We Played Pragmata! - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: We Played Pragmata!

Podcast: Kinda Funny Gamescast
Date: August 20, 2025
Hosts: Greg Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr., Andy Cortez, Tim Gettys
Episode Theme: First Impressions & Analysis of Capcom’s Pragmata Demo from Gamescom

---

Episode Overview

This episode is dedicated to the crew’s hands-on impressions of Capcom’s long-anticipated sci-fi action game, Pragmata, after playing its demo at Gamescom. The cast dives deep into gameplay mechanics, artistic direction, and the persistent community theory that Pragmata might secretly be a new Mega Man title. The hosts provide enthusiastic (and refreshingly candid) real-time reactions, speculation about the game’s future, and direct comparisons to Capcom’s previous successes and notable action games of the PS3/360 era.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Capcom’s Current Golden Age (05:02)

• Tim reflects on Capcom’s transformation from a much-criticized publisher to an industry leader adept at balancing big sequels and inventive new IPs:
  • Quote: "When we were first starting ... we talked about Capcom the way we talk about Ubisoft now ... it was not good. ... That changed so dramatically with Capcom about 10 years ago … Whether it's reboots, sequels, new IPs, reboots that end up being sequels... they've done it." (05:02–06:12)
• Praises Capcom’s risk-taking, using titles like Exoprimal as examples, and expresses excitement that Pragmata is part of their bold experimentation.

The Mega Man Conspiracy – Is Pragmata a Secret Mega Man Game? (06:39)

• Blessing recaps ongoing internet speculation that Pragmata is a "stealth" Mega Man game, fueled by visual cues (like the girl’s blue coat resembling a blaster).
  • Quote: "People ... are kind of reading into the trailers, looking at certain visuals... she has ... this big blue coat and it looks like it's like Mega Man's blaster." (06:49)
• Tim adds that key UI and design elements (canisters, enemy bars) evoke Mega Man.
  • Ultimately, after playing, both agree the Mega Man theory feels more like an Easter egg than a secret franchise entry.
  • Quote: “Nothing about this gave me, ‘oh, secretly, though, this is gonna be a Mega Man thing.’ Not in the slightest.” -- Blessing (30:18)

Core Gameplay Impressions

Mobility & Action (08:44)

• Contrasts initial expectation of “bulky space guy” with the reality:
  • Character is “mobile, zooming around, boost dodge, hover”—fast and stylish rather than clunky.
  • Quote: "If I was a CEO at Capcom and they presented this to me, I'd be like, ‘get the fuck out of here!’ ... But ... how refreshing this game is to play and how ... weird it is in ways that I fuck with." -- Blessing (08:47)
• Feels like a “really good PS3 game” in terms of uniqueness and risk-taking (11:38).

Hacking Mechanic (09:43 | Detailed at 10:07)

• Central combat twist: enemies are invulnerable until you hack them.
  • Hacking is a real-time mini-game that plays like Snake: navigate grids, avoid retracing steps, and hit optional blue/yellow/red tiles for modifiers.
    • Quote: "It's like Snake ... you need to make your way through the blue. The moment you touch the green, then it's over. Then you're just gonna be able to shoot." -- Tim (10:27)
    • Real-time pressure: You’re hacking while still dodging enemy attacks; “it all works together … it sounds like it shouldn't ... but it was so fun in real time." -- Blessing (10:59)
• Hacking can get more complex during boss fights and introduces new tiles/types as you progress.

Combat & Weapons

• Weapons feel “arcadey” and satisfying—pistol, shotgun (shockwave gun), and a stasis gun that slows enemies.
  • Quote: "I loved using that thing. Felt great. ... So far, I love how the weapons feel." -- Blessing (15:31)
• Gameplay overall is described as "fun ass action," fast-paced, and unlike typical survival-horror space games:
  • "Way more actiony ... way, way, way faster than Dead Space." -- Tim (28:18)

Visual & Design Identity (12:29)

• The RE Engine is utilized for a clean, sharp, futuristic aesthetic—metal surfaces, sci-fi reflections, non-traditional Capcom environments.
  • Quote: “It is so refreshing to see an RE Engine game that isn’t using typical materials we’ve been used to … just really like seeing these metal walls and all of this sort of sci-fi stuff.” -- Andy (12:29)
• The sterile, space-station setting might get old, but the cast hopes for more varied environments in the final game.

Structure, Progression, and Longevity

• Demo was "cranked" for show floor: rapid weapon unlocks, possibly condensed features. Hosts note recent trends in event demos where preview slices are more "vertical slice" than "true" game pacing (22:10–23:15).
• Team speculates main game might be concise—estimating an 8-10 hour experience would be ideal:
  • Quote: "If you're trying to make something that is ... more simple and more straightforward ... yeah, give me that in like a 10 hour game and let me move onto the next thing." -- Blessing (26:30)
• Unsure about upgrade systems and deeper RPG elements; limited evidence in demo for how progression or replayability will be handled.

Concerns and Unanswered Questions

• Environments: Will the whole game be on the space station? Will it offer enough visual and gameplay variety? (24:27–25:06)
  • Comparisons to Metroid Fusion and the risk of repetitive settings.
• Enemy Variety: Demo mostly featured a few enemy “types” (tall drones, tankier bots, flying drones); hopes for greater variety in the final release (25:57–26:28).
• Hacking Minigames: Some secondary hacking sequences felt like outdated QTEs, not as engaging.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Capcom’s Comeback:
  "We talked about Capcom the way we talk about Ubisoft now ... That changed so dramatically with Capcom about 10 years ago." – Tim (05:02)
• On Pragmata’s Appeal:
  "Leaving this ... I don't give a shit if it's Mega Man or not. This is awesome. I can't wait to play this game. It's so freaking cool, it's so different." – Tim (07:24)
• On the Hacking Mechanic:
  "It's like Snake ... The objective is to go to green, but if you want to be a bad guy, pick up all the blue colors ... do different things." – (10:27)
• On the Game’s Weirdness:
  "We’re making weird shit again. We know the audience will support it." – Greg (08:44)
• On Weapons & Combat:
  "Maybe arcady is the word ... there is a nice little impact ... I love how the weapons feel." – Blessing (15:31)
• On Comparisons:
  "It feels like playing a ... really good PS3 game." – Blessing (11:38)
  "This is way more actiony ... way, way, way faster than Dead Space." – Tim (28:18)
• On the Mega Man Theory:
  "Do we think this is a Mega Man game? ... No, like, not strongly. I could see there being maybe like slight references ... but nothing about this gave me 'oh, secretly though ...'" – Blessing (30:18)
• Wishful Thinking:
  (Jokes about finding out it's a Mega Man/Dr. Light game in disguise. The crew riffs about ‘what if you lose to the first boss, zero drops’ in reference to Mega Man X.) – (31:54–32:00)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Capcom’s transformation and risk-taking: 05:02–06:39
• Mega Man speculation & explanation: 06:39–07:24; 30:10–31:07
• General gameplay impressions: 07:24–13:10
• How hacking works (in-depth): 09:43–11:38; 13:57 for boss-fight complexity
• Visual design discussion: 12:29–13:10
• Discussion on demo structure vs. real game pacing: 22:10–23:15
• Debate about game’s final scope/duration: 26:30–27:08
• Discussion on enemy variety, set pieces: 25:57–26:28
• Mega Man theory revisit: 30:10–31:07
• Wishful thinking/riffing on Mega Man X twist: 31:54–32:00

---

Conclusion: Hype and Cautious Optimism

The overall tone is one of pleasant surprise and excitement, even as the cast tempers expectations with pragmatic concerns about scope and depth. The demo left the biggest Mega Man conspiracy theorists convinced that while visual nods/excitement persist, this is more a case of Capcom channeling their inventive roots than a franchise bait-and-switch.

The hosts agree: if Capcom maintains this level of kinetic action and "weird," indulgent creativity throughout the full experience, Pragmata could become a cult classic—like the best, most ambitious games of Capcom's PS2/PS3 era.

---

“Capcom, man. Damn. They really, really got something here.”
— Tim Gettys (13:18)

Transcript

[A]

What's up, everybody? Welcome to your fourth and final Kinda Funny Games cast for Wednesday, August 20, 2025. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside Blessing at Aoye junior.

[B]

Good day, Greg.

[A]

Good day. Andy Cortez.

[C]

Good day.

[A]

Good day. And Tim Geddes.

[D]

Good day.

[A]

Good day. How are you doing, gentlemen? How is our energy? We've done a Kirby reaction. We weren't on Games Daily. We took a breath, we stepped aside. We've done a Resident Evil games cast, we've done an Onimusha gamescast and now we're here for the Pragmata Gamescast. How are we feeling?

[C]

I could go to a basketball court right now and hit easy, easily. Like minimum 80 out of 100 three pointers.

[D]

Wow. Wow.

[B]

That is barely impressive.

[D]

Do you really think that?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. When we finished the first one, you're like, is there pizza out there?

[D]

I was like, you got two more.

[A]

Shows to do on top of that.

[B]

Yeah, no, I should. I should have got lunch.

[C]

The funnier part was him going, oh, is that I'm seeing this right? We got pizza or what? And Greg was like, no, we got pizza in the fridge. And Bliss goes, oh, these are slacks from yesterday.

[B]

I was real excited because I was like, I gotta just eat one real quick and then come back. I don't have time to microwave.

[A]

We can toss in there to put toaster oven for you. You know what I mean? Okay, fine. Remember, of course, this is the kind of funny gamescast. Each and every weekday we run you through the reviews, previews and we need to talk about live on YouTube.com kindafunnygames, Twitch TV, Kinda FunnyGames and podcast services around the globe. If you like that, we'd like you to pick up a Kinda funny membership. Remember, $10 a month gets you 80 episodes of ad free content. It gets you four hours of exclusive podcasting with me in a show I call gregway that posts daily. And of course it gets good karma for you for supporting a small independent business. If you are watching live right now, of course you can be YouTube.com kindafunnygames super chatting to be part ask your questions about Pragmata, give your thoughts on what you've seen and read from other folks around here. And just get hyped for what could be a secret Mega man game. I want to know more people's impressions on that. We'll talk about that, I'm sure. Also, if you have no money, toss our way, no big deal. Like subscribe, share, ring the bell. Remember, if you have Amazon prime you have Twitch Prime. We'd love to get that 30 day subscription for you from you. Remember, they don't remind you and it doesn't auto renew Housekeeping thank you so much for filling out our audience survey last month. We have a couple follow up questions we'd love to get your answers to at kind of funny.com survey. It should only take a minute or two and it really helps us out. So thank you. Tomorrow of course we are delaying or we're having a delayed live reaction to Hollow Knight's Silk Song presentation to start the day. So usually when Games Daily goes live which will be 10am Pacific, that's what you get. But tomorrow you'll get our reactions on a delay. We won't have looked at anything. We'll watch Hollow Knight's thing and either be super stoked or super disappointed. Then we'll do Games Daily as normal. Remember, we're an 11 person small business all about live talk shows. You've already gotten a live reaction to Kirby's Air Rider showc. You already got Kinda Funny Games daily covering the PlayStation 5 price hike and you got two games casts already, previews of Res Evil Requiem and of course Onimusha Way of the Sword. After this you are getting a stream of Alien Rogue Incursion with Mike if you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg Way 16 minutes about Ben's first showing of James Gunn's Superman. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster Delaney, the Som Twining Today we're brought to you by Factor Shady Rays and Aura Frames, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be topic of the show.

[B]

Tad Tad's Tuts.

[A]

It's time for the final Capcom Gamescom in the Bay preview and that is Pragmata. And if I'm being honest, this is the one I'm most excited to hear about. Of course I played this at sgf, wasn't super stoked to go into it because I didn't know much about it. Nobody did I guess. And then to find that it was this weird I'm shooting. But first I have to do a hacking mini game as the robot girl. And then I was like oh, this game seems super nerdy and cool. And then I found out people think it's a secret, secret Mega man game. Tim, what did you get to play?

[D]

20 minutes of it. Just like there's another one. I played this one one and a half times before I switched over to The. The other demos.

[C]

But wait, so it was a 20 minute thing that you. So you spent like 40 something minutes.

[A]

With it one and a half times we. 30 minutes.

[D]

30 something minutes, yeah.

[C]

I didn't know we were being specific.

[D]

About math, but like, you didn't, like, you didn't play it.

[A]

You were just for a second there, you were such a congressman. When they're doing around and they. Then it gets clapped back, they're like.

[D]

All right, what come back?

[C]

I wasn't anything. We're talking about facts here.

[D]

No, but like it's not a time demo. It's like there was a. You play through and then you play a boss and then it ends. It says, thank you for playing. And then I just played it again until the demo guy came in. I was like, can I finish this?

[C]

I was like, wow, how perfect that they like timed all these to be 20 minutes.

[D]

Each one had about 20 minutes.

[B]

I think they're like all timed out to be gamescom things that people could play on the show for.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

So to get the line moving, which is why they're all about 20 minutes long.

[D]

Perfect. Yeah. So I just want to talk about Capcom for a second before I get in here because, I mean, you know, I. I've been covering video games long enough to have seen a lot of just trends shift and like the vibes towards a company change. And when we were first starting, kind of funny doing the Gamescast, we talked about Capcom the way we talk about Ubisoft now. And if y' all are watching now, I think you know what that means. It was not good. We were always questioning, why are they doing this? Why aren't they doing that? Where's the sequel to this? Where's the new ip, where's the this, where's the that? And I feel like that changed so dramatically with Capcom about 10 years ago at this point, it is not a new trend and it is something that they continue to just knock it out of the park. Whether it's reboots, sequels, new IPs, reboots that end up being sequels. Like any combination of things, they've done it. And that doesn't mean that they are without misses. We have exoprimal, but good. They took a swing on exoprimal. They are able to make games that are kind of just smaller things or out of nowhere things. A game that people love, that invest in it. A very different genre of game than Monster Hunter Wilds or Resident Evil or Street Fighter 6. The list goes on and on and on.

[C]

They can Take those risks without tanking the company.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And.

[D]

And so to. To be here at Capcom playing these three games back to back. It was awesome to play Resident Evil, a sequel to games that we've been getting consistently. Onimusha, a sequel, but ostensibly reboot of a classic franchise. And then Pragmata, a brand new IP or maybe a reboot of a established franchise.

[A]

Bless. Are you up to speed on the Mega man stuff?

[B]

I think I brought the Mega man stuff to the table.

[A]

I was just bringing it up for a new viewer.

[B]

Yes, yes.

[A]

Can you explain it to us then, just so everybody knows what we're talking about?

[B]

Yeah. Essentially a pragmata. When we got these most recent trailers, there have been Internet conversations, conversations, Reddit conversations, talking about, is this actually a Mega man game in disguise? And it was one of those things where people were kind of reading into the trailers, looking at certain visuals. The one that was most daming to me is seeing an image in one of the Pragmata trailers in the key art where the girl that's on the spaceman's back does like a motion to the camera and she has on like this big blue coat and it looks like it's like Mega Man's blaster aiming at the camera. And so that was the thing for me where I was like, is this a thing? But it's all theory. It's all, yeah, speculation.

[D]

Because the biggest thing to me, like that is like, okay, that's like maybe a. Not the biggest thing to me is just the straight up visual iconography from Mega Man. Like a lot of the items you're getting are straight up the canisters and the enemies health bars look like boss battle health bars for Mega Man. Like, there's just a lot of stuff. So going in as a fan of Mega man, not necessarily the biggest fan of like, it's like I've played every game or whatever. I enjoy Mega man as an IP and I enjoy the games. I am excited about Mega man coming back and being something new. And going into this demo, I was kind of like, Greg was saying, like, I'm not really that interested in Pragmata from what I've seen. And even Greg giving his preview of it, I was kind of like, this doesn't sound like it's for me at all. So I'm more interested in is this Mega Man? That's my going to the demo. That was the question on my mind. Leaving this. I don't give a if it's Mega man or not. This is awesome. I can't Wait to play this game. It's so freaking cool. It's so different. It is just a fun ass action game and a lot of the problems that I would thought that I would have had with it are just non existent. And I'll get to more details about that, but I want to hear bless his top level.

[B]

Yeah, it's so funny where Tim started with the conversation talking about Capcom, because that's exactly where my brain goes in talking about this game. Where this. Playing this game feels like playing a game from a different timeline where the games industry was in a healthier place and we're taking more risk.

[A]

We're making weird shit again. We're making weird shit. We know the audience will support it.

[B]

This game is so weird where like if I was a CEO at Capcom and they presented this to me, I'd be like, get the out of here. Make two more Resident Evil. Like what do you do? Don't waste your time on this thing. Right. But like, I don't say that in regards to the quality of this game. I just say that to how refreshing this game is to play and how kind of like weird it is in ways that I with. I think one of the things that I worried about upon seeing the original trailers for this game was that like, okay, you got this main character, he's in this like spacesuit thing. He looks bulky. He's probably gonna move like Joel from the last list. He does not like this game is mobile. This game is like you are zooming around. You have like this little boost dodge thing that you use like a hover ability as well. And so there's a lot of maneuverability going, going on with like how you're playing the game. But then also I'm sure Greg talked about this in the preview. I wasn't on the preview, so this is like my first time getting to actually talk and expand on it. Right. Like having this hack minigame that this child on your back is doing to like open up these robot enemies.

[A]

And you can't just shoot the robots, no damage. You have to hack them first to do it.

[B]

Exactly. So you enter this hack miname when you activate it on a specific enemy and then you have to like navigate these grids and you have to get to like the green point on the grid to then like open them up. But on your way to the green point, you can hit these other nodes that will like maybe weaken them more, have different adverse effects to these enemies.

[D]

Can you pause it here, Barrett? Thank you. Just to talk this through a little bit More. Because when Greg was previewing it and talking to us about it and we're seeing it, I couldn't quite. I get. All right, cool. There's a hacking minigame, but the way that it works is pretty interesting, where the tile that you're on becomes gray. Once you're on a tile, you can't cross that tile again.

[B]

It's like Snake.

[D]

So it's. It's like Snake. So you need to make your way through the blue. You're trying to get as many of the blues. The moment you touch the green, then it's over. Then you're just gonna be able to shoot.

[A]

Yeah. The objective is to go to green, but if you want to be a bad guy, pick up all the blue colors that come on later that do different things.

[D]

Yeah. Like Bus was saying, later, you start getting, like, there's yellow and I think even red that they added that would add, like, modifiers and stats or there were some that were like, you're trying to avoid them.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, it's like hacking in cyberpunk, where, like, you could get the standard completion thing, or you could try to be extra, and you can try to be extra.

[B]

And it's all happening in real time. Right. It's not pause. It's not anything. You are in active combat with these enemies that are coming at you, and you are doing. You're doing these hacking to then open them up to hit their weak point. And, yeah, like, it all works together in a way that saying it. It sounds like it shouldn't. Saying it, it sounds like, oh, that's doing too much. Oh, that sounds too complicated. Oh, I don't know if I'm gonna like that. It was so fun in real time because I think they just nailed the balance of how quick it is, how much your brain is working. Slash, trying to focus on hacking, but then also moving out the way and trying to dodge and all this stuff. It is just really fun to play. And. Yeah, it feels. I don't know, it feels like playing a. A really good PS3 game. And I think I say yes.

[A]

That's such a great way to put it. Yeah.

[B]

And I say PS3. I think just because of the era of, like, the weirdness and the different. And like, oh, man. Have you heard of this game? No. What is it? And you start playing, you're like, o, this is different. I like this. Right. Like, that is the feeling that this game evokes. And on top of that, I think some of the other compliments I'll give is I Like the visual identity of this game too. Right. Like, I think a theming around our conversations around these Capcom games are one of the themes is RE Engine and is it working here or is it working here? Right. Like it look looks great in re 9. Oh man. You know, Anusha might not look as great. I really like how this game looks. Again, it looks like an RE Engine game, but the environments and the design of this space future tech thing they got going on here really worked for me. I like the environments I'm navigating through. I like the spacesuit and the girl in the blue on your back. Right. Like it is distinct in a way that I I with it.

[C]

It is so refreshing to see an RE Engine game that isn't using typical materials we've been used to of.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, but everything from Monster Hunter Wild to Dragon's Dogma, which is very fantasy setting, a lot of rocks, a lot of of normal like ass. Normal ass fabrics, you know, normal clothes, people wearing to sort of the modern day thing of Resident Evil where you know, I just, I think I just really like seeing these metal walls and all of this sort of sci fi stuff and how all the reflections play.

[A]

With each other outside of this area. That's my big thing. Because you guys played the same. Tim, you said it was the same demo. But then you got to fight the boss. That it cut off for me yet?

[D]

Exactly. Yeah.

[A]

My one thing when I was playing it was I felt like, and I know this is the environment I'm in, that it is sterile and it feels kind of space station and yet I'm excited to see where we go beyond that with this.

[D]

And that was the funny thing too is after playing I was like again, I think the takeaway from you is genuine surprise at how much I enjoyed this game and a feeling of just like me. And bless left. And when we got into Uber to come back, the conversation was just like Capcom, man.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Damn. They really, really got something here. And I think the boss fight is to me what really pushed this one over the edge.

[C]

Greg, was this the same thing you.

[A]

Played up until the I didn't get when we saw the boss. That's when the demo.

[D]

Oh.

[A]

And I was so anxious. I wanted to go.

[D]

I can't believe they would do that to you. Because it's like, yeah, everything leading up to that, you start get understanding what the vibes are and it's like, oh, I'm in getting to this boss. It's like, oh, there's. There is a lot of fun to be had here.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Love the energy that this game has. I love the style of the characters and just what's going on. Yeah. Look at the hacking thing here. During a boss fight, it gets that quote unquote complicated to be able to navigate through. And it's really, really engaging and really, really fun. But I was so interested when I got home that I was like, to Greg's point, okay, what other environments are we in, though? Is it all going to be on the space station? And I went back and started just skimming through a lot of the other trailers. Because this game has a storied history. It probably has a lot of stuff.

[C]

That never is making the final cut.

[D]

And it's just funny because I'm like, I remember. Do you guys remember the first trailer?

[B]

Yeah, the PlayStation 5.

[C]

Yeah. We thought it was a Kojima trailer.

[D]

Yeah. This is from June 2020.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

All right, so it's been a long ass time back when the Game had a 2022 release date. And so it's like, all right, cool. There's some Earth stuff going on here. So it's like maybe. Maybe we'll end up on Earth at some point.

[A]

Yeah, that's my thing. Right. I'm excited to get out of that area.

[D]

Yeah, I'm with you there. But it is funny because I. I remember the. The sorry delay. I didn't remember that there was two of them. Oh, yeah, the sorry, like, delay.

[B]

It was a two. There was a second sorry note when.

[D]

There was a second sorry note.

[B]

The second story note is it. Damn.

[C]

I didn't realize this was the first one.

[D]

This is the second one. Oh, right. No, no, sorry. That's the first one. And then the second one was in the Captain showcase. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

[C]

Gotcha, gotcha. No way. I can tell that the. I don't even have to ask. I could just tell the guns are gonna feel like the dual sense whenever you're playing returnal.

[B]

That was one of the things I was going to mention is I love. Maybe arcady is the word to use to describe how the action feels. Like there is a nice little impact. Like you have your little pistol weapon and then you get this. More like shotgun, I think might be called the shockwave gun, but like, it is like a big blast kind of weapon. I loved using that thing. Felt great. And then you have the stasis gun, which is the thing that traps enemies in place and kind of like has them moving in slow motion so you have more time to hack them and stuff. So far. I love how the weapons feel.

[D]

The Omega nerd says, I feel like this game will get okay reviews. That's what's so interesting. Obviously very early. We did just get to play 20th minutes of this game and there are a lot of questions of environments and like, how far can this go? How fun will this be for an extended period of time? It's interesting because like on one hand, yeah, it could just be if this is either for you or it's not or this could be a vanquished style hit where this is the type of thing of. To bless his point of like the PS3 games. Like it feels like a very polished version of that PS3. Concept of this is a little bit weird, this is different. You haven't played a game quite like this before. And if they can continue nailing the feel of this game throughout the whole time, I think this could be one of those like cult classic type games. But like that from the jump, the reviewers playing it want to shine a light on like yo, this one's different and this one's special. So again we're talking very, very ahead of time here. But like I. There's something here that is more than just oh, it's better than I thought it was Gonn. There's something here that to me is like, oh, I think this could be. This could be a Capcom franchise.

[C]

Did you have any idea of if there's a future for upgrading your armor or. No, no, nothing like that.

[D]

No, I mean in the like.

[C]

But was there any sort of sense.

[D]

Of progression within 20 minutes we picked up and got to use three different weapons. So it's like, it does feel like you're constantly getting something new. Unless this is.

[A]

I think that. I think that's cranked for the demo that was my read on it from SGF is that we got all these weapons really quickly. It was very basic with the hacking and then introduces the blue or I'm sorry, starts the blue, then introduces yellow and red or whatever it was, you know, the additionals. And I'm like, okay, I think this is very much a contained. Here's what it's going to be like but not necessarily be this run when you get it.

[B]

Yeah, I couldn't tell. I got real lost during my demo and so like Tim probably beat it twice in the time that I beat it once. But like when I was lost I started just finding random items because I'm just like, okay, well this is in the hallway, but oh cool. I found a thing, right? And like one of the things I found was an extra hacking node thing that they would add to the grid. And so I wonder how far that goes. As far as can I grow this grid super big? And I have all these different things I'm adding. I could see that upgrade path going places. But yeah, this demo didn't really do a good job of displaying how are you growing this character? How are you upgrading this character?

[A]

Which leads to a question I have and I'll remind you about after I remind you, the listener slash viewer about our membership. Kinda Funny Membership is what makes the world go round here for our 11 person small business. If you could toss us 10 bucks over on patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple or Spotify of course you'd get good karma for supporting a small independent business, but you'd also get all of our shows ad free. And of course you get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller and a 15 to 20 minute podcast I call Greg Way right now. You're not using your benefits though, so here's a word from our sponsor.

[E]

Between busy schedules and summer plans, sometimes all you got is a couple of minutes. Factor helps so many of us here at Kind of Funny. Eat smarter with tasty chef prepped meals that are dietitian approved and delivered right to my door. And now, with more than 65 weekly meals made for how we live and what I like to eat, we've got even more ways to fit in a real meal wherever the day takes us on. On many occasions, Factor has completely saved Greg and Jen when they needed it most. Choose from a wider selection of weekly meal options, including premium seafood choices like salmon and shrimp at no extra cost. Eat smart@factor meals.com kindafunny50 offer and use code kindafunny50 offer to get 50% off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. That's code kinda funny50 [e-mail] for 50% off your first box plus FREE breakfast for one year. Get delicious ready to eat meals delivered with Factor offer only Valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase.

[D]

This episode's brought to you by Shady Rays. You know that moment, the one when you realize you left your favorite pair of sunglasses at the beach. We've all been there. I'll never forget leaving my incredibly overpriced sunglasses at a restaurant in Santa Monica. That was 13 years ago and it still haunts me to this day. But then I found Shady Rays and everything changed. Seriously good looking, polarized, durable and not stupidly expensive. And here's the wild part. If you lose or break them even on day one, Shady Rays will send you a brand new pair. No guilt trip, just replacements. So now you can actually wear your sunglasses without fear. Y' all know I've been outside in the sun a lot playing Pokemon Go and it's such a great experience wearing Shady Rays when I'm all out and about. Shady Rays is eyewear that has your back. We've teamed up with Shady Rays to bring you an exclusive offer. Check this out. You can head to shadyrays.com use code funny for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Shady rays use the code funny this episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. Aura frames are the perfect way to relive your favorite memories that you created throughout this beautiful, beautiful summer season. No lie. Our frames are undeniably the best gift I have ever given family, friends, partners. Everyone loves being able to have beautiful frames showing off their loved ones and their favorite memories. Our frames are incredibly smart and easy to use, allowing you to upload unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. Plus plus the coolest thing. You can order the frame online and preload it with photos and videos using the Aura app so it's ready to go right out of the box when you give it to someone. There's unlimited storage so you can store as many photos and videos as you can find. And it's so simple to set up. Start reliving your favorite memories by visiting auraframes.com for a limited time. Listeners can get $35 off their best selling Carver matte frame. That's a U R A frames.com promo code kind of funny. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply our frames.com kind of funny.

[A]

We're talking about getting a lot of weapons to see how they work. Maybe this isn't how the game is actually going to function. Bless you. We're talking and I interrupted there to cut us off with like this didn't give you a great feel for what the game is going to be or how we're going to all this is going to play out. Do you believe you're playing this game next year after all these delays and all these things and now this demo which I think is good and I think is hey, this is I'm excited to play more of this game but does it seems a bit like the old E3 vertical slice of like this is the kind of stuff you can expect to do in this game. Not this is what you're doing in this game.

[C]

I think we've seen a lot of. I'm not, you know, obviously I didn't play this demo, but I think we've seen a lot of recent demos like that where I went to a preview and I experienced, you know, here's a slew of gameplay for 30 minutes to 45 minutes. And then replaying that section, you go, oh, they took this away from me. I had this during the preview. I had. I think they're just sort of pumping it up, like you mentioned, for the demo to kind of give you a bit more of a taste of more things.

[A]

My thing is, I go as far as to wonder if this will be. If this exists in the game at all. If this was just, let's take what we got, make a vertical slice, make people understand what we're building for going for. Get the Mega man talk happening, get Games Journal, you know, and people are playing to be excited about this. So that when we do it, I think a more realistic dive next year of hey, here is the opening mission all the way through with dev commentary or something over it.

[D]

I feel a little more hopeful. I don't know why I want to.

[A]

Play what is here. I'm just interested to see if it actually.

[D]

Yeah, I mean, you know, looking at the games, re has a February release date date. Onimusha is a 2026. We don't know when. And does this have anything attached?

[A]

Just 2026.

[D]

It does have that though, I do believe.

[A]

Right. I thought Steam had that. I think that's what they were talking about in this showcase. No chat. Correct me, I don't know. I am booting up Steam.

[D]

I. I don't remember. But either way, like an end of 2026, like that wouldn't surprise me if it gets pushed to 26.

[A]

2026.

[D]

Yeah. Like, I. I don't know. I. I feel. I feel like it's time and I feel like, like from what I played, I'm like, I think that this. I'm with you. That like maybe this exact section is not how it's going to play in the final game. But I. For some reason, and more hopeful than it seems like you might be.

[A]

Okay, okay, I'll accept that. And this is a question. I think we've kind of jumped in, but I want to make sure we get it in there. CJ splits on Super Chats and says, do you think the space station aesthetic will get boring for a full Game I again even if I'm wrong and this isn't the game, I think you get out of this not, not necessarily fairly quickly. But I think you're going to move on to places that look a lot different than this.

[D]

Yeah, I mean I think it definitely could. I would like probably lean on the side of. If it all is on a space station. That's bad choice is not a great.

[A]

Idea unless they have different biomes.

[D]

But that's the thing too is like you know like Metroid fusion all took place on the ship but it's like a lot of different areas are just completely different.

[C]

What if there's a greenhouse? Exactly.

[B]

There's always a greenhouse which had the same thing.

[D]

Yeah. So I don't think that that's necessarily the kiss of death.

[C]

Death.

[D]

But I also think that there is a world where you are just on the space station. The environment's not the point of it. It is the different boss fights and the way the different enemies that you're fighting with like a bit more of a old school traditional action game. And that might not be for everybody but I think there's something there where. How complicated can we get with this. The grid systems and the hacking. Because this grid thing we're looking at isn't the only type of hacking. There's other hacking minigames that weren't necessarily as good. Yeah. Where you go up to something and there's like a circle and there's like like different rings and you have to do it in the order from outside ring to inside ring of. Are you hitting different face buttons? And if you don't do in the right order you have to do it again. That was a lot less fun. It was just like QTEs like as a gameplay mechanic and like we're just kind of past that.

[C]

What did enemy variety look like? Because we've seen this tall skinny looking dude who looks like Doug Jones the guy who always is dresses up in costume for a bunch of different movies as a tall skinny dude. And we've seen the big boss and maybe that sort of mid tanky looking dude.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

What it was there anything else aside from these sort of what seemed like just normal droning here, the ads that you would deal with.

[B]

I think that pretty much is it for this demo.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

There's a little flying.

[B]

Oh yeah, there were flying guys. Flying drones though.

[C]

Okay, got you. Gotcha.

[B]

Yeah. I think going back to the conversation of like next year versus progression all this stuff. Right. Like I for me I think my brain went to. I wonder how Long. This game is like, I wouldn't be surprised, super surprised if this is like a eight, nine hour, sixty dollar game. And I, for me, from what I played, that felt appropriate for this. Like again, not seeing those hints of this is where you can take it. I feel like if you're gonna do, if you're trying to make something that is kind of like more simple and more straightforward as far as like oh, get in there, have fun. Blast, blast, hack, hack. Do that. Blast, blast, blast, blast, hack, hack. Like, yeah, give me that in like a 10 hour game and then let me move on to the next thing.

[D]

I am. I'm so with that like from what I played, I'm obviously very high on this. I don't want this for 20 plus hours.

[A]

Yeah, I look at this right here. I don't think we're getting off this space station. I take it back, man. The trailer is showing the earthy stuff. Before I was like, yeah, we are. Then I look at this thing and they make a big deal about revealing original.

[C]

Like that original trailer felt more of.

[D]

Like a tone setter concept. Every trailer since has all been space station stuff without any teases of anything.

[A]

Got it, got it.

[C]

You get different colored walls in a different room, you know. So a quick question just about what happens when the hack occurs against one of these enemies. The, the flaps on their robotic body opens and it exposes the weak pot parts or whatever. Are you. Because for a while there it kind of gave me like dead space fives where it's like, you know, shoot the limbs in that specific spot or whatever. And I noticed the, whoever's playing in this demo kept shooting the thighs and the legs and like are those all individual nodes that you are shooting or are they just shooting at any weak point because they just wanted to do that. Like if you shoot the legs, does that like give you more damage in one spot? Or maybe this enemy is more weak.

[D]

Here it was kind of hard to tell because there, there it was. All the enemies look very similar and like as you're shooting them like it seemed to always take away the same chunk of damage. But there were definitely like glowing blue sections that like are what you're exposing. And it did seem like when you hit those, the effects on it were a lot bigger. So there's like two different like bars. I'm not, I wasn't clear on like what each of the bars are doing. So I, I think something's going on about shooting in different spots, but I don't think it goes as far as Like Dead Space did. But I do think there's a lot of comparisons to be made with Dead Space. But this is way more actiony, got you way even than the most than Dead Space two or three of like the do lean a little bit more action focus like it's way, way, way faster than.

[C]

Yeah, if you could bring up that footage one more time, Barrett, of just like an enemy getting hacked and showing like the. The weak points or whatever. Because it did.

[D]

But only one more time.

[C]

Only one more time, please. And it did look like that's the thigh piece which is separate from the calf or shin piece or whatever. And I wasn't sure if they were doing that deliberately or that's just the aesthetic that they decided to go with. But I think it would be really cool to eventually get a. Get a rhythm down to know, oh, these dudes are for whatever reason weaker here because that's closer to their power core or whatever.

[A]

If memory serves right. It's the hacking game is what opens up their weaknesses. So I'm assuming, yeah, there's going to be people that open it up and it's not everything. It is just like their weaknesses left.

[D]

And then the different weapons you get too. Like you just have your kind of more standard blaster. There's a more shotguny type thing. And then there was one that kind of shoots out like this like shock net thing that kind of looks like the. The halo. Bubble shield.

[C]

Bubble shield.

[D]

And when you get the enemies in there, they're like, they're slowed down a bit as they're kind of getting. That was like really effective against the boss.

[C]

Dead Space is a good game, huh?

[D]

Oh yeah.

[A]

Great game.

[D]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

But will pragmata be. We'll have to wait and see.

[D]

Maybe. Last thing I want to say, we didn't really talk about the Mega man stuff.

[A]

Please.

[D]

We like touched on it. But like, now that we've played this, bless.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Do we think this is a Mega man game?

[B]

No, like, not strongly. I could see there being maybe like slight references and stuff, but like. Like nothing about this gave me. Oh, secretly though, like, this is gonna be a Mega man thing. Like, not in the slight. Not in the slightest. I still look at the girl and like her outfit and all that. I'm like, there's some Mega man energy here, but it feels more Easter eggy than anything.

[D]

Yeah, I definitely feel like this is, I think like Shadow Labyrinth is a good example. It's a Pac man game, but it's like, no, it's not.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I feel like it's even less than that so far. And I know you don't think we're.

[A]

Gonna break in and find Dr. Light or something, maybe.

[D]

But like, I mean, these characters have names. Oh, one thing I did want to bring up Williams, call me Wiley.

[B]

See, that's the exact thing that I thought.

[D]

His name's Hugh Williams.

[C]

So you like Light?

[D]

Well, yeah.

[B]

I'm back. I take it back.

[D]

Hcgh. And it's Williams. Like me and most of their. Like Wiley. Like, you know, it's like we're definitely, definitely stretching there, but. And then the Android's Diana. So we're getting some names and they can change that and who the hell knows? But it also kind of reminded me of the 2015 Fantastic Four where it's like, this isn't really the Fantastic Four. It is, but it's not like, I don't know, it's. I like the idea of them just having fun with it. But I now do not think they're gonna end up renaming this game Mega man something or Pragmatic.

[A]

Oh, I never think it would be renamed. I think it's gonna be. You get to the. Maybe at the end they put up a meg. It's like fucking that one Marvel movie spoiled. But you know what I mean.

[D]

What if you beat? What?

[C]

Oh my God. What if you lose to the first boss? Scripted death. Bam. Zero drops. Dude.

[D]

Holy fucking. Holy shit, dude.

[C]

God. Mega Man X is the best video game ever.

[A]

Capcom, hold it off another year and fix it. Just do it and make it.

[B]

Williams. Damn. I'm back.

[A]

We'll be covering Pragmatic and all other cool video games throughout the life of this company. Because that's what Kinda Funny does. Each and every weekday we're all about live talk shows, whether it be games daily, the Gamescast or game streaming or if we wanna go do some entertainment stuff within review, you can catch it all as we are a live talk show Network on Twitch TV. KindaFunnyGames, YouTube.com KindaFunnyGames and podcast services around the globe. Thanks for watching this episode and probably the other episodes of the Gamescast today. Remember, we are still not done with our programming day. We are gonna kick it over to the streaming lab so Mike and Nick can entertain you with alien incursion. If you're watching or listening later, go check that out on YouTube.com kindafunnygames Remember, if you're driving a UPS truck right now, your own car or a car you stole and you're listening and you like this. Remember you probably have Amazon prime. Which probably means you should go to Twitch and give us your free Twitch prime subscription. They don't remind you? They don't make it easy. Screw Bezos and give us the money. Until next time, though it's been our pleasure to serve you.