Capcom Is Poised for a Stellar 2026 With Pragmata and the Return of Onimusha

While Capcom’s most hype-inducing announcement at Summer Game Fest 2025 – indeed, arguably the biggest announcement of the whole weekend – was the official reveal of Resident Evil Requiem, it brought plenty of additional heat to the multi-day event. The Japanese publisher also provided an extended sneak peek of next year’s hack-and-slash samurai title Onimusha: Way of the Sword and a hands-on demo of its upcoming science fiction action game Pragmata. Den of Geek was invited to witness both firsthand, sitting in on gameplay for Way of the Sword while playing an early build of Pragmata, with the latter’s surprising blend of puzzle-solving and third-person combat.

Way of the Sword comes as Capcom continues to revive its fan-favorite Onimusha franchise, following an impressive remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny earlier this year for modern gaming platforms. First announced at 2024 The Game Awards, Way of the Sword is the first all-new mainline game in the series since 2006’s Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. Judging by what we saw, Onimusha: Way of the Sword is worth the wait, not only completely reviving the venerable franchise but reminding everyone of its leading place in the growing pantheon of hack-and-slash games with a gorgeously rendered new adventure.

Eschewing modern trends for hack-and-slash games with Soulslike gameplay mechanics and open-world exploration, Onimusha: Way of the Sword leans into what the franchise has always done best, with accessible fighting mechanics and difficulty that still reward timing and strategy for adept players. The sneak peek at SGF 2025 had protagonist Miyamoto Musashi demonstrate a variety of moves to cut through different types of supernatural enemies, known as Genma, preying on a medieval village. This culminated in a fierce duel against Musashi’s recurring rival Sasaki Ganryu, a maniacally twisted swordsman with his own variation of Musashi’s magical Oni Gauntlet.

Based on what I saw, there is a graceful flow to the way that Musashi moves in combat, evoking the classic Onimusha games of 20 years ago, but with the finesse of a modern hack-and-slash title like Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Running on modern hardware, the game looks incredible, with its haunting environments and a highly detailed and expressive render of Musashi, with his likeness based on legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. The sneak peek teased a game that not only offered seamless and precise combat, but looked incredibly good doing it, with a cinematic visual flair as the camera intuitively panned in close or wide depending on the scope of the battle.

And then there’s the matter of Pragmata, a sci-fi action game first announced in 2020, quietly declared as being delayed indefinitely in 2023, and surprisingly returning at SGF 2025 after an extended period of little word on the project. Not only given a new release window of 2026, Capcom offered selected SGF attendees a hands-on demo of the game to play, which I eagerly accepted. After playing Pragmata for about 20 minutes, I can not only confirm that the game is real but unlike any other sci-fi title in recent memory.

Set in a futuristic environment that feels in line with genre counterparts like Mass Effect, the game’s protagonist Hugh is accompanied by an android of a small girl named Diana riding on his back. The game’s handling feels like any modern third-person adventure title, with Hugh able to seamlessly switch between weapons as he navigates the space base around him. But it’s in combat that Pragmata truly feels unique, incorporating on-the-fly puzzle-solving in the midst of fast-paced over-the-shoulder shooter action.

As Hugh faces shielded robots in the demo, Diana accesses their systems, with players performing what is essentially a pipe puzzle which successfully exposes enemy weak points upon completion. The mechanic is more seamless than one might think, especially in the heat of battle, and punctuating the successful completion of a puzzle with a shotgun blast to a menacing robot’s glowing weak point feels particularly satisfying. The puzzles in the demo gradually introduced new wrinkles, like incentives to keep robots vulnerable longer, but were never overly complex or intrusive to the combat gameplay.

The Pragmata demo ended with Hugh and Diana about to engage in a boss fight, wrapping on a big cliffhanger which I can genuinely say whet my appetite to keep playing. Time will tell if Pragmata has been worth the wait, but the demo was polished and responsive while the visuals looked on par with most modern sci-fi games. And in a field full of third-person shooters, the presence of Diana and her accompanying puzzle-solving mechanic certainly sets the game apart from its contemporaries in an interesting (and good) way.

Capcom really stole the show at Summer Game Fest 2025 offering sneak peeks and demos of three distinctly different titles, each exciting in their own way, ranging from hack-and-slash action to survival horror. All scheduled for releases in 2026, Capcom is poised to release Resident Evil Requiem, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and Pragmata throughout the coming year. And based on its various presentations at SGF 2025, the Japanese publisher has a strong library of new and varied titles to look forward to.

Pragmata and Onimusha: Way of the Sword are both expected to release in 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.