After years of silence and speculation, Capcom’s enigmatic sci-fi title Pragmata is stepping back into the spotlight. First revealed in 2020, the game has endured multiple delays and a long development cycle, but according to the team, that time has been used to refine an emotionally resonant experience unlike anything else in the studio’s portfolio.

During Thailand Game Show 2025, we sat down with Producer Edso Edwin, Producer Naoto Oyama, and Director Yonghee Cho to discuss Pragmata’s evolution, its unique gameplay mechanics, and the emotional core that drives its lunar odyssey.

Focused on the Goal

When asked whether the long development time ever threatened the project’s future, the team was honest and didn’t mince words.

“Since the early concept came out in 2020, we’ve been working hard to create the game we want to achieve,” says Oyama. “Rather than add new things, we focused on the base game concept and making that work as a whole game.”

That base concept was a strategic sci-fi action game set on the moon, where players control two characters, an armored human and a mysterious android girl named Dian, through a mix of combat, exploration, and emotional storytelling.

Designing a New Kind of Sci-Fi

Director Yonghee Cho explains that the team deliberately avoided the genre’s typical tropes throughout the development cycle.

“When we were looking at sci-fi games, they were often third-person or first-person shooters. But we wanted to have something a little bit different, something with a strategic element,” Cho says. “You’ll need to consider each enemy, and even added the specific element to the game that you can see today.”

In Pragmata, enemies are AI-driven threats, and the game’s hacking mechanic allows players to manipulate the battlefield in creative ways. The many gameplay trailers have already showcased a grid-based hacking interface that scales in complexity depending on the enemy’s strength, offering a visual cue for players to assess danger and plan accordingly.

Diana and the Power of Connection

While the gameplay is ambitious, it’s the emotional core that sets Pragmata apart. The relationship between the protagonist and Diana is central to the experience, and players will definitely feel a connection.

“When you think of the moon, you think it’s a cold, lonely place,” says Cho as they aimed to “add some emotions, add some warmth to it all, you have human and Diana and their connection to themselves between them.”

This emotional thread is woven into both combat and exploration. Diana is an active partner, and their interactions evolve as the story progresses. One standout moment in the game shows the protagonist attempting a high-five with Diana after a boss fight, only for her to hesitate, unsure of how to respond. It’s a small but poignant reminder of her artificial nature and her journey toward understanding humanity.

Building a Universe from Scratch

Creating a new IP is never easy, and the team acknowledges the challenges of building a world from the ground up.

“When you create a game from scratch, from zero, you have nothing,” says Edwin. “You have a team of people working toward a singular goal, but everyone’s idea of what Pragmata should be can differ,” which can turn out to be the most exciting and the most difficult part.

The team drew inspiration from Japanese sci-fi animation and indie games that dared to explore new mechanics and emotional storytelling, resulting in a game that blends cinematic ambition with gameplay experimentation.

One Player, Two Characters

Despite the dual-character setup, Pragmata is not a co-op game, and that’s by design.

“One of the unique points of Pragmata is that one player controls two characters,” Edwin explains. “We thought about it (co-op) then, but the game was built basically as a game where you control it by yourself using a single controller.”

“So if you have those split up, you end up with a game where you have very little to do if you had just one person controlling you and one person controlling Diana.”

This design choice reinforces the theme of connection, and how two beings, human and android, must learn to rely on each other in a hostile, unfamiliar world.

Pragmata will be available for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam in 2026.