With the global release of Cygames’s Umamusume: Pretty Derby, interest in horse racing and the real-life horses that inspired the characters like Haru Urara has risen in the English-speaking community. The inspiration behind her is still alive today in Japan. Fans can visit and feed the actual horse Haru Urara, though they’ll have to obey guidelines when doing so.

Haru Urara is living out her retirement at the Matha Farm in Chiba. To meet her, you’ll need to make a reservation with the ranch. According to Twitter user tarutaru_mage, openings for these reservations start without warning the month before, and they fill up fast. You need to make a reservation before going to the ranch, so plan accordingly if you wish to make the trip.

Cygames also published guidelines to follow when visiting horse ranches in Japan. You can read the entire document on the game’s official website. In short, you should practice common sense when dealing with large animals like horses, such as not touching them, not making loud noises, and not feeding them.

For those who aren’t in Japan and don’t plan on visiting the country any time soon, but still wish to support the real-life Haru Urara, you can still do so. The Namabokuso Bank service in Japan lets you purchase a 5-kg box of pasturage to horses, with Haru Urara as one of them. It costs 6000 JPY ($40.50) to do so, and you can also set it to do so monthly. As of the time of writing, over 2180 kg of pasturage have been sent to Haru Urara. Many of the most recent comments from supporters are in English, and make mention to Umamusume: Pretty Derby.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is readily available on the Windows PC and mobile devices. The original anime is on Crunchyroll, while Cinderella Gray streamed on Amazon.

The post How to Visit and Feed Haru Urara, the Real Umamusume Horse appeared first on Siliconera.

As part of the promotions for the Umamusume: Pretty Derby game, anime, and other projects in Japan, Cygames updates its official YouTube with shorts and videos starring characters and hosts Gold Ship’s PakaTube site and social media. This can also involve featured clips of other characters. Following the global launch of the Umamusume game, Cygames updated with a video of underdog racer Haru Urara singing “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”

In the Umamusume new video, Haru Urara sings “If you’re Happy and You Know It” in Japanese. She starts by humming the tune. Then, she breaks into the first verse. This is performed complete with clapping at the designated parts.

Haru Urara is a one-star unit in Umamusume. Everyone gets her after starting the game. She’s one of five free characters given out to new players and one of the best early options for Dirt track racers. Aside from her appearance singing "If You're Happy and You Know It," there are no other YouTube Shorts starring Haru Urara on the official Japanese channel. (You can check in the future for more of her videos there by searching for "ウララ" or "ハルウララ."

It isn’t uncommon for brief clips of Umamusume characters singing popular songs to come up. When the movie Top Gun: Maverick released, Mayano Top Gun was used in part of the promotional material. While the official video is privated, that character performed part of “Danger Zone” with Gold Ship as part of PakaTube. 

You can watch a copy of that video from ウマウマ動画制作局 on YouTube below:

Kenny Loggins, the artist behind “Danger Zone,” also responded to that performance, but that video has been made private as well. Copies of it have appeared online, one of which you can see on Precious Grain’s channel:

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is available on PCs and mobile devices. The original anime is on Crunchyroll, and Cinderella Gray is on Amazon.

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Now that the Fate series crossover is live in Honkai: Star Rail, a message in-game reminded people that there are no English voice actors for Archer or Saber. At the moment, there is no voice acting for them at all if someone selected that language option. The option to hear Japanese voice actors will come in 3.5. This also comes alongside a confirmation that Archer performs his full, 40-second long Unlimited Blade Works Incantation when performing his Ultimate.

The reminder about the absence of English voice acting for Archer and Saber comes up as a notification in Honkai: Star Rail. That noted that the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean localizations are all present instead. If you go into the News and Notices section or check HoYoLab, it also brings up the audio absences and noted the 3.5 version will let you choose their Japanese voice overs under Voice in the Profile section of Character Details. 

As for the Archer Incantation, it’s now one of the longer speeches that happens before a character Ultimate in Honkai: Star Rail, and it can be about a 40-second long speech. Here’s a video from Xafrel that showed it in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

Honkai: Star Rail is available for the PS5, PC, and mobile devices, and the Fate series crossover based on Fate/stay Night Unlimited Blade Works runs until the end of 3.6.

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Good Smile Company announced and shared updates on seven Honkai: Star Rail Nendoroids and two Zenless Zone Zero figures. In the case of the Zenless Zone Zero characters, both are in the unpainted prototype phase. Progress on the Honkai: Star Rail Nendoroids is more mixed and includes both older characters and members of the Chrysos Heirs.  

Both of the Zenless Zone Zero Nendoroids are of characters who are part of factions tied to government organizations. Hoshimi Miyabi is a Hollow Special Operations member who is part of Section 6. She’ll come with her weapon. Seth Lowell is a Criminal Investigation Special Response Team Member, and his figure will come with his shield.  

Here’s how both of those look so far:

In the case of the seven Honkai: Star Rail Nendoroids, only four unpainted prototypes appeared. The only older character in the bunch is Kafka. The Herta, the five-star version of Herta, Hyacinthia (Hyacine), and Phainon are the others. The Herta, Hyacine, and Phainon are all shown with their respective weapons, and Hyacine will also include her Memosprite Little Ica. 

The initial prototype photos for all four appeared:

Some of the Honkai: Star Rail Chrysos Heirs figures are so early in development that there are no pieces of concept art or prototypes yet. These are Anaxagoras (Anaxa), Castorice, and Mydeimos (Mydei).

This comes after pre-orders for other HoYoVerse series characters appeared. Earlier in July 2025, Good Smile Company started selling the Koleda Belobog and Grace Howard Pop Up Parade SP figures and a Harumasa Asaba Nendoroid. 

Honkai: Star Rail is available for the PS5, PC, and mobile devices. Zenless Zone Zero is out on the PS5, Xbox Series X, PC, and mobile devices.

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Yoshitaka Amano, the Japanese artist best known for his works in the Final Fantasy series, is involved in the development of Resident Evil Survival Unit. The official website for the upcoming mobile game revealed that the artist designed an original creature named Mortem.

This collaboration is made possible by another familiar name to the Final Fantasy community: Shinji Hashimoto. As a reminder, Hashimoto is no longer affiliated with Square Enix after he reached the mandatory retirement age in May 2022. However, that did not mark a complete end to his career, as he joined Sony Music Entertainment's ForwardWorks right after in June 2022.

In October 2024, Hashimoto moved to Aniplex, which is also another subsidiary of Sony Music. This eventually led to his appearance in the Resident Evil Survival Unit announcement video as the mobile game's executive producer. Aniplex is primarily working together with the Korean company JoyCity to develop this title, with Capcom supervising the whole process. This video also showcased JoyCity's finalized render of Yoshitaka Amano's original creature, Mortem.

Shinji Hashimoto explained the involvement of Yoshitaka Amano in Resident Evil Survival Unit via an interview with Famitsu. The former noted in the interview that the two had been long acquainted since his previous tenure, without even directly mentioning Square Enix and Final Fantasy. Hashimoto also stated his desire to make a surprise by asking Amano to design a pure villain for this Resident Evil mobile game.

The interview also revealed that Amano gave JoyCity much freedom to convert his creature design. Hashimoto added that Amano eventually approved the final render with a "that's cool" statement. The executive producer is also preparing another surprising collaboration for the mobile game, which will appear in 2026 or later.

Resident Evil Survival Unit will launch worldwide for Android and iOS mobile devices in 2025.

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Square Enix will introduce a new vocation, Hermit, in Dragon Quest X. It should come out in late August 2025. [Thanks, ryokutya2089!]

The official English name of the new Dragon Quest X vocation has not been announced yet. According to ryokutya2089, it will be a support-focused Master Vocation with its own unique gauge. This gauge will fill up over time, or with special skills. To become a Hermit, you’ll need to have enough levels as a Priest and a Ranger. The Hermit can use the power of spirits to offer multiple boons to the party. It’s unknown at this point if this new vocation supports with purely buffs, or if it can heal as well. Lastly, ryokutya2089 believes that the Hermit’s visuals are a little plain.

Dragon Quest X is the online MMORPG entry of the long-running Dragon Quest series, and it first came out in 2012. An offline remake version is also available under the name Dragon Quest X Offline. In Japan, you can even purchase it for mobile devices so you can play it on the go without bringing your console around.

Dragon Quest X is readily available on the PS4, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC, and mobile devices. More information on the new vocation will appear at a later date.

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Good Smile Company announced three new Zenless Zone Zero figures, with one being a Harumasa Asaba Nendoroid and the other being Pop Up Parade SP ones of Koleda Belobog and Grace Howard. All three are expected to ship in May 2026 in Japan and Q4 2026 in the US. Asaba costs ￥7,700/$60.99, while Koleda and Grace are ￥8,800/$57.99. 

Both the Koleda and Grace Zenless Zone Zero figures are part of the more expensive Pop Up Parade SP line, which means they are a little more detailed than typical ones. It also means their heights are accurately rendered. So Koleda will be just about six and a half inches tall (165mm), while Grace is almost eight inches (200mm). There are no additional parts or posing options. 

Here’s how they look:

Since Asaba is a Nendoroid, there will be a number of additional accessories and options. He comes with one face that shows him smiling, one in which he looks exhausted, and a third in which he’s desperately in need of his medicine after over-exerting himself and Hollow exposure. He comes with his bow, an arrow, and a quiver as accessories. You can also pose him holding a cup of coffee or a vial of medicine. As a bonus, orders from Good Smile Company come with a bottle of medicine and another hand part to hold it.

This is how he looks:

Some of the past Nendoroid figures of Zenless Zone Zero characters included Belle, Wise, and Von Lycaon. 

The Zenless Zone Zero Harumasa Asaba Nendoroid and Koleda Belobog and Grace Howard Pop Up Parade SP figures will launch in Japan in May 2026 and the US in Q4 2026. The game is available on the PS5, Xbox Series X, PC, and mobile devices. 

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Akatsuki Games announced it opened the Tribe Nine applications for players to apply for a paid item refund and shared unimplemented story segments in Japanese for some chapters. The refund process takes place within the game app itself. The story chapters appear on a page on the official site that also included art of characters and locations that didn’t get to appear.

Getting a refund for making Tribe Nine paid item purchases is an involved process, and it applies to anything bought after April 10, 2025. You need to launch the game and select “Refunds Regarding End of Service” when you’re on the title screen. When you go to that screen, you can opt to apply on a Refund Application for Paid Item Purchases Made After the Publication of the Roadmap. You need to supply your email first, then the verification code for it to choose your refund method. As part of this process, you’ll get a Refund ID. Akatsuki didn’t state when to expect money back, but did say to directly contact the company about any issues. 

As for the unimplemented story scripts, descriptions, character art, and location art in Tribe Nine, the official directory page offered links to story chapters for three, four, and five. These are largely presented as scripts. However, there are Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 pages that show the official art and images for characters we would have met and places we’d have gone.

Here’s a gallery of the Chapter 4 character Akatsuki shared.

And here are the folks from Chapter 5. 

Tribe Nine is available on the PC and mobile devices, and it will shut down on November 27, 2025. The anime is available on Crunchyroll.

The post Tribe Nine Paid Item Refund App and Unimplemented Story Shared appeared first on Siliconera.

Cygames updated the banners in the global version of Umamusume: Pretty Derby on July 10, 2025, in keeping with the accelerated schedule, and added Biwa Hayahide as a playable character on the new Trainee one and released SSR Mejiro Palmer on the Support Card Scout. These will both be available until July 22, 2025, after which point both will be added to the general pools of cards and characters.

In terms of her stats, Biwa Hayahide doesn’t fill any unique roles in Umamusume: Pretty Derby. She’s best at running on Turf, she is designed to take part in Medium and Long distance races, and she excels at the Pace Chaser strategy, though you could bump her up to a Late one easily through inheritances from Veteran units. She does come with the Cooldown and Calm and Collected skills, which are handy for long distance runners and Pace Chasers. Her unique skill also helps increase the velocity of a runner when they are passing and at the front on the final corner.

As fo Mejiro Palmer, she’s a Guts type card. In addition to helping it in general, she assists further at level 30. The skill tied to the card is Vanguard Spirit, which helps someone stay in the lead on a Long type race. She also offers friendship, mood effect, power, race, fan, and hint bonuses when present in a deck.

Here’s how both the Trainee and Support Card look:

As a note, someone who is very invested in Umamusume: Pretty Derby may want to save and wait for the next new Trainee and Support Card banners coming up on July 16, 2025. In addition to the first alts for Mejiro McQueen and Tokai Teio, that is when the Kitasan Black SSR Support Card will debut in the game. That Speed type card is considered one of the best in the game, to the point that even in the Japanese version it is still prized for its skills and abilities.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is available for the PC and mobile devices, and the Biwa Hayahide Trainee and SSR Mejiro Palmer Support Card joined the game in new banners on July 10, 2025. The original anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll, and the Cinderella Gray anime is on Amazon.

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Shift-Up announced the next part of the Goddess of Victory: NIKKE Summer 2025 events, which involves new alts of units in swimsuits like Dorothy: Serendipity and Elegg: Boom and Shock, new bikini costumes for characters like Rapi: Red Hood and Tove, and returning swimwear and beach alts. Everything kicks off after maintenance on July 17, 2025, which is also when the Paradise Stilled, Summer Sealed event begins.

Both Dorothy: Serendipity and Elegg: Boom and Shock are new versions of existing heroines from Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, though each wears swimsuits this time around. Dorothy will be available immediately after maintenance. Her banner starts on July 17, 2025. Elegg follows on July 24, 2025. Since these are special alts, that means they’ll likely be limited to when these banners run.

Here’s the teaser art Shift-Up shared that shows us how both of them will look:

The two new swimsuits available as costumes in Goddess of Victory: NIKKE will be Red Flavor for Rapi: Red Hood and Sunblaze for Tove. Both will be immediately available to try and get on July 17, 2025. Rapi: Red Hood’s will be the more difficult to get, as it will only be available via a Costume Gacha banner. Tove’s costume is one you’ll be able to earn, though that does mean purchasing the Survivor Pass after the update and completing tasks.

Here is the official art released for both of those.

As for the rerun characters and costumes, there will be two units coming back and four swimsuits. If you go to the Cash Shop, you can buy Frima’s Sea of Sloth, Liter’s Guardfish, Pepper’s Ocean Vitamin, and Yan’s Sunrise Market after maintenance. The first rerun banner is Sakura: Bloom in Summer, as the Attacker will be back between July 24, 2025 and August 14, 2025. Rosanna: Chic Ocean, which is a Supporter version of a unit who is normally an Attacker, will appear between July 31, 2025 and August 21, 2025.

You can see the teasers for those reruns below:

Here’s the full Goddess of Victory: NIKKE Special Livestream going over the Summer 2025 events that aired on July 10, 2025.

The last Goddess of Victory: NIKKE update brought back the NieR: Automata event with swimsuits for 2B and A2.

Goddess of Victory: NIKKE is available on PCs and mobile devices, and the Dorothy: Serendipity and Elegg: Boom and Shock alts and new Rapi: Red Hood and Tove swimsuits will appear after maintenance on July 17, 2025.

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HoYoVerse shared a trailer for Genshin Impact that revealed Ruler of Time Istaroth, one of the Four Shades of the Heavenly Principles, shares the same voice actors as existing character Venti in every language. While the company didn’t officially announce that, it did share the character’s performer in the Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean trailers, which confirmed it.

Editor’s Note: If you haven’t been keeping up with Genshin Impact, the Teyvat Chapter Interlude Teaser trailer will include spoilers for the story.

Here’s the English version of the “Teyvat Chapter Interlude Teaser: The Gods' Limits” Genshin Impact video, which features Venti voice actress Erika Harlacher also acting as the actor for Ruler of Time Istaroth. 

To compare, here’s the English “Venti: A Bard’s Business” trailer that also shows Harlacher as his voice actor in Genshin Impact. 

Here’s the full list of voice actors who act as the performer for Venti and the voice actress for Istaroth in Genshin Impact. 

• Chinese: Miaojiang
• English: Erika Harlacher
• Japanese: Ayumu Murase
• Korean: Yoo-jung Jung

Venti is the Anemo Archon in Genshin Impact and the first Archon we meet in the game. However, when we do, he’s actually disguised himself as a bard, so nobody in the country knows he’s really their Archon Barbatos. He makes his home in Mondstadt, and the first Archon Quests deal with helping him save the dragon Dvalin. However, we also know that even before he became the Barbatos or Venti, he was an elemental spirit. 

As for Istaroth, we don’t know much about her in Genshin Impact yet. She’s a Heavenly Principles Four Shades who also goes by lots of names. The video referred to her as Ruler of Time, but in-game she’s also been referred to as Undying Wind. 

Genshin Impact is available for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, PC, and mobile devices, and the next update will arrive on July 30, 2025.

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Atlus and Black Wings announced the new character Minami “Marian” Miyashita and her Persona Thalia will appear in Persona 5: The Phantom X 1.1. She will be a five-star Blessing character who acts as a Medic. We’ll see her on a Phantom Idol banner after the July 10, 2025 update, just like characters such as Kotone “Mont” Montagne.

Marian is one of those characters who proved to be quite a popular and useful character due to her healing capabilities and ability to deal light-based damage to enemies in the Asian release. The only other Medic characters you can really turn to, aside from her, are Cattle and Mona. She’s voiced by Satomi Sato, who also played Escoffier in Genshin Impact, Corrin in Fire Emblem Fates, and Magilou in Tales of Berseria. In the Asian version of the game, she joined the general pool of characters after her debut, but it is unknown if that will be true for the worldwide release.

In Japan, two trailers are also available for her that shows her in and out of battle. First, here's the combat-focused one:

You can see more story-focused scenes with her below:

And here’s the official art of the character:

We know the other character debuting in this update as well. Yui, who goes by the code name Bui, will appear with her Persona Apseudes on a Persona 5: The Phantom X banner just like Marian and Thalia. She’s more of a damage dealer, as she’ll be an  Assassin who deals Thunder element damage to foes.

Persona 5: The Phantom X is available on the PC via Steam and mobile devices, and we’ll see Minami “Marian” Miyashita with Thalia after 1.1 arrives on July 10, 2025. 

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One day after a “Keeping Up with Star Rail” video showed Saber gameplay in Honkai: Star Rail, HoYoVerse shared another installment focusing on the Fate series Servant Archer who also debuts in the crossover. He’s also based on his Fate/stay Nigh [Unlimited Blade Works] appearance. 

The first moments of the Honkai: Star Rail Archer focus on showing him around Penacony. In one segment, he uses his weapons to attack enemies approaching people. Other scenes show him lurking around. It then reconfirms he’s a Hunt type of character who deals Quantum damage to enemies as Owlbert and Skott begin to discuss his moveset.

Things begin with his basic attack. Since he’s a Hunt character, he’s focused on dealing damage and targeting one opponent. He uses Kanshou and Bakuya blades to attack one enemy. His Skill is Caladbolg II: Fake Spiral Sword, which brings out a bow he uses to fire a sword at one opponent. This can start a Circuit Connection state that allows him to keep using that attack until his Skill Points run out and keep stacking damage. His Projection Magecraft allows him to increase SP when he’s present, bringing the number up to seven. 

As for his Ultimate, it should look very familiar to those who saw the original anime. It is Unlimited Blade Works. This deals damage to a single enemy while also charging himself up. He can use that charge to perform a follow-up attack after an ally attacks using his Mind’s Eye (True) Talent. 

Here’s the full “Keeping Up With Star Rail — Archer: Would Be Nice if You Could Materialize Firearms” showing the Fate Servant’s gameplay in Honkai: Star Rail.  

Honkai: Star Rail is available for the PS5, PC, and mobile devices, and the Fate collab starts on July 11, 2025, then ends just before the launch of 3.7. The Fate/stay Night [Unlimited Blade Works] anime is streaming on Crunchyroll.

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Crunchyroll announced the latest games headed to the Game Vault for subscribers, and one of them is the D3 Publisher otome about romancing middle-aged and older men called Pub Encounter. It is the first of the five new titles for the service, and it debuts on July 9, 2025. Someone must be a Mega Fan or Ultimate Fan tier subscriber to access them. 

Pub Encounter is an otome game that first appeared on mobile devices before also showing up on the Switch and PC, and all five of the love interests in it are middle-aged or old men. The oldest of which is Toyoizumi Soichiro, who is a graying, older gentleman. The story behind it is the player ends up visiting a bar and meeting all of them. She then gets caught up in possible love affairs with each. 

The otome is the only one of the upcoming Crunchyroll Game Vault games with a release date. The others haven’t been dated yet. Here’s what’s on the way:

• Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol. 1 (pre-registration is open)
• Metal Slug Tactics (pre-registration is open)
• Phantom Breaker: Ultimate Battle Grounds
• Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation (pre-registration is open)
• Two Strikes

Classroom of the Elite - Merge Puzzle Special Exam is also available now following an Anime Expo 2025 debut.

A number of otome titles are now part of Crunchyroll Game Vault. Destiny’s Princess ended up being the first when it debuted in March 2025. It was followed by The Amazing Shinsengumi: Heroes in Love and The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya.

Quite a few other games joined the service between April and June 2025. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth ended up being a major one. We also saw the other Shin Chan game called Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town.

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Bandai Namco announced that Professor Layton and the Curious Village personal marker charms of characters are now available via its Gashapon Online site in Japan. People can virtually “pull” for them for 300円 (~$2) until July 24, 2025, and they’ll be mailed out in October 2025. They will also eventually be available in physical machines. There’s no listing for it on the US and Canadian site, but it’s possible it will also appear worldwide after a time.

There are five character charms in this this Professor Layton set. Professor Hershel Layton and Luke Triton both appear, as does Flora Reinhold. Inspector Chelmey and Claudia Reinhold are the remaining two in the collection. Each has a lobster claw clasp at the top that is attached to a stretchy, translucent band. This allows you to use them as a zipper pull or a personal marker on a water bottle or umbrella. 

Here’s how they all look:

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is the first game in the Level-5 series and debuted on the DS. In 2018, the HD version appeared on on mobile devices worldwide. The next entry in the series will be Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, and it is in development for both the Switch and Switch 2.

The Professor Layton and the Curious Village character personal marker charms are available via Bandai Namco’s online gacha and will ship in October 2025. 

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