Uma Musume: Pretty Derby

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is a popular casual simulation game where players acquire different Uma Musumes and various volunteer cards through a lottery system. Players then train their Uma Musumes in turn-based modes over two weeks to improve their five attributes. Based on the different racehorse girls' preferred terrain and running styles, players participate in various races to win victories and earn rich rewards, continuously nurturing their favorite Uma Musumes. The game also provides a series of entertainment activities to maintain the Uma Musumes' mentality and training status, leading to better performance in races. Various random events await players to trigger, granting additional attribute bonuses and adding to the game's fun. The game is currently undergoing continuous updates and optimizations, with more new Uma Musumes and gameplay features to be released soon. Players can look forward to it!

Gameplay:

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is a sports simulation game that allows players, who are referred to in-game as "trainers", to raise and train Umamusume to compete in races whilst achieving the Umamusume's individual goals. Players collect two types of units through the game's gacha system: playable Umamusume or "trainees," and support cards that provide skills and bonuses.

The main gameplay mode, "Career," lets players choose a scenario, trainee, and support cards, then work to achieve specific goals. Players must also factor in the trainee's preferred terrain type, track distance, and running style in order to perform well. The game operates on a calendar system, with each action or turn taking up half a month, requiring strategic planning and balancing of the actions to be taken.

The calendar used is based on the real-life JRA's race schedule, with the races that players can enter being based on their real-life equivalents, such as the Japan Cup or the Arima Kinen. Succeeding scenarios would also allow players to enter international races, notably the French Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and the American Breeders' Cup.

Players use turns to raise their trainee's five attributes (speed, stamina, power, guts, and wit), rest to restore energy, enter races to earn skill points and fans, infirmary to cure a negative condition, and recreation to raise the trainee's mood, which affects training effectiveness and race performance. Additionally, random events can occur during a Career attempt that may grant additional stats, skills, and buffs or debuffs, as well as positively or negatively impact the mood.

Completing or failing a trainee's goals, as well as reaching certain stat totals and acquiring skills, grants stats and potential skills known as "sparks". These can be passed down to trainees as "legacies," allowing them to inherit these and be strengthened in future Career attempts.

Alongside the Career, players can also partake in other game modes, including the PvP "Team Trials" and "Champion's Meeting" races, where players use their best trainees and compete against each other in a set of races for various rewards, and "Legend Races," where players race against notable Umamusume to gain rewards and upgrade their trainees.

Features:

Train and Guide Your Runners: Step into the shoes of a trainer and help each Umamusume girl aim for greatness. Shape their routines, work on their strengths, and decide what’s best for their future victories—it all comes down to your guidance.

Meet Over 20 Distinct Characters: From Special Week to Tokai Teio and Gold Ship, there’s a huge lineup of Umamusume to discover. Each star has her own story, quirks, and ambitions. Pick your favorites and bond with them as you guide them toward victory.

Heartfelt Stories and Rivalries: These aren’t your typical athletes—every Umamusume has a past, dreams, and friends to support or outpace. The stories feel earnest, sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and always engaging as you push toward championship glory.

Dynamic Races and Live Commentary: Join races where up to 18 Umamusume dash for the finish, all set to lively, realistic commentary that pulls you right into the action. You’ll want to leave the volume up for the full effect.

Strategic Team Building: It’s not just about speed—you’ll scout supporters, fine-tune teams, and plan training sessions to give your chosen stars the best shot at success. Every win is a result of smart thinking (and maybe a little luck).

Dazzling Post-Race Performances: After the races, stick around for show-stopping concerts celebrating the winners. The stage scenes are every bit as lively as the races, bringing your favorite characters and their big personalities even closer.

Useful Tips:

During the first year, your number 1 priority is building friendship with your support cards. When choosing a training option, check the top right of the screen, it shows which support cards are currently linked to that training. Focus on the ones where your supports are gathered to raise their bond faster.

Once a support card reaches 80% friendship (orange), they’ll start showing up with a rainbow border, that means they can enter a "friendship training" with you, which gives a huge boost to your stat gains. By the third year, if you’ve built up everyone’s bond properly, you’ll start getting more stats in a single year than you did in the first two combined.

Resting is the least efficient action in the game, so you should avoid it as much as possible. During events, always pick options that restore energy. For example, there’s a recurring event where your Umamusume asks whether she should train a bit more or take a break, always choose the option to rest (unless your energy is already full). It saves you from having to waste a turn on resting later.

Each training type starts at level 1 and the director will level them up if you choose the same training plan many times (I think it's 4 times to get 1 level up). But during the training camp in July and August of the 2nd and 3rd year, all your training options will automatically be boosted to level 5. That’s why it’s super important to start summer with full energy, don’t go in tired. Since four trainings in a row will drain your stamina, it’s a good idea to make one of those turns a WIT training.

At the start of every January, there’s a New Year event where you spend time with your Umamusume. One of the choices (second choice in Year 2 and first choice in Year 3) will restore your energy. So unlike the summer training camp, you should enter the new year with mid/low energy. In addition to the new year event, there's a lottery event at the end of January which will also restore your energy and mood if you're lucky.

Try to do as many G1 races as possible. Racing give you skill points but also fans. When you reach a certain amount of fans, your unique skill will level up (60k before Feb Year 3, 70k before April Year 3, 120k before Dec Year 3).

The global version doesn't have the race planning feature yet, so you should go on gametora, filter the terrain, distance and select G1. For example for Turf + Mile, I know I have nine potential G1 races to do. Find the right balance between training for attribute points and racing for skill points.

Write down or look up events (also on gametora using their event viewer tool) for your favorite Umamusume and plan for them! For example, I know that Daiwa Scarlet will have a mood down event so I keep one date with my Tazuna support for that (Tazuna SSR support card give you 5 date events that restore energy and mood without resting)

Player Comments:

Good game the game design and the game play is excellent but I only struggle with the language so I hope in the future u guys would add a language settings so that people who have difficulty in reading Chinese wouldn't have a hard time playing this game tnx.

Umamusume Party Dash is a nice breather from the original game. This party game has a lot faster of a pace than others, which both suits the racehorse aspect, and doesn't lock you into a game for the next hour. And even with the short time, the variety it has inside the games helps it feel less static. Not to mention Golshi's Grand Adventure 2. For a minigame, it manages to kill time...but with Gold Ship. It isn't without its flaws though. The Club Room, even with the amount of decor it gives you, only allows for two orientations of said decor. The art style is nice, but the pixel sizes between certain objects don't line up. And of course, let's address the Hishi Akebono in the room, the price tag. I do not recommend buying this at full price. While it is fun, it is not $60 for game and all DLCs fun. However, there are sales that allow for you to buy it at about a third of the price.

Greetings, friend. I see you've shown interest in the wonderful world of uma musume. This little party game is but a small part of a large multimedia franchise. Now I know the concept of anthropomorphic idol horses sounds silly on paper but the series has surprised many with its depth. The stories adapted in the main entries are those of real life race horses with 1 to 1 recreations of their races, so if you'd like to get into a sports series without anime BS I wholeheartedly recommend it. So far we have three season of TV anime, the second of which took Japan by a storm and dethroned Evangelion as the best selling TV anime of all time. Besides those we also have Road to the Top which is a top notch ONA you can watch on youtube for free, the Cinderella Gray manga which has stunning artwork and is getting an anime adaptation next year, the lovely Star Blossom manga, multiple seasons of chibi sho- HEY WHY ARE YOU RUNNING I HAVEN'T TOLD YOU ABOUT THE CUTE LITTLE FOOD-ORIENTED SPINOFF MANGA YET.

This comes from a huge Kunio-kun guy who knew next to nothing about Umamusume, but this game is essentially a different take on Downtown Nekketsu March: Super Awesome Field Day for the Famicom (+ it's two remakes on the DS & PS3 respectively). You pick a team and compete against 3 other teams in a series of minigames that take sports to more of an extreme. That's not to say that's a negative, as the game isn't entirely hiding the fact this is like Kunio-kun and includes some cameos or references to the series (+ the fact Arc Sys are the current rightholders to the IP).Three out of the four events are drawn from previous Kunio games with racing coming from Field Day's cross country event, dodgeball coming from the 4 player beanball mode in the Famicom version of Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club (Super Dodge Ball on the NES), and basketball coming from Nekketsu Street Basketball All-Out Dunk Heroes. The eating contest is an original event. While these are all simplified and are less violent than their Kunio counterparts, I think they offer an interesting spin on these and overall were pretty fun.Definite game I can see working as something to pop in and play with a group of friends, though the base price of the game is pretty damn expensive, so unless you're a fan of Umamusume then I'd probably suggest picking it up on a sale.

FAQs:

Q. The carats I purchased aren't being displayed.

A. If your in-app purchases aren't being displayed in game, please try restarting your device.In the event that the purchasing platform (Apple, Google, Steam, etc.) is experiencing connection issues, there may be a delay between making the in-app purchase and the purchase being displayed in-game.

Q. When does the age-based monthly purchase limit reset?

A. The purchase limit resets at 10:00 p.m. (UTC) on the first of each month.

Q. I want to change my purchase limit / registered date of birth.

A. Your date of birth is registered upon making your first in-app purchase and cannot be changed, even upon making an inquiry. Please ensure you register your date of birth correctly.

Q. Can you tell me how much was refunded?

A. We are unable to provide individual information regarding the amount and nature of in-app purchases. Please inquire with the platform used to make the transaction.

Q. I received a warning. Will my account be restricted?

A. If an account is associated with repeated refunds (purchase cancellations) from the platform resulting in unpaid charges for paid carats, a carat purchase restriction may be imposed upon the account.This applies to the account even if the original owner was not the one who requested the refunds. Examples of such cases include real money trading and/or gameplay proxy services.

Q. If I change my device to one with a different OS, will I be able to keep my game data?

A. Yes. If you have linked your game data, you will be able to retain your progress on the new device and/or OS.However, in the event that you have not linked your game data before switching devices, you will be unable to continue on your new device. We recommend that you double-check whether you have linked your game data before switching devices.

Conclusion:

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby is suitable for fans of anime-style games, simulation lovers, and anyone who enjoys strategic management titles. It is especially appealing to players who like building relationships with characters and watching them succeed in both sports and personal growth. For those who appreciate racing excitement wrapped in storytelling and character drama, it offers a unique blend that few other mobile games deliver.