During the 2026 Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (CEDEC), Capcom animation department members Kenji Irie and Serina Ohara shared an interesting behind-the-scenes detail about Pragmata, revealing that Diana’s iconic hairstyle almost looked very different in the final game.
According to a report from Automaton-Media, citing Famitsu, the pair presented a case study on the development of the game’s character models, with a particular focus on facial expressions and hair animation. While Diana sports hair nearly as long as her height in the finished game, Capcom originally considered giving her a much shorter hairstyle in order to reduce development costs.
Unlike many games that use hair cards – flat polygons with hair textures – Pragmata renders individual strands of hair. The developers explained that using hair cards would have required just 22 animation joints for Diana’s hair, while animating individual strands resulted in roughly 430,000 animation points.
Because of this, the cost of producing, simulating, and processing Diana’s long hair was expected to be significantly higher. During the concept art stage, the team discussed shortening her hairstyle to a bob cut, and Capcom even created a prototype model to see if doing so would help reduce development costs.
Ultimately, the developers decided that Diana’s long blonde hair was important for conveying “a sense of life on the Moon” while also reinforcing her role as a young girl caught up in an adventure she was not prepared for. Since players spend much of the game looking at the back of Diana’s head, the team also felt that the movement of her long hair would help keep the visuals interesting throughout the experience.
Although the average person has around 100,000 hairs, Diana’s model contains fewer than 20,000 individually rendered strands. These were carefully adjusted to create a more natural look while matching the character’s outgoing and occasionally eccentric personality.
Pragmata is available now on Nintendo Switch 2. The game has been well received by both critics and players, and Capcom has already said that, given its success, it would consider developing a sequel. You can read more about that here.
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