The Racers That Never Give Up! An Umamusume: Pretty Derby Analysis

Pre-Race Preparations

First those who know me and those who don't, my name is Celia! I am many things! Pokemon trainer! Trailblazer! Dungeon Master and more! But for these few moments of your time, I'm the gacha fiend and Horse Trainer.

My experience with gacha games goes far back into my childhood, indulging in what was at the time, unregulated and predatory practices in mobile gaming. The gacha that I was once a hard victim of was called Ayakashi: Ghost Guild, and while the industry has come a long way to be more f2p friendly and transparent with pull rates and the like, we used to be in the "wild west" of mobile games and monetization. Could even go further back in time, if you consider my 6-year old addiction to Pokemon and YuGiOh cards.

That being said, in a golden age of gacha games, where it's hard to break out into the scene and survive against the titans that are Genshin Impact, Fate/Grand Order, Wuthering Waves, Love and Deep Space, Arknights, and so many more; a simple, charming and cute anime horse racing game got a global release and stole the hearts of so many players; myself included.

My lovely readers and fellow gacha enthusiasts. Please join me as I gallop into the cute, tearjerking and inspiring world of Umamusume: Pretty Derby!

On Your Mark! Get Set! Go!

I'll be the first to say I wasn't the most interested in playing this release. With my hobby time already consumed by Honkai:Star Rail, Nightreign, and the newly released Persona 5: The Phantom; what could "another" anime girl gacha game tied to an IP I have no attachment to offer me?

There was my first mistake, being dismissive. After talking to a friend quite often about it, and watching my (lovely) wife play it, I gaslit myself into thinking that I was missing out. So I downloaded it, played the opening tutorial, got to my first actual race!.....and that was all I needed.

At the time of writing this, I've had it installed for 7 days. In those 7 days, I have logged in 40 hours of gameplay.

On average, I spend almost 6 hours a day racing horses! 6 hours! >.<

Despite its lengthy reading requirement and lack of explanation on complex features; this game reigned me in and hasn't let go yet!

Hurdles and Corners!

Speaking of Pretty Derby's flaws; I'd like to highlight those now.

While this game is pretty entry friendly and gets you into the groove of things pretty fast; it does a poor job explaining its actual progression systems. Each of your students (horses) has racing style preferences, strategies, terrain specialties, personal skills, stat growths, affinities with other students, passives, inheritable skills, moods, unlock trees, and more! All of which determine your race success, the students personal growth as a playable unit, and your ability to handcraft their skill set to slot into teams for PvP! Not to mention Support event cards which also have their own unique effects on students; all of which is poorly explained and it leaves you scouring the internet for answers, or just trial and erroring your way to progress. Which in a time-gated stamina game, is not always a feels great. Even now there are a handful of systems that do things, and I know what they do, but not HOW or WHY they are doing said things.

Pretty Derby also takes a rougelite approach to progression. In career mode you select a student to train and help them achieve their goals in their own personal storyline. Achieving these goals allows further progression into their run and yields higher stats for the student, while failing a goal ends their career and you have to accept whatever progress your student made as their new stats.

The issue is that progression doesn't carry over, you start every run fresh, and sometimes the RNG gods just decide you lose, or don't get the passive you want, and you are left feeling like you wasted time and didn't actually progress at all. Minimizing RNG is the name of the game here, and while minimizing risk and maximizing reward is in a sense a skill expression of game knowledge; sometimes no amount of game knowledge can prevent you from just outright losing and feeling discouraged.

Pretty Derby has a steep learning curve with a lot to take think about. It's not an idle game or auto-battler, so please keep that in mind since your experience with this gacha can affected by your approach to it.

Final Stretch

Even with its flaws and my personal frustrations with some of its mechanics, I love this game dearly. It's taken over my life so much that my other hobbies and gachas are suffering for it.

If there is one thing I can give Unamausume: Pretty Derby props for it's that it gives back what you put into it.

The game is generous with pulls given it's still in its launch celebration event and the free group of units/horses/students the games gives you aren't fodder. They are all unique, viable, and have their own personal story waiting to be told, and you would be missing out on so much of this game's heart by just fast-forwarding and cutscene skipping everything. When I launched this for the first time and scouted out who my favorite characters would be, I never thought I'd end up rooting for every single one of my girls. Even if their personalities aren't something I'd typically be drawn to, the charm each of them exude all make them feel like the main character, and you're their best friend and trainer.

Going through each student's story, pushing further and further in to see more, and watching the races in their entirety is a feeling of joy I haven't experienced in awhile. Watching your and theirs hard work come to fruition in real time and getting excited when they clutch out a win on the last lap is so hype and warms my heart.

Getting my first championship win, and reading the visual novel-esq epilogue is something still fresh in my mind.

If I've ever felt proud of a fictional character, this was it.

A Race To Remember

Umamausume: Pretty Derby is more than just a log-in gacha game for me; it's a reminder to always be better, push further, cherish those around me, and use my inspiration to help others achieve similar goals. I believe non-even-hidden in this "anime gacha game" about horse racing and waifus is a deep message about personal growth and embracing ones true potential; all without having crusty writing and sexualizing these high-school students.

Thank you for taking your time today and indulging me in this mini-blog review, it means a lot! And in this busy race of life, whether you come first, second, middle of the pack, or trail behind everyone else, there's always tomorrow and people who believe in you. You have my support. Till next time, I've been Celia, and see you on the track~