The overwhelming quality of the live scenes is also noteworthy!　Report on the experience of the game "Uma Musume Pretty Derby," which has finally been released.

The smartphone version of the game "Uma Musume Pretty Derby" was released on February 24, 2021. Prior to the release, an advance trial event was held for the media, and here are some impressions of the game.

Uma Musume Pretty Derby" is a cross-media content series developed by Cygames through games, anime, comics, etc. The story centers on the "Toresen Academy" where girls attend to compete for victory in the fictional "Twinkle Series," a racing competition in which Uma Musume, the inheritors of racehorses' names and spirits, compete against each other. The story centers on the "Toresen Academy," where the girls go to compete in the Twinkle Series, a fictional racing competition in which Uma Musume compete. In the story, the Uma Musume are based on real-life famous horses, and the names of races such as Satsuki-sho and Tennou-sho appear with their real names.

From January 2021, the TV anime "Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 2," which focuses on Tokai Teio and Mejiro McQueen, will be broadcast. The vivid ending of the first episode, in which Teio wins the Japan Derby, as well as the ensemble drama of Teio and the Uma Musume girls who work hard to overcome an accident in the second episode, have left a strong impression on viewers.

Unparalleled 3DCG quality and too much to play

Now, let me introduce the game "Uma Musume Pretty Derby". During our visit, we were able to try out the game for about two hours.

What you can get from the gacha are "training Umamusume" and "support cards. The main character in the training scenario is the "Nurturing Umamusume," and the training efficiency can be improved by building a deck with five support cards and one friend. Support cards with higher rarity often have more useful skills and support effects, and can be enhanced by raising their level. The Uma Musume that are included in the deck as support cards may also appear as events in the training story.

In this trial, we selected the 3 star "Silence Suzuka" from the gacha as our training Umamusume. In addition to the basic stats of speed, stamina, power, determination, and smarts, there are various other factors such as race aptitude and skills. With Suzuka, it is probably a good idea to increase her speed so that she can run faster than anyone else in the race.

Training is based on a turn-based system, in which each horsema-musume's status is raised through "training" and her achievements are accumulated by winning races and increasing her fan base. In each turn, events may occur according to the cards and support cards, allowing players to improve their stats while enjoying the story text.

In the basic "Training" section, you select the item you want to train from Speed, Stamina, Power, Nuts, and Wisdom, and if the Support Umamusume icon is displayed for each training, the training effect seems to increase according to the ability, level, and depth of the bond of the Support Card. Although there is some randomness in the training partners and the occurrence of events, it seems that training efficiency can be improved by creating a support deck that matches your strategy.

Having made some progress in training, I tried running in some races. During the race, the game is played automatically, so you have to trust the abilities and skills of the horses you have trained. After all, it is nice and simple to see Silence Suzuka run away from the pack and run across the finish line in first place. The presentation and tempo of the races are in line with real horse races, and the fact that the running Uma-Musume with horse ears and tails is running at the same tempo as a racehorse race is properly "pleasant," probably due to the considerable research that went into the presentation of their movements and running style.

During the race, the camera automatically switches between a pull-up camera that shows the entire race and a camera that shows the expressions on the Umamusume's faces. If you want to see only your Uma Musume running, you can switch camera angles.

Another element unique to Umamusume is the "Winning Live" that takes place after each race. In this live stage, the Uma Musume who participated in the race take the stage and sing and dance like idols. The winner of the race stands in the center of the stage.

It should be noted that the quality of the live performance of the Winning Live is unusually high.

In the game, all the Uma Musume that participated in the race appeared in the live performance. This is true even in the early races.

In other words, 3DCG models are provided for all Umamusume other than the playable ones, and up to 18 Umamusume sing and dance at the same time in the Winning Live.

Frankly, I was surprised that such a high level of quality was required for a racing game about training Uma Musume, but I could not help but marvel at the attention to detail and technical skill that went into it. If I had been allowed to do so, I would have liked to have watched the live race all the way through.

The basic concept of the Nurture Mode is to train your horsema-musume by repeating training, races and winning live, resting, and communicating with your horsema-musume, while clearing challenges. When you have finished training an Umamusume, she may leave behind "factors," some of which can be passed on to the next Umamusume to be trained. The skills and factors cannot be fully grasped in a short period of time, so the game seems to be quite challenging.

To sum up my impression of the game, the 3DCG models are very well done. The basic 3DCG modeling of the Uma Musume in daily conversations, events, races, and live performances are all of high quality. The quality and quantity of both the story, in which there are as many Uma Musume as there are Uma Musume, and the unfathomable level of challenge in the game as a training game are overwhelming. If I were to use a horse race analogy, it would be that a huge title is coming at you from the outside in the final laps of the race. I highly recommend that you give this game a try.

(Reporting and writing by Kiri Nakazato)

Game Outline

Title: Uma Musume Pretty Derby

Distribution start: February 24, 2021 (Wednesday) *Only for iOS/Android

Development and operation: Cygames, Inc.

Compatible devices: iOS/Android/PC

Screenshots are from the game under development.