QCF: Pragmata
In recent years, generative AI has led a near-inescapable march through every facet of our daily lives. Whether you’re seeking service, information, production, entertainment, or even counseling, the tool has made its ghoulish presence known in just about every corner you can find, and despite the real-world ramifications its proliferation leaves behind, it’s only gaining more momentum.
In the previous decades before the advent of generative AI, however, the concept of Artificial Intelligence had a somewhat less destructive impact on daily living or the beauty of human expression in fictional storytelling, and instead mainly presented as a device to extoll the themes of playing god or asserting faith in the power of humanity. Enter Yonghee Cho of Nier Automata and Metal Gear Revengence fame, who was brought on by Capcom and their development team to approach a new angle towards AI using the Old El Paso answer to Hard Tacos or Soft Tacos—a story that would focus on both the old Sci-Fi roots of AI, and the current dangers of Generative AI, being navigated by the powers of human connection.
This imaginative effort would steadily evolve into a new IP, Pragmata, and much like the other original release from Capcom, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, the premise places a subtle, yet deceptively deep twist on an accustomed action genre. At the core of its Outré blend of logic puzzles and third-person shooting, Pragmata also manages to tell a surprisingly endearing story about a well-adjusted engineer who stumbles upon an effusive android during a recon mission that goes horribly wrong, and the wholesome bond they build along the way in a world led by AI.
Capcom, Character Action Game, Diana, Mega Man, Pragmata, Puzzle shooting?, third-person shooter, throwback | in QCF Reviews 
