PRAGMATA is the newest IP from Capcom that released recently and is doing really well. It reviewed super highly, and while all the pre-release stuff they put out was intriguing, it didn't really grab me. I finally decided to try the demo because I heard it was pretty short, and it really impressed me.

The story wasn't explored much in the demo, but the gist of it is that you play as Hugh, a human everyman trapped on a lunar research base with a little girl Android, Diana. I've read that the story is nothing special, but everyone's a sucker for "big dude protects little girl" stories and I'm no exception. The gameplay is pretty standard third-person shooter fare, but with a twist: Diana has the ability to "hack" enemies, causing status effects and making battles easier for you.

This hacking mechanic is a small minigame sort of like those old pipe maze games that were super popular when smartphones were just getting popular. You start at the top corner of a grid and have to use the face buttons to move along the grid, going out of your way to hit special effect squares and avoiding danger squares, with the goal of making it to a specific exit square. It's super simple, but really engaging, and the combination of managing the hacking, aiming and shooting your various guns that each have their own effects, and dodging out of the way of enemy attacks made for some pretty frantic gameplay while never feeling unmanageable.

I really enjoyed my 20 minutes with this demo and added PRAGMATA to my wishlist. I'm not sure there's enough meat on the bone here to justify a $60 purchase for me when my general philosophy is to never buy a game full price unless it's a big winner, but this will be a nice pickup in about a year for $20-30.