Pragmata Is My Favorite Game of 2026 (So Far)

Babysitting Has Never Felt More Fun.

Pragmata’s unveiling in 2020 spelled a change of plans for Capcom. The company known for Resident Evil and Monster Hunter was planning a new intellectual property featuring an astronaut and a young girl in a digital city. Its trailer promising, and with only a 2-year release window, it wouldn’t be long until the game would be in player’s hands. Unfortunately, that release window came and went, and further delays left it in an unknwon state until reemerging three years later.

It is now 2026. Pragmata has released to glowing reviews and is one of the highest-rated games of the year across all major platforms.

To be completely honest, Pragmata never interested me until it was announced for Switch 2 at the 2025 Game Awards. The Switch 2 is my primary console — I won’t play a game unless it is on it. I envy those with access to all the big platforms, but I’m comfortable with my soon-to-be $500 Nintendo hybrid system. So it coming to the platform piqued my interest enough to try its demo in the Winter. I was sold.

Pragmata’s story begins with the discovery of lunum ore within the Moon. Lunum Ore contains a mineral called Lunafilament (Lim) that can be used to replicate organic matter so long as the data to do so is present. The Delphi Corporation, a major innovator in 3D printing, sees enough value in the material to construct an entire lunar base dedicated to mining and researching its capabilities. This base is called the Cradle.

One day, Earth loses contact with the Cradle, dispatching a four-man service crew to investigate. Shortly after arrival, a lunar quake rocks the facility, separating the crew and leaving protagonist Hugh Williams critically injured. He is saved by a young girl — a Pragmata — named D-I-033567. Baffled, Williams renames her as Diana. Their task is to contact and return to Earth, but must survive the Cradle’s security functions, as they are overtaken by a rogue AI named IDUS.

Hugh and Diana’s relationship is inherently symbiotic, as neither can survive without the other — an attribute complimented by Pragmata’s action-puzzle gameplay. In-game combat requires the player to use Diana’s hacking abilities to expose enemy weak points before destroying them with Hugh’s various firearms.

The player has a brief window to navigate through a grid to a green goal node. Utilizing yellow hacking nodes and blue open nodes onwards to the goal adds additional effects and boosted damage, while gray and red nodes block progress or force the hack to start from scratch. Reaching the goal exposes the enemy’s weaknesses, allowing Hugh to deal significant damage using various weapons found throughout the game. Weapons come in four units: Primary, Attack, Tactical, and Defense. Each serve different purposes in combat, and can be upgraded throughout the game.

Pragmata’s combat approach is one of its biggest selling points. While I am not very invested in shooters, I can’t think of another game with a unique approach to third-person shooting. It’s difficult to handle at first, especially in high-pressure situations, but that makes it more satisfying when you successfully hack a robot.

As exceptional as the game’s combat approach is, It hasn’t been the most compelling aspect of the game for me. It’s how the game treats synthetic organisms and artificial intelligence. Hardly anything on the Cradle is organic, with records detailing synthetic food being consumed by disgruntled employees. Entire sections of the base are produced with lunafilament — one resembling a poor attempt at a large cityscape featuring nonsensical and distorted architecture and inhabited by large robots. Another resembles a lush forest with overgrown trees and fauna, yet is entirely artificial.

So much of the Cradle is artificial, it’s almost baffling to see anything real at all. Even the food consumed by human workers was synthetic, and a poor attempt to recreate the flavors and passions of cooking. Morale amongst lower-level employees were so low that some attempted to fail weekly fitness exams so they would be sent back home to Earth. The Shelter, the one true safe area in the game, features “Read Earth Memories”, or REM. These take the forms of various real-life toys and amenities that, when completed as a set, creates a replica of a scene on Earth, such as a child’s room or beach setting. Diana is especially grateful for the REMs.

It is such an interesting environment for a game, though not one that hasn’t been done before. The Aperture Science Research Center from Valve’s Portal series feels like an appropriate comparison, as it is just as unnerving and void of human interaction. Yet, unlike in Portal, the main character’s companion isn’t a cube.

While Diana is an autonomous synthetic robot made with lunafilament, she does not act like a robot. She acts like a young child. She is blissfully ignorant of life outside of the Cradle. Throughout the game, Diana learns about life on Earth through Hugh — the conversations one might have, the clothes one might wear, and the relationships one might build with others. All things that make humans, humans. Hugh does not treat Diana like a robot; he treats her like a living being. It’s not unlike humans becoming infatuated with AI partners or robots, but it feels more real. And it’s hard not to get attached to Diana — as suggested by the internet deeming Pragmata as propaganda for childcare because of her.

It’s sweet how much the two genuinely care for each other throughout the game. And it makes the experience better; I’d rather spend my time playing a game that makes me feel something — bad or good — than nothing at all. I get it a lot with RPGs, but it’s rare for me to feel this way about a game that took me maybe around 30 hours to complete. It is not a long game, which, in today’s landscape of long narrative-driven games and cinematic experiences, I will take what short and sweet games come my way.

That said, it’s not a perfect game. It looks fantastic both in handheld and docked mode on Switch 2, and obviously it looks really good on other platforms as well. I’ve had framerate drops as well as the ocassional glitch and resolution dip, but nothing that would otherwise negatively affect my enjoyment of Pragmata.

The game isn’t very open. Most levels are linear with a clear path to each objective, save for a few select areas. I would have liked to explore more of the decrepit and abandoned, messy areas within the facility. After playing Resident Evil Requiem just months prior, Pragmata does seem to borrow from that series’ DNA despite it being a completely new property. It does, at times, feel like a horror game — with robots replacing angry, horrifying zombies, of course. Beyond that, Pragmata is a fantastic game.

I don’t know how I will feel about it come December, but for now, Pragmata is my favorite game of 2026. It’s heartfelt, engaging, challenging, and most importantly, fun. It’s one of the most unique games I’ve played in years. I can only hope a sequel or follow-up is in the works.