Capcom had an fascinating exhibiting at Summer time Recreation Fest with three titles that may carry the developer into 2026 and past: Onimusha: Means of the Sword, Resident Evil Requiem, and Pragmata. I bought hands-on previews with each Requiem and Pragmata, and a hands-off presentation for Onimusha. Throughout the three video games, I noticed a mixture of recent concepts with Onimusha, some stale ones with Requiem, and a few bizarre however fascinating selections with Pragmata.
Of the three video games, Pragmata represented the largest rigidity between what I appreciated about it and what I didn’t. Within the recreation, you play as Hugh, an astronaut stranded on the moon who’s aided by a small, child-like robotic named Diana. To be frank, I’m completely exhausted by the trope of an enormous, gruff dude defending a small, harmless youngster. Sufficient! It’s 2025, we’ve got loads of dad video games at residence, Capcom, there must be a extra fascinating manner to do that.
That stated, I used to be impressed by Pragmata’s fight. What I believed was an easy shooter was nonetheless principally that however with a complexity that dramatically adjustments the calculus of the way you struggle. Enemies in Pragmata are shielded and take little injury from Hugh’s weapons. To struggle successfully, you could use Diana’s hacking abilities, represented through a minigame that’s principally a stripped-down model of the hacking minigame from Bioshock.
What’s most fascinating about that is that all of it have to be executed mid-combat. Time doesn’t cease as you’re constructing a circuit to the top aim in an effort to stun your enemy. It meant I needed to juggle hacking successfully with dodging enemy assaults in a manner that felt recent and thrilling for what I believed could be a easy motion shooter. I simply want that they had utilized that innovation to a few of the recreation’s narrative components.
For Onimusha, Capcom revived a long-dormant collection in an enormous manner, first with a remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future and now with this new entry, the primary in virtually 20 years. In the course of the hands-off presentation, all I might suppose was, “That is Capcom’s tackle a soulslike.” A few of that’s within the aesthetics. The world is darkish, overrun by grotesque-looking demons who brutally minimize down fleeing peasants earlier than turning their swords on Musashi, the protagonist. In different methods, it’s the fight. Enemies have stagger bars you deplete via deflecting and parrying assaults. In boss fights, as you slowly put on down your enemy, you possibly can select which a part of the boss to wreck to provide a sure impact. I didn’t get to play Onimusha myself, however I’m intrigued to see if any extra soulslike components are embedded inside the recreation.
Lastly, Requiem stole the Summer time Recreation Fest present as Geoff Keighley closed the keynote occasion with a shock reveal of the sport and its February 2026 launch date, after beforehand teasing that we wouldn’t see it for some time. Later throughout Play Days, Summer time Recreation Fest’s in-person media occasion, I used to be handled to a brief gameplay presentation and demo that supplied a short glimpse into the harrowing expertise of Grace Ashcroft as she tries to flee an deserted hospital.
In the course of the gameplay presentation, Capcom emphasised that Grace must depend on her wits to outlive slightly than any sort of coaching as a soldier or legislation enforcement just like the Leons, Adas, or the Chrises of that T-virus contaminated world. I appreciated that strategy and the way it was mirrored in each the presentation and the demo. Since Grace had no weapons to guard herself, I needed to discover clues within the surroundings that might assist me survive. That meant listening to my environment and studying all the pieces I might discover, touchdown on the one tip that bought me via my time with the demo.
However, my transient take a look at Requiem felt like Capcom was tapping into previous routines as a substitute of doing one thing really modern for the ninth mainline entry within the Resident Evil collection. Sure, the large monster woman was scary, and that scrumptious rigidity was heightened by the truth that I had no weapons to shoot my manner out in case my wits failed me. However there are solely so many occasions I will be chased via hallways by a slowly plodding monster earlier than it will get to be previous hat. I’ve seen that not simply in different Resident Evil video games however in horror video games basically, and I’m bored by it.
I perceive that I’ve solely seen the tiniest sliver of what the total recreation represents, however I hope when Requiem comes out in February subsequent 12 months that I see extra new concepts than previous ones.
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