I'm giving it 5 stars, but read my review.

Been playing this since its release 12 hours ago. Can't get into it tbh. It has great potential, but this is one of those games where you gotta dedicate your time to this game and nothing else. If you play other mobile apps, then this game isn't for you. I'm just being honest. There's so much content to this game which is GREAT! but if you're playing other games on your phone, it's just gonna get confusing for the player. If you're gonna download this game and play it, you better make sure this is the only game you're committing your time too. I play 2 other games on my phone and I clearly wanted to add Umamusume to my mobile gaming collection. Tried it for 12-13 hours stayed up all night to see if I can make something from it. Maybe if I wasn't playing my other 2 app games, I think I would've honestly enjoyed this game 100% without being confused to what stats do what to each girl on this game.

I still love the game, but there are some tweaks that need to be done

I started playing the moment it finally premiered, though I learned a hard way to try to train with what you have before you try and train the other Uma’s. But now I’m really enjoying it. The only problem is it seems like like there’s a bug or something every time when I’m in the middle of something doing career training or it’s sometimes connecting and other times it says to retry or go back screen can you fix that? It looks like you’ve got more bugs to fix again. I still sometimes have trouble when it takes a little while to connect or sometimes I have to re-try again or return me to the title, but what is with the stars pieces shop with the trainees. why do you only sell the star piece of the current trains we have why not sell the store piece of the trainers we don’t have so I can earn enough star pieces of the trainees we don’t have like I burn a few star pieces of the previous trainees from events, but I need more to unlock the new trainee and how can I if you don’t sell them and I have to wait for another event to earn more? Could you please update the star pieces area shops on the game, please? At least on the Star pieces shop.

Good game

Ok I play a lot of gacha games like Arknights, Fate Grand Order, and others. This game is fun to play and don’t get me wrong it’s addictive to play. The game gacha rate is 3% for a SSR which is good but the games uses the old gacha game pity which is after 200 pulls you exchange for the unit. As I have been playing since launch. I tested the gacha system and made alternate accounts. My gacha results were decent to say the least not great. Ngl I feel like I was summoning on FGO the whole time as the 3% for SSR doesn’t feel like 3% more like 1%. But that is probably just my luck mostly. Out of 5 accounts I made to test the Gacha. Out of the 5 accounts only 1 had SSR from the Gacha. Each account I did 4 tens pull. Yeah gacha system I don’t think it great. As the gacha animations to tell you got something good or decent is hard to notice. The game gives you a lot of free rewards at first and it slows down to pretty much nothing. The will give out a lot free rewards because the game just launch but after that we will see. This game is great and has a lot of potential to be awesome. I just hope they put in more gacha animations to know if we got something good like Dragon Ball Legends.

Super Fun and Charming

My best friend got me into the series through “Cinderella Gray” (great sports anime if you haven’t seen, also free on YT right now), and I’ve been hooked ever since. I just finished my very first URA Final and managed to win with Oguri Cap and won thanks to him coaching me. This game really gets you into a rhythm, endears you to these characters and then before you know it you can’t put the game down. It does have a slight learning curve and what the stats do a what you should specialize in for each Uma could be a bit more clear, if I didn’t have my buddy with me I might not have been able to win on my own. But if you look up a guide, some recommended support cards you should be good to go no matter what Uma you choose to train. Find a friend with Kitasan Black or wait until she comes around on rate up again and you’ll be golden. Most of all have fun and choose whichever Uma you think is coolest.

Either too random or very unbalanced.

I played Umamusume for over 16 hours across two days. That’s a lot of time! I want to like it, but Umamusume either doesn’t give value for my time/money, has too much randomness, and/or has a big balance issue between SSR cards. The gameplay loop is repetitive & roguelike with a lot of decision making about statistics. After 16 hours of gameplay, supplemented with online researching statistics and $200: my account with at least 2 SSR cards could not complete a finale race. I decided to make a second account and reroll for the holy grail SSR card “Fine Motion” which took maybe 10 minutes. The second account’s first ever career run 100% completed the finale with just that 1 SSR and 5 other level 1-30 cards. This means either the game has too much career/race randomness that negates competent decision making or a huge imbalance between SSR cards strength. And I have never played a game where you spend $200 on transactions and feel like your account gained no net strength or progression until Umamusume. I wish I never spent money on the game and just wait until my second account.

Demotivation over time after playing for around 2 months

Everything comes and goes fast in this game. It’s like they don’t give players time. It wasn’t as much of an issue at the start since the game was generally fun, but when it got a lot more repetitive I could see why the global version pales in comparison to the Japanese version. The game feels too incomplete. The runs feel like they drag on for hours. As somebody with a life, I just can’t do these runs consistently anymore because my vacation is already over. Don’t get me started on the luck system in the game. The pity doesn’t carry over to future updates as they will just get reverted. QoL is lacking. Etc. I am not going to sit here on my phone mindlessly typing all the negative things about the game in its current state, but I wish you the best of luck to anyone who reads this. Hopefully my opinion helps you to decide whether or not the game is worth playing and spending your valuable time on. I’d still recommend the game to try out as it’s an interesting concept that’s trending at the moment.

Its fun I guess

Its obviously a shameless, anime coated gacha with the rest of them with a very good gameplay loop. The game is in its “geneorus phase” which comes with any gacha game good or bad. Plenty of predatory gimmicks: bar that decides how often you get to play with the horses you bought with a premium currency you can use for more plays, premium currency with a confusing exchange rate, and worst of all gameplay RNG. Thats right! Your horse that just won a G1 race? Theyre going to lose a G3 because the game just gave a win away to some horse with low stats and no skills and it will happen CONSTANTLY. Why? Because they need to sell those replays baby! They give you like 100 of them so you get addicted to using them so when you inevitably run out you either lose your run and start over or you start forking over money. Why else would a horse bounce from third to fifth to first on three runs of the same race? They’re not slick. The game is NOT skill based and I cannot be convinced otherwise.

Worst management team

Treats players very poorly, much worse than any other game release (JP or global) that I've played. You can't earn many jewels. During holidays they give substantial rewards to JP players but not global players - we got literally nothing for Christmas or new years. Didn't even get the basic festive decorations that JP had, which is shocking. They put global on an accelerated schedule, giving us little time to get limited characters, but then the "meta" characters we paid for are quickly outdated. 2 of the 3 recent gachas (or scouts) I've pulled required me to hit the ceiling of 200 pulls. 10 pulls costs $20 (since there are barely any opportunities to earn jewels, you must pay up) and that very quickly adds up to an insane number when you NEED to have 4-5 copies of a support card for it to be usable. We're still missing promised QOL updates that other releases got. The RNG is awful because it's based on your account and device/installation. The release timing was bad and every decision following that has been bad. The translators significantly change what characters are saying and often remove cultural references. They also removed all mentions of Christmas in the global release, which is a global holiday, not a Japanese one. There are more issues that I can't fit. If you want to play Umamusume, play the Japanese release. Then you won't be constantly mistreated. It's amazing how they managed to mishandle a game this much.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby has led me to consider the death of a horse I have never met, and there is a certain profundity in this.

Rock Paper Shotgun Tue Oct 14 2025

Even before its worldwide release, Umamusume was already a best-seller in Japan and Asia, making over $2.4 billion dollars between its initial...

AUTOMATON Tue Oct 14 2025

Some folks may call the game 'PEAK'... well, peak gaming. But that reign is about to end, as 'Umamusume: Pretty Derby' has just launched.

VICE Thu Aug 28 2025

A list of do's and dont's for players wanting to get the most out of their first days playing Umamusume: Pretty Derby.

Sports Illustrated Sun Sep 28 2025

TOKYO — April 28, 2025 — Video game publisher and developer Cygames, Inc. (HQ: Shibuya, Tokyo; President: Koichi Watanabe,...

Games Press Sat Jun 28 2025

Cygames has announced that the English version of its game "Umamusume: Pretty Derby" will be released on iOS, Android, and Steam on June 26,...

QooApp Sat Jun 28 2025

Check out Gameplay below! TOKYO — June 26, 2025 — Video game publisher and developer Cygames, Inc. (HQ: Shibuya, Tokyo; President: Koichi...

Capsule Computers Thu Aug 28 2025

Cygames, Inc. has officially opened pre-registration for the English version of Umamusume: Pretty Derby. This long-awaited simulation game.

COGconnected Sat Jun 28 2025

Cygames, Inc. announced the latest information regarding "Uma Musume Pretty Derby" (hereafter, "Uma Musume"), including a new Uma Musume,...

Saiga NAK Mon Jul 28 2025

Esports News: Umamusume: Pretty Derby, a blend of idol culture, horse racing, and gacha mechanics, has exploded globally, becoming 2025's...

Times of India Sun Sep 28 2025