Capcom had an attention-grabbing exhibiting at Summer time Sport Fest with three titles that can 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 attention-grabbing decisions with Pragmata.
Of the three video games, Pragmata represented the largest stress between what I appreciated about it and what I didn’t. Within the sport, 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 totally exhausted by the trope of an enormous, gruff dude defending a small, harmless little one. Sufficient! It’s 2025, now we have loads of dad video games at dwelling, Capcom, there needs to be a extra attention-grabbing approach to do that.
That mentioned, I used to be impressed by Pragmata’s fight. What I believed was an easy shooter was nonetheless largely that however with a complexity that dramatically modifications the calculus of the way you combat. Enemies in Pragmata are shielded and take little injury from Hugh’s weapons. To combat successfully, you need to use Diana’s hacking expertise, represented through a minigame that’s mainly a stripped-down model of the hacking minigame from Bioshock.
What’s most attention-grabbing about that is that all of it have to be completed mid-combat. Time doesn’t cease as you’re constructing a circuit to the tip purpose with a view to stun your enemy. It meant I needed to juggle hacking successfully with dodging enemy assaults in a approach 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 sport’s narrative parts.
For Onimusha, Capcom revived a long-dormant sequence in an enormous approach, first with a remaster of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Future and now with this new entry, the primary in nearly 20 years. Through the hands-off presentation, all I may 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 lower 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 by means of 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 break to supply a sure impact. I didn’t get to play Onimusha myself, however I’m intrigued to see if any extra soulslike parts are embedded throughout the sport.
Lastly, Requiem stole the Summer time Sport 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 Sport Fest’s in-person media occasion, I used to be handled to a brief gameplay presentation and demo that provided a short glimpse into the harrowing expertise of Grace Ashcroft as she tries to flee an deserted hospital.
Through the gameplay presentation, Capcom emphasised that Grace must depend on her wits to outlive quite 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 method 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 setting that will assist me survive. That meant taking note of my environment and studying every little thing I may discover, touchdown on the one tip that bought me by means of my time with the demo.
However, my transient have a look at Requiem felt like Capcom was tapping into previous routines as a substitute of doing one thing actually modern for the ninth mainline entry within the Resident Evil sequence. Sure, the large monster girl was scary, and that scrumptious stress was heightened by the truth that I had no weapons to shoot my approach out in case my wits failed me. However there are solely so many occasions I may be chased by means of 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 generally, and I’m bored by it.
I perceive that I’ve solely seen the tiniest sliver of what the total sport represents, however I hope when Requiem comes out in February subsequent 12 months that I see extra new concepts than previous ones.