How to Change Umamusume: Pretty Derby to English

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a mobile gacha game developed by Cygames that has built a massive global fanbase — but the official app is only available in Japanese and Korean. If you're an English-speaking player trying to navigate menus, story events, or training screens, understanding your language options is genuinely important before you start.

Here's what you need to know about how language settings work in Umamusume, and what actually determines your experience.

Does Umamusume Have an Official English Language Option?

The short answer: no official English version of Umamusume currently exists. The game launched in Japan in 2021, and a Korean version followed. As of now, Cygames has not released an English-localized build through the App Store, Google Play, or any regional storefront.

This means there is no in-game settings menu where you can simply switch the interface to English — unlike games such as Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail, which ship with multilingual support built in.

What players do instead falls into a few different categories, each with meaningfully different requirements and trade-offs.

Option 1: Playing the Japanese Version with Fan Translation Tools

The most popular approach among English-speaking players is to install the Japanese version of the app and layer a fan-made translation patch on top of it.

The most well-known community project for this is the Umamusume Translation Patch, maintained by independent contributors. This patch typically works by:

• Replacing in-game text assets with translated English equivalents
• Covering UI elements, training menus, skill descriptions, and some story content
• Requiring a rooted Android device or a PC-based emulator to apply properly

🎮 Key things to understand about translation patches:

• They are not official and not endorsed by Cygames
• Coverage varies — UI and gameplay text are usually well-translated, but full story translations lag behind new content releases
• Patches need to be manually updated when the game receives new content or version updates
• Using patches may conflict with the game's anti-cheat or integrity checks, depending on how they are applied

The patch workflow is significantly more technical than simply downloading an app. It typically involves sideloading APK files, navigating ADB (Android Debug Bridge) commands on PC, or running the game inside an Android emulator such as BlueStacks or LDPlayer.

Option 2: Using an Android Emulator on PC

Many English-speaking players run Umamusume through a PC-based Android emulator, which offers a more controlled environment for applying translation patches and managing updates.

Emulators like BlueStacks, LDPlayer, or MuMu Player allow you to:

• Install the Japanese APK from a trusted source
• Apply the fan translation patch more easily than on a physical Android device
• Run the game on a larger screen with mouse and keyboard input

Variables that affect this approach include:

iOS users have a harder path here — sideloading and patching on iPhone or iPad is considerably more restricted and not reliably supported by most community patch guides.

Option 3: Playing Without Translation (UI Familiarity Over Time)

Some players simply learn to navigate the Japanese interface through repetition, community guides, and visual familiarity. Given that Umamusume's core training loop is menu-driven and relatively consistent, many players find they can operate effectively without understanding every line of Japanese text.

Resources that support this approach include:

• English-language wikis (the Umamusume Wiki on Fandom and Gamewith EN guides)
• Reddit communities such as r/Umamusume, which offer translated event guides and training tier lists
• YouTube content creators who explain mechanics in English even while showing Japanese gameplay

This method requires no technical setup, no rooting, and no risk of patch-related issues — but it does mean navigating the story content and character dialogue without translation.

What Determines Which Approach Works for You

Your actual experience will depend on several overlapping factors:

• Device type — Android gives you significantly more flexibility than iOS for patching and sideloading
• Technical comfort level — applying a fan patch involves command-line tools and file management; it's not a one-click process
• What you want translated — UI and skill text is broadly covered by community patches; full story translation is a work in progress
• How you want to play — emulator on PC versus mobile are genuinely different experiences in feel and input method
• Risk tolerance — using unofficial patches on a live game account carries some level of uncertainty around account integrity

The gap between "I want to understand the menus" and "I want to follow the full story in English" is a real one, and the tools available address those goals to very different degrees. Your own setup, device, and how deeply you want to engage with the game's narrative are the pieces that no general guide can answer for you.