I played 25 hours of Pragmata on PS5 Pro and Switch 2 – here’s the real difference

Barely a year into the Switch 2's life, and it's already received very strong support from Capcom, where Nintendo's refreshed hardware has been a terrific way to showcase the versatility of the RE Engine. This hasn't just been with ports like Street Fighter 6 and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess at the console's launch, but also new releases like Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection and Resident Evil Requiem.

Yet the biggest surprise has been Pragmata, a completely original IP from new and younger staff at Capcom - the game's director Cho Yonghee is a former PlatinumGames employee, having been a weapons concept artist for Nier: Automata and character designer for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, respectively. Given the game was first announced at a PS5 showcase in 2020, I was completely caught off guard when, during last year's Game Awards, it was also announced for Switch 2. The bigger surprise was how, on first impressions, the Switch 2 version seems to achieve close parity with its beefier rival consoles. As space engineer Hugh and pint-sized android girl Diana, I was comfortably hacking and blasting away at murderous robots at what felt like 60 FPS as I rinsed and repeated the demo.

That was, however, a short 10-15-minute demo from early in the game, so how would the final version hold up? In my five-star review tested on PS5, I've already showered Pragmata with praise as another stunning showcase for Capcom's versatile RE Engine with an innovative gameplay mechanic that kept me hooked from start to finish. Yet while it's the first game in a while that I'm compelled to replay and discover every secret and complete every challenge, I instead spent that time completing a separate playthrough on Switch 2.

Pragmata Switch 2 vs PS5 Pro

I spent the initial review period playing Pragmata on the highest-end console version on PS5 Pro back-to-back with Switch 2 in its docked, handheld and tabletop configurations, literally jumping between versions between sectors. That then really magnifies the differences in power and performance, though you would expect that when the PS5 Pro is now literally double the price of the Switch 2 since the former's recent price hike to $899/£789.

On the Pro's specs, you get the full pristine benefits of Pragmata, running at native 4K and solid 60FPS without having to choose one or the other on the base PS5. If your TV supports it, you can even opt to turn on High Frame Rate mode so the action is buttery-smooth at 120 FPS. This is also without losing out on path tracing, so that you'll often find yourself exploring the lunar research station, The Cradle, only to pause to admire the real-time reflections from its shiny surfaces.

It's then hard not to notice the concessions made to get Pragmata running on Switch 2. The hybrid console can technically output 4K, but the game's native resolution is only 540p. If that sounds like you're in for a blurry mess, the good news is that Nvidia's DLSS upscales this to 1080p, and the results felt similar whether I was playing docked or had the Switch 2's 8-inch display in front of me in handheld mode.

Pragmata's space aesthetic, with its distinctly designed killer bots and your growing arsenal of weapons and hacking nodes, is all still intact and readable, as is the audiovisual feedback of a successful hack or landing a killing shot as they crumple and then explode into smithereens. But while the resolution's good enough that I can still catch a glowing speck that reveals the position of collectable figurines modelled after the station hub mascot Cabin, it's nonetheless missing other interstellar details.

Switch 2 Pragmata comes with compromises

You're not going to get any fancy real-time reflections - there was one moment I came across where it tries to fake it very unconvincingly - while shadows are amorphous blocky blurs. The most glaring concession is Diana's hair. While RE Engine was updated to realistically simulate long hair like hers as individual strands, you're not getting this benefit on Switch 2. Worse, it may become a distracting eyesore to the point that you wish for a short-hair cosmetic. The lower resolution also becomes more pointed on Diana's facial expressions, which makes the moments where you can interact with her in the Shelter less charming than they ought to be.

These graphical downgrades might be more acceptable concessions if Pragmata were able to maintain a stable framerate, which is important in an action game. Unfortunately, it rarely reaches its performance target of 60 FPS, and without the option to cap the frame rate, it instead fluctuates regularly depending on the area you're in, whether you're moving the camera, or how busy the action gets. VRR in handheld mode does at least mitigate some of this, though I still found parts of the late-game devolving into a slideshow.

Despite a list of issues that feel stark when the experience of playing on PS5 Pro is still fresh, how then is Pragmata not a dealbreaker for me on Switch 2, where I didn't just roll credits but also completed a similar amount of optional challenges? I think it's because when it comes down to it, the moment-to-moment of its inspired hack-and-shooting gameplay is still just so fun to play. Even if you're losing certain fancy details, the fundamentals of the hacking grid, enemy types, or the various weapon and node pick-ups that influence your playstyle in each scenario are all still readable.

The fact that you have to momentarily stand your ground while performing a hack before you can shoot, with an interface that stays clear and responsive, makes this less of a twitchy action game, where inconsistent frame rates would have a worse impact. While there are unlockable training sim challenges that test your movement skills, I could complete them with perfect ranks just as I did on PS5, though that's probably also because these smaller, self-contained virtual environments are less visually demanding and thus easier to maintain stable performance.

The good bits

It also helps that the Switch 2's gyro controls mean you can aim without moving the right stick with your thumb, which would be occupied with the face buttons for navigating the hacking grid, and they work as you expect, rather than the awkward steering wheel configuration with the recent Resident Evil Switch 2 ports.

It should be noted that the PS5 version also supports motion controls, while the DualSense's haptics are much stronger than the Switch 2's underutilised HD rumble. Indeed, the only real exclusive Switch 2 feature to mention is Amiibo support, though this is a bit obsolete since the only compatible Amiibo is a larger and pricier one of Diana, which won't even be available until June (of course, it's already out of stock).

One other point that's also going to put off a completionist-minded player is that while you can earn achievements in Pragmata, on Switch 2, these don't translate beyond the game itself, since Nintendo hasn't implemented an achievements system that's linked to your account like PlayStation, Xbox or Steam. All the more reason that if I'm going to platinum Pragmata, it will likely be done on my PS5 Pro, yet I can easily see myself revisiting The Cradle to complete more of its challenges during my next train commute or flight. Heck, given how enamoured I am with Capcom's best game of 2026 so far, why not 100% both?