Pragmata is, by any account, a game with pretty strange gameplay, but it sounds like the gameplay loop at least might be more familiar to fans of Monster Hunter.
Pragmata’s director Cho Yonghee and producer Naoto Oyama sat down with Eurogamer to discuss what players are actually going to spend their time in the game doing beyond the unique shooter-puzzle hybrid gameplay.
The game is built around a “back and forth” style where, like in Monster Hunter, players will be bouncing between different stages and their Shelter, trying different weapons and growing stronger to take on more powerful enemies.
“We Want To Have A Game Where You Can Go Back And Forth”
Pragmata is designed to be non-linear, with players instead using their Shelter as the hub in a wheel-and-spokes world layout, travelling to stages by tram.
While there is a direct path through the game that players can steamroll through, that’s not how it’s meant to be played.
“We want to have a game where you can go back and forth, and try different weapons,” says Yonghee. “Go back, upgrade, change the weapons around, change the nodes around, and then try to take the difficult enemies down again.”
The game makes leaving a stage before it ends easy, with respawn points doubling as transporters to bring players back to the base to look at available upgrades.
Much like in Monster Hunter, there will be a lot of flexibility in builds, between several different weapon types that can all be upgraded, as well as upgrades for Hugh’s suit and Diana’s hacking abilities, among other things.
Oyama was able to nicely sum up the intended gameplay loop for Pragmata.
You have this cycle where you go out, you take on enemies, you come back, you get stronger, and then you’ll be able to defeat the enemy that took you down. It goes back and forth. – Naoto Oyama
While neither Oyama nor Yonghee mention Monster Hunter or the similarly-structured Dead Rising as an inspiration for this “back and forth” style of gameplay, the influence is clear, even though Pragmata is strictly a single-player game.
Pragmata is finally on track for release next year after being delayed several times, and it’s looking like, if nothing else, it’ll definitely be one of the most unique games coming in 2026.