On Pragmata
Capcom's latest new franchise entry after the less well-performing Kunitsu-gami, which I have yet to play. This one could be best characterised as Glad Dad and his Adorable Hacking Robot Daughter and, somewhat to my own surprise, I really enjoyed it. It's an exceptionally tight and well-crafted game. The backstory seems to be that it took nearly nine years or so to see the light of day, so there's got to be a really fascinating behind-the-scenes that will come out one day.
Gameplay
One area where the game absolutely kills it. It's basically a mash-up of a 3rd-person shooter and a very simple puzzle game; to hack robots, you target them and start up this puzzle game where you moving a cursor with button presses from one point on a grid to another point (this gets more complicated for different enemies and as various other elements are introduced, of course). A successful hack deals damage and might trigger some other elements, but you're often going to be rapid-hacking an enemy multiple times in a row to get anywhere, so it's not like a one-and-done scenario.
It all works together almost seamlessly; the word I would use is elegant. The shooting isn't in conflict with the hacking, it's in concert with it. Decisions you make while shooting affect how easy it is to hack; decisions you make while hacking affect how easy it is to shoot. Sounds simple, but a lot of games don't have that purity of vision or of systems design.
This extends to the enemies too. What really impresses me is that this is a game where a lot of enemies kind of slowly walk towards you threateningly and then do an attack. On its face that sounds boring as hell. When you're playing? It's exciting, it's ferocious, you feel like you're doing twenty things and once and you're doing them mostly well. Every enemy adds a different but manageable level of stress, and then in tandem, well, that's where encounter design really shines.
The animation work on the creatures is exceptional; they fulfil niches, they have obvious roles. There are parts where, despite the slow-ish pace, I actually felt like I was playing a much faster character-action game in terms of challenge and holding the possibility matrix of an encounter in my head at any given time.
Story
A very strange beast, but one that works. What it feels like to me is that this is something they were struggling with for a while in terms of plot, but they decided at some point to laser-focus on the dad-daughter character stuff and that was 100% the right call. The plot, such as it is, is fairly rote, verging on undercooked (at least one major beat is delivered via, essentially, a dialogue box). There aren't really any 'villains' worth too much either, though the enemies do have some bizarre personality to them in their design that stops the game being entirely sterile.
All of that doesn't matter because the characterwork between the main character, Hugh, and his adopted robot daughter, Diana, is exceptional. Aside from a slightly jarring beginning (there is basically zero tension as to whether they will get along; despite Hugh being identified early on as a certified robot hater, he completely drops this characterisation almost immediately as soon as he meets Diana), the game is basically a constant parade of bashing you over the head with adorable and charming moments. Somehow they've managed to pitch it absolutely perfectly; it's very easy to do this kind of stuff as too saccharine or sickeningly-sweet, and maybe it reads that way for other people, but for me it managed to walk that line with panache and style.
Aesthetic
The NASApunk corporate aesthetic works for me most of the time and they do a pretty good job of making distinct biomes despite the potentially bland setting. Enemies (which are most of what you're seeing) are also suitably freaky, with great silhouettes, clear, readable animations and behavioural patterns.
Unfortunately the music is... completely forgettable. Apart from the 'you're in combat - now you're not in combat' theme, which serves a mechanical function, I'm not even sure I can even remember much of what was playing. It's certainly not offensive, it's just totally unmemorable, which is a pity.
Wrap
This game rules, it's my GOTY, knocking Pokopia off its perch. I don't know if I'll play more of it right now but the challenge room stuff and all the stuff you unlock after the first run look fairly appealing. Hope to see Diana in the next MvC, if they ever make those again.