Umamusume: Pretty Derby Review

Introduction

I need to be honest with you upfront: the pitch for Umamusume: Pretty Derby sounds absurd. You train anthropomorphic horse girls who are also idol singers and race them on a track while managing their academic life at Tracen Academy. If you just closed this tab, I understand. But if you stayed, I'm about to tell you why this ridiculous premise hides one of the most compulsively playable mobile games I've touched in years. Winner of Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2025 and boasting a 92% positive review rate on Steam, Pretty Derby's English release in June 2025 brought a Japanese cultural phenomenon to the West, and it deserves your attention even if the concept makes you raise an eyebrow.

Gameplay & Mechanics

At its core, Pretty Derby is a sports management roguelite disguised as a gacha game. The Career Mode is where you'll spend most of your time, and it works like this: you pick a horse girl, called an Uma, and train her across a three-year in-game period spanning 72 turns. Each turn represents a month where you choose training activities to develop five stats: Speed, Stamina, Power, Guts, and Wisdom. You slot six Support Cards that influence training bonuses, participate in mandatory races with placement goals, and unlock racing skills through a skill point system.

The strategic depth here caught me off guard. You can't just mindlessly pump Speed and call it a day. A Uma without enough Stamina will gas out in longer races. Neglecting Guts means she'll fold under pressure in the final stretch. Wisdom affects her ability to position correctly on the track. Each Uma has different aptitudes and preferred race distances, so your training approach needs to adapt. Three "Alarm Clocks" per run let you redo failed races, adding a safety net that respects your time without removing all tension.

The racing itself plays out automatically based on your training decisions, equipped skills, and some RNG. Watching T.M. Opera O claw her way from dead last to first place in a nail-biting final stretch had me jumping out of my chair. It's the payoff for all those careful training decisions, and when it works, the dopamine hit is massive. When RNG decides that bad weather tanks your training or a rival Uma shows up with inflated stats, though, the frustration is equally real. The roguelite structure means failed runs aren't wasted, you learn what works, but losing a promising Uma to a string of bad luck in month 68 of 72 stings badly.

The gacha system operates on a 3% SSR rate for both Uma and Support Card banners, with a 200-pull pity system. For casual play, the game is generous enough that you'll have fun without spending. For competitive PvP, though, the whales reign supreme. A full pity run costs roughly $420 worth of premium currency, which prices most people out of top-tier competitive play.

Graphics & Performance

Visually, Pretty Derby is gorgeous for a mobile game. The character designs are meticulously crafted, each Uma referencing a real Japanese racehorse with subtle visual nods that fans of the sport will appreciate. Special Weeks, Mejiro McQueen, Rice Shower: they're all visually distinct with personality radiating from their designs. The idol concert sequences that play after successful race campaigns are lavishly animated, with choreography and camera work that rival dedicated rhythm games.

On mobile, the game runs smoothly and looks great. The Steam port, however, feels like an afterthought. The game displays in a vertical window with chat logs crammed alongside, screaming that this was designed for phones first and ported to PC as a concession. It works, but it's not elegant. Frame rates are stable enough, but load times between screens can drag on older devices.

The race animations themselves deserve praise. Camera angles shift dynamically, crowd reactions feel organic, and the final stretch of a close race has a cinematic quality that elevates what could have been a simple stat comparison into something exciting to watch.

Story & Narrative

Here's where Pretty Derby blindsided me. I expected throwaway anime dialogue. Instead, I got Rice Shower's arc, a story about an Uma so desperate to win that she pushes herself to breaking, told with such sincerity that it hit me harder than most AAA game narratives. Mejiro McQueen's leadership struggles, the weight of expectation on legacy Umas, the camaraderie between rivals: these stories work because they treat their characters with genuine respect despite the absurd framing.

The main story unfolds through chapter-based narratives focusing on different Umas, while individual character stories unlock through bond levels. They're structured as slice-of-life sports dramas, grounded and earnest rather than lore-heavy or convoluted. Not every story lands; some of the supporting cast get generic "I want to do my best" arcs. But the highs are legitimately moving, and the commitment to exploring what competition means to these characters elevates the entire experience.

You don't need to know anything about Japanese horse racing to enjoy the stories, though fans of the sport will find an extra layer of appreciation in how faithfully each Uma's personality mirrors their real-world counterpart's racing history. The game handles its premise with a sincerity that's disarming. It never winks at the audience about the absurdity. It simply tells sports stories about characters who happen to be horse girls, and by committing fully to that tone, it earns emotional beats that would collapse under ironic distance.

Audio & Soundtrack

The soundtrack is a certified earworm factory. Tracks like "Go This Way" are infectiously energetic, blending idol pop with orchestral racing arrangements that somehow work perfectly. I've had the music on loop for hours while working, which is something I can say about very few mobile game soundtracks. The concert sequences pair the music with choreography that makes you feel like you've earned a reward for your training efforts.

Voice acting is fully Japanese with English subtitles, and the cast delivers strong performances across the board. Each Uma has distinct vocal personality that comes through in training dialogue and race commentary. The bubbly aesthetic of the audio design won't be for everyone; if idol-influenced J-pop grates on you, the soundtrack will wear thin fast. But for those who click with it, this is one of the best-sounding mobile games on the market.

Value & Replayability

Pretty Derby is free-to-play, and the early game is remarkably generous with premium currency. You'll pull enough SSR Umas and Support Cards to field a competitive roster without spending a cent. The roguelite structure of Career Mode provides natural replayability; each Uma requires different training approaches, and optimizing your runs scratches a similar itch to games like Slay the Spire where you're constantly refining your strategy.

The problem is repetition. By your sixth or seventh full Career Mode run, the training sequences feel mechanical. Dialogue repeats, random events cycle, and the novelty of watching races fades once you've seen the same camera angles dozens of times. PvP is where the endgame lives, but as mentioned, competitive brackets heavily favor paying players. If you treat Pretty Derby as a single-player sports drama with a roguelite training mode, you'll get dozens of hours of enjoyment. If you're chasing PvP rankings, prepare your wallet or your patience.

The recent film adaptation, "Beginning of a New Era," hitting North American theaters in February 2026, has brought renewed attention to the franchise. Whether Cygames can translate that interest into sustained Western engagement remains to be seen.

Final Verdict

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is the best argument I've seen for not judging a game by its premise. Beneath the horse girls and idol concerts lies a sharp sports management roguelite with genuine emotional depth and one of the most addictive training loops on mobile. Cygames treated the Western release with care, and the result is a game that transcends its niche origins. The gacha model and repetition issues are real concerns, but the core experience is strong enough to justify the time investment even as a free-to-play player. Just be prepared to explain to your friends why you're cheering for an anime horse girl named Special Week at two in the morning.

Buy if: You enjoy sports management games, don't mind gacha mechanics, and want a mobile game with surprising narrative depth and an incredible soundtrack.

Skip if: You can't stomach anime aesthetics, need competitive fairness without spending, or want a game that respects your time after the thirtieth training run.