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Welcome to another purchase reflection, where I walk you through my personal thought process when deciding whether to buy a game or not. Today’s subject is none other than Pragmata.
Again, I’m just like you, a Nintendo Switch gamer that doesn’t have the privilege of playing games early, meaning I need to rely on the same factors as you when deciding whether a game is worth my time and money or not.
That means my buying decisions are based on pricing, physical edition availability, marketing, available demos, my experience with the franchise, or the sci-fi shooting genre.
And, based on all of this, I already decided that I want to sink my teeth into Pragmata, and April 24th can’t come soon enough.
Now, let’s go over why I think Pragmata is worth it and why it should be on your radar:
Princing
As usual, pricing is always a huge factor in my decision, and Pragmata sits at a comfortable 59.99, which is surprising given its AAA status and long development cycle. In case you don’t know, this game was shown for the first time 5 years ago, and it stayed dormant for a long time.
Despite the decent pricing, there are two important factors we must still consider.
One is the length of the actual game, which, at this point, we don’t know. But being a Capcom game, I think we can look at the Resident Evil franchise as a comparison. They usually range from 10 and are designed for replayability, with higher difficulty options, unlockables, and other extra modes.
So, in terms of money-to-playtime value, I feel I’ll get what I need.
Then, there’s the other factor: the physical edition is a Game Key Card, which I was already expecting it to be since this has been the pattern with Capcom physical releases in this generation.
Game Key Card is a deal breaker?
It used to be until a couple of weeks ago when a storm hit my area, and I was out of internet for a few days. To kill time and entertain the family, I decided to play some older Switch titles I hadn’t touched in a long time, and I couldn’t play almost any of them since they all required a download to play.
From a game preservation standpoint, having the game on a cart is definitely better, but this situation made me accept Game Key Cards more, and I’ll probably keep buying them in the foreseeable future.
Also, I have a strategy that I’m trying to set up that makes this whole Game Key Card situation more bearable, and once I have some results, I’ll share them in a post.
I’ve never played anything like this!
While I agree with the price tag, and I’m comfortable with it being a Game Key Card, what really sold me on Pragmata was the first gameplay trailer I saw.
At first glance it looked just like any other sci-fi shooting game, but then they showed how Diana, the android who’ll accompany you, helps during fights.
Your shooting is ineffective until you use Diana to hack your enemies and reveal their weak points. And for that, you’ll have to play this mini-game while you move, dodge, and shoot at the same time.
It seemed hectic and fun since I love games where I need to multitask, like city-building games like Citadelum or older RTS games like Warlords Battlecry and Age of Mythology.
At this point I knew I was going to buy it since I love experimenting with fresh gameplay mechanics. And luckily, I didn’t have to wait until release day, because Capcom was kind enough to release a demo on the Nintendo Switch eShop.
The demo sold it, but.
Once I got my hands on the demo, I finally got to experience for myself what Pragmata was all about. It has this feel of isolation that, when paired with the slow movement of your character while shooting, truly makes it feel like a Resident Evil game in space.
Especially since your main enemies are these robots controlled by an AI that has gone rogue. They come at you slowly, can take bullets for days, and hit like a punch if they get close enough.
And the demo doesn’t wait to throw you into the action. As soon as you load the game, you’ll be facing these robots and finally experience the hacking + shooting combo.
While hacking, the goal is to navigate to a certain node that will weaken and expose your enemy to damage. And, as you keep playing, more nodes will unlock, and passing through them will trigger different kinds of ailments on your enemies.
I loved the mechanic, and I want to play more of it. Near the end of the demo, you’ll have your first boss encounter, and that’s when I felt I grasped this mechanic completely, and it felt super rewarding!
However, I hope this mechanic doesn’t get stale if the game is long enough. Hopefully, they will introduce more ways of interacting with the mini-game or even different types of hacking.
The demo was pretty short, but it was effective in showing what to expect from Pragmata in the future.
Apart from combat, you’ll be exploring your area, solving puzzles, and finding resources in the form of new weapons and nodes that will help you defeat your enemies faster.
It runs smoothly docked at a steady 60 fps, although you can tell the resolution isn’t the best, leaving detailed textures a bit blurry. It also plays great on handheld, but the frame rate fluctuates a bit when facing larger groups of enemies.
But overall, I’m happy with what I saw. I will definitely be picking Pragmata up.
Should you buy Pragmata on Nintendo Switch 2?
The pricing is acceptable despite its game key card physical edition, the hacking + shooting gameplay is innovative, and the demo showed how great it can run on Switch 2.
There is no reason why you should not purchase Pragmata at this point. There are still some contention points, such as not knowing how long the game is, if it has other modes available, or if the story will turn out to be good or not.
But I can’t hold on to what I don’t know, and what I do know is that Pragmata is fun to play, so I will definitely be playing it at launch.
Thanks for reading!
