Published: 23 Mar 2026
- Develop and Published by: Cygames
- Released on: 2021 (JP), 2025 (Worldwide)
- Genre: Gacha, Raising Sim, Sports
- Rating: 3/5
Umamusume was definitely a viral sensation back when it got “released” (read: translated) to the wider world back in mid-2025, given the rather unusual premise of the game in numerous aspects - a roguelike disguised as a raising simulator, where you play a trainer aiming to help an anthropomorphised famous Japanese racehorse (the namesake Umamusume) to succeed. You are given a set of objectives to pass for a given number of races, while inbetween you choose whether your Umamusume should do to best prepare, ranging from a variety of training, racing, resting or recreation - with random events happening at each stage, both with choices and potential to help and harm your Umamusume for the key races up ahead. A lot of work has been put in to make these runs enjoyable and individualised for each Umamusume, with a different overarching VN-esque story, personality and design heavily inspired by the horse’s real life career, but also the relative quickness (although a successful run takes ~1hr) on going through the gameplay loop once you have a few successful careers under your belt.
But, ultimately it is just a gacha after all, and one that really doesn’t respect either your time or your money once you realise all this grinding is in service of both a very punishing gacha system (no pity carryover is crazy given the accelerated schedule), and an extremely sweaty PVP mode to participate in. I could go into more detail, but its really not worth it - if you must, dip in to read some of the stories but quit before the phrase “spark farming” hits your brain, or keep your sanity intact and stick to watching the anime.
