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You know the interview is good when PR is freaking out. I asked Pragmata director Yonghee Cho and producer Naoto Oyama if they hope to see Pragmata become a new franchise for Capcom, following up on remarks from Capcom USA COO Rob Dyer.
Oyama gives the expected response (via interpreter): "I honestly don't know what the future holds. Like you said, it's only been a month since Pragmata went on sale, so honestly, what I'm focused on is just trying to get as many people to experience Pragmata as I can. I'm focused on Pragmata itself."
So I asked again. This time, I put a different question to Cho directly. If he could snap his fingers and make it happen, would he want to make Pragmata 2?
"Of course I'd love to see a sequel," he says. "But I'm not the only one who decides, so unfortunately I can't really comment beyond that."
This was about 51 minutes into my interview with Cho and Oyama on Tuesday night, and this was the point that Capcom PR on the Japan side of the call really spoke up. You'd think Cho had dropped a live hand grenade in the room from the way everyone rushed to dive on his response.
Cho is quick to stress that this is just his "own personal opinion on the matter."
"Please don't take that line out of context," Oyama adds with a laugh.
Once again, PR says this is just Cho's thoughts, not an answer from Capcom the company.
So this is not an announcement for Pragmata 2, a game which does not exist. But as someone who really enjoyed Pragmata, it is exactly what I want to hear.
Pragmata marked Cho's directorial debut after well over a decade in games, and not only was it a critical success that sold 2 million copies in just over two weeks, it's a new IP, an extreme rarity among big publishers today. It's also a short, linear, single-player action game with genuinely novel gameplay – another rare breed outside indie circles. (Cho says he was actually pushing for a more "indie" spirit with the project.)
For my money, Pragmata is the kind of game we need more of. Echoing the likes of tower defense oddball Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, it's also the kind of risk I want to see Capcom take as it reclines in a bean bag chair full of Resident Evil and Monster Hunter bucks.
We'll have much more from Cho and Oyama in the days ahead, so stick around.
