[COLUMN] I’m 99% Sure Pragmata Is a Mega Man Game | by Marty Sliva

Another Summer Game Fest is in the books, and on the whole, I really enjoyed this year’s deluge of showcases. I’m stoked to learn more about RGG Studio’s Stranger Than Heaven, IO Interactive’s 007 First Light, Double Fine’s Keeper, and Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation. I’m excitedly dreading the last week of September/first week of October, which will see the releases of Silent Hill f, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicle, Directive 8080, Ghost of Yotei, and Digimon Story: Time Stranger. My Steam wishlist is bursting at the seams with all of the rad indies I’ve added. And of course, I’m ready to head back to Inaba in Persona 4 Revival.

But surprisingly, the game I keep thinking about long after its showing is Capcom’s Pragmata. And if you happened to catch the last episode of Firelink or Windbreaker, you might know why – I’m completely convinced that this game is secretly a Mega Man reboot/revival/reimagining.

Pragmata was originally shown off way back in June 2020 at the PlayStation 5 reveal showcase. While lacking any gameplay information, the trailers had a sci-fi vibe that looked like a cross between the quiet desolation of Death Stranding and the focus on protecting a child with a secret from The Last of Us. Back then, it was slated for a 2022 release, which would later slip to 2023, before completely falling off the radar altogether, leading to some speculation that the game might’ve been quietly canceled. This would be similar to Capom’s own Deep Down, a dark fantasy soulslike with a sci-fi twist that I personally played back at Tokyo Game Show in 2013 (!).

Cut to last week, and Pragmata made its surprise return at Sony’s State of Play, this time with some actual gameplay snippets to go along with the update of a 2026 release year. And while it was nice to see that the game still existed, it wasn’t until I rewatched the trailer that I went full Pepe Silvia with my theory that Pragmata was somehow a secret Mega Man game. If you haven't watched the trailer yet, I'd recommend doing that, as it’ll help as I lose myself down this rabbit hole.

At the 22 second mark, we see various Lunafiliment technologies shown on screen. The three generations of advancements directly resemble the shapes of energy, E-tanks, and 1UP pickups from the original Mega Man games. A bit later at the 43 second mark we get the reveal that this is an ad for the Delphi Corporation. The ancient Greeks considered Delphi to be the center of the known world, with its patron deity of Apollo, the god of healing, truth, music, and most important to this crackpot theory, the god of light. And who canonically created Mega Man? Doctor Thomas Light.

After this we’re introduced to our two main characters. We seemingly play as a cosmonaut who comes across a young robot/cyborg/girl who calls herself DI-0337, but by the end of the trailer is given the name Dianna. Her appearance resembles that of Roll, another creation of Dr. Light who acts as a kind of younger sister to Mega Man. She’s dressed in a chunky oversized coat that’s a very familiar shade of blue for Capcom. At one point, she hacks an enemy robot by holding out her right arm. Her sleeve hardens into a shape that directly resembles Mega Man’s buster cannon.

Any of these observations on their own could be chalked up as coincidence. But the fact that all exist in the two and a half minute long trailer has me convinced that Capcom is using Pragmata as a stealth way of modernizing Mega Man. 

Capcom has a long history of revisiting franchises that may have once seemed dormant. Maximo was their 3D revival of Ghosts and Goblins, while Bionic Commando 2009 brought the classic NES game into a decidedly grittier modern era. Sometimes this is done via collections and remasters, like we’ve seen with their recent fighting compilations that shine a spotlight once again on the likes of Power Stone, or last year’s Dead Rising remaster. Sometimes this leads to new installments in the franchises, like we’re seeing now with Onimusha: Way of the Sword.

Capcom has also been known to make games that feel like they’re in conversation with classic franchises, without directly being a part of them. I’m thinking of how 2023’s Exoprimal has direct nods to Dino Crisis and its main character Regina, without actually being a Dino Crisis game. Same goes for last year’s excellent and underrated Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, with its emphasis on Japanese myth and folklore echoing shades of Okami, to the point where it got cosmetic Okami DLC. Side note – y’all should play Kunitsu-Gami, because it’s an absolute banger.

We’ve talked a lot on streams about how it feels like now is the time for Capcom to do something new with Mega Man. They’ve released collections featuring the core games, X, Zero, and Battle Network branches of the franchise, with the Legends games being the lone biggies that haven’t been revisited (side note – watch the episode of The Archive that Javed and I put together on why Mega Man Legends deserves another chance).

Given how much the company has loved delving back into its past in recent years, and given how important Mega Man was in shaping Capcom throughout the 8 and 16-bit generations, it just feels right. Also, last year’s animated anthology series Secret Level featured a Mega Man-centric episode, and given how nearly every single other episode revolved around properties that are currently active (RIP Concord), it would make sense that plans are in motion.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time they tried. Mega Man 9, 10, and 11 attempted to replicate his 2D adventures, but by the time 11 released, a wealth of indies directly inspired in some way by Mega Man had already lapped the newer installments. And then there was Maverick Hunter, a canceled reboot from back in 2010 that tried to turn Mega Man into a gritty FPS, which obviously did not work well. But in the time since then, Capcom has learned how to ostensibly reboot a franchise with fresh new ideas while keeping its essence intact, specifically with the critical and commercial success of Resident Evil 7.

Is my theory that Pragmata is secretly a Mega Man game starting to border on paranoia? Absolutely. But is there also a strange amount of evidence throughout the trailer pointing to the fact that I might actually be onto something? Absolutely? And is that just another sign of the aforementioned paranoia? Only Capcom can answer that one in the coming months.