Platform(s): iOS (version reviewed), PC, Android
Genre: Management, Horse Girl Racing, Visual Novel, Anime Girls But With Horse Ears & Tails

In 2021, Japan was blessed with a free-to-play gacha game unlike any other courtesy of developer/publisher Cygames: Umamusume. It’s a title where you manage racers, go through their backstory and hopes/dreams in visual novel form, and have them competing for podium finishes (in AI-driven races) and getting fans.

The kicker? The world you’re in does not have horses, but instead horse girls. No, not centaurs: anime girls with horse ears, horse tails, and super strong legs made for running super-fast and on race tracks and derbies. Oh, and the winner has to put on an idol show and sing alongside the other racers. A bizarre mish-mash, yes, but one that gels with Japan and funding Cygames with new horse girls and support cards that help boost their abilities and learning prowess when training.

Fast forward to now, and we have a global English version of Umamusume: Pretty Derby. Being a person who has gained culture and insight into gacha games -I worked in one prominent company way, way before Kakuchopurei happened-  I am obligated to see what the fuss is about. My colleagues and peers have played the Japanese version years ago, so now it’s my turn to see what the fuss is about.

As it turns out, it’s a helluva rabbit hole. Or rather, a hoofprint so deep it’s gonna be hard not to be enamoured.

Umamusume-ing Around (Since Horses Don’t Exist In This Alternate Universe)

As mentioned above, Umamusume: Pretty Derby puts you in the shoes of trainers who has to train umamusumes and have them race in prestigious derbies & high-tier racing tournaments to be the best. When you start for real (after the heavily-led-by-the-hand tutorial that’s part and parcel with any free-to-play game), you pick your main trainee/umamusume to tackle Career mode, then select Legacy umamusumes so your main girl can inherit their skills. After that, you pick support skills so that one of their many aspects of stats training gets better.

From there on, you tell your anime horse girls what to train in (Speed, Stamina, and so forth), go through their life at the horse girl racing academy, manage the energy meter they have so that they get proper rest and not get overworked, then get them to race for real in the many tracks and tournaments. You also get a bunch of mandatory goals to accomplish: recruit X number of fans, participate in races, place podium finishes (or first place) in higher-tier circuits, all that jazz.

Fail to do so under the allocated deadline, and your horse girl’s career ends. If you make it to the URA main race after completing all 16+ goals, you get an ending and also cap off her career. After that, you rinse and repeat this with another horse girl (or even the same one). In some aspects, it’s a brighter version of a roguelite not unlike Darkest Dungeons or Hades, only with less action prompts and more visual novel-reading and spectacle-watching.

And you will appreciate said spectacle; Umamusume: Pretty Derby’s presentation and audio are stellar even for a game that’s been around in Japan for a long while. The game has aged gracefully due to its cohesive art style and design; the horse girls are different enough and have their own hopes and dreams alongside their quirks. You have loveable underdogs like Haru Urara, shy-but-determined types like Silence Suzuka, reigning queen-in-training like Symboli Rudolph, and charismatic oddballs like Gold Ship whose victory screen has her dropkicking you in the face out of love. The races themselves are stellar to watch; you can’t help but root for your favourite horse girls to get the glory in hopes of their special anime skills they earn from training manifest themselves.

In fact, my only huge gripe in this clearly-focused management sim-slash-visual novel offering is the random nature of events and races. Depending on your luck, you may either get huge bonuses from resting or even strike out ability-wise in premiere races. Fortunately, there are a few tools like rewinding clocks to help you redo races if luck isn’t on your side. Still, your horse girl’s careers can end abruptly if you don’t mix up your tactics and placements during races, or choose to upgrade the wrong stat, leading to tons of replays and experimentation on your side.

The mobile versions on iOS and Android are played through portrait form, while the PC version has two screens set up: the gameplay and visual novel bits on the left and menu on the right. I’ve only played this game mostly through my iPhone, while running the PC version for a few hours. Based on its setup and less-than-intensive requirements, it’s the perfect side game to have running while playing another title once you’re done with most of the horse girls’ storylines and are just farming for stat boosts and legacy equips for future career runs.

Pale Rider

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a really unique game with a familiar style of gameplay made anew with its subject matter: horse girls and the grit they go through to race to the top. It’s stylized and wears it well, it has simple yet engrossing gameplay revolving around management and training like your sport sim games (but arguably more colourful), and it has a solid PC port worth bragging about.

Granted, its premise can be hard to swallow: horse girls based after real-life race horses in derbies, with the winner doing an idol song-and-dance for the crowd sounds friggin’ insane. And yet Cygames took a huge chance and made it work. The accompanying anime shows and the recent Netflix Umamusume series do help ground the game concept further, but Umamusume: Pretty Derby stands on its own two horseshoe-powered feet to charm the pants off whoever is interested in an anime concept management game.

Long story short: don’t even think about condemning this star runner to the glue factory like most judgmental folks. This steed’s a clear winner in the video game F2P pony show. Just make sure Lady Luck be kind to you; the RNG can get brutal at times.

Pros

• Unique premise.
• Simple-yet-engrossing management sim elements & gameplay.
• Amazing presentation, with engrossing umamusume stories to unfold.

Cons

• Way too dependent on luck for races and visual novel bonuses.

Final Score: 80/100