacks enemy defenses in a seamless partnership.