OBON DERBY 2021

オボンダービー　精霊馬合体グランプリ (Obon Derby - Spirit Horse Combination Grand Prix) is a racing game from Japan, where players combine cards to form their spirit animal for the race.

Across Japan, the Obon Festival is celebrated with various events during the summer, to remember and honour family ancestors. These events include a significant ritual, crafting a cucumber horse and eggplant cow, known as shōryō uma (精霊馬, "spirit horse") or ushi uma (牛馬, "cow horse"), that act as a vessel for the ancestors to come back home and return, respectively.

In this game, players create these spirit animals in order to race them. By combining the Head, Body, and Tail cards from their hand (2 of each type), turning them up one by one and following the strategy written on the card, players advance their horse or cow along a linear course to aim for first place.

Cards have activation conditions, but there are some that advance you two squares at once, and others that move the animal in front of you back one square, creating a dead heat feeling in a horse race. The downside is that the order in which you reveal your cards during the race is fixed, so the first player tends to have an advantage. This tendency was especially noticeable when the number of players was small, because some of the actions require interference with the animal in front, and this could not be achieved with too few players. user summary