Endings can make or break a story and tremendously affect how an audience remembers a work. (Case in point: Game of Thrones. Oof.) They’re tough to nail down, especially if a creator wants to ensure every character gets a happy ending, even when circumstances seem dire for the cast.
Pragmata’s plot surrounding a rogue AI and killer robots is a bit thin, so the relationship between astronaut Hugh and childlike android Diana is what carries its narrative. They spend the bulk of the game together fighting clankers and bonding at an artificial beach when they get a moment to breathe. (Does Diana breathe? Probably not.)
As their relationship grows, so does the player’s attachment to Hugh and Diana, making it so Pragmata’s ending hits even harder. Capcom stuck to its guns with a bittersweet ending, and the game is better off for it. Even Hugh’s actor David Menkin knew the conclusion was “a bit inevitable,” and accepted his character’s fate.
[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for Pragmata’s ending and its “secret ending.”]
In a climactic moment, Diana is badly wounded by fellow Pragmata android Eight, who makes a heel turn to become the game’s Big Bad. Eight ordered the moon base’s AI system IDUS to wipe out all life on the base, and intends to travel to Earth and destroy it via dead filament, a dangerous byproduct of the lunafilament material that plays such a crucial role in the game’s setting and gameplay upgrade systems.
After learning all this, Hugh escapes with Diana in tow, bringing her to a repair center. He’s attacked and wounded by a bot infected with dead filament before Diana can wake and save the day. What he doesn’t tell her is that he’s infected with the dead filament, and his days are numbered; it basically eats up organic matter, and Hugh saw firsthand what happened to people attacked by it via a holographic video.
