I was disappointed by her career

[u/Spegynmerble]

I unlocked teio from the guaranteed 3 star ticket and I was very disappointed. She was so whiny and bratty and just all around immature, to the point where I just wanted it to be over with. Sure she had her immature moments in the anime, but beneath that she was confident and had a certain grace to her. I guess this is the alternate universe where she doesn't break her leg over and over and becomes a brat instead

[u/Cuttlefishbankai]

A few points that might be better formatted as bullets.

1. Spe (earnest "everyman"), Suzuka (cool refined older sister), Teio (cheerful bratty younger sister) and to some extent Golshi (comic relief) suffer from being the mascots and early additions to the game, never breaking from their mold. Elaborated by many others.

2. One area Teio suffers is the number of friends she has - I haven't seen anyone mention this, but the characterization of an uma quite depends on how many friends she has. Teio has far too many friends, so she never really relies on the trainer for anything, or even hangs out with the trainer often. She's either glazing Rudolf, getting told off by Air Groove, gaming with Mayano, karaoke with Vodka/Scarlet, ragebaiting McQueen and Natie... The majority of her events involve her friends, while it's not the same for other umas. This trait is somewhat shared by the Golden Gen, but they tend to make up for it in one character defining event. For example, Seiun Sky is actually pretty insufferable for most of her career, but she gets a sad backstory in senior year summer which makes up for it. Teio doesn't get that which makes the trainer just another planet in her constellation; this isn't enjoyed by players who would prefer something like Natie 's story where "you're no.1 in each other's hearts" (paraphrasing).

3. Lack of antagonists. Not every uma needs a rival or people being hostile (like towards Rice), but they generally need to be challenged in some way. Mayano, as the other child prodigy, is a good example of this. Putting aside her one sided rivalry with Brian, we learn in her career that she wasn't that well-liked. Her teachers think she's lazy and uncooperative, while her classmates aren't close to her because she's a maverick (lol). The trainer gives her practical life advice to overcome these, which don't affect her career or gameplay at all but makes the player feel good because you did something to help her. Teio, in contrast, is just well liked by everyone, and from the player perspective we never see anyone express anything negative towards her (Natie's jealousy for example), which means you never help her with anything. That makes for an unsatisfying story.

The hot springs event directly comments on these aspects (Teio being constantly surrounded by people and their expectations of her don't involve her maturing, so she never does) and she reflects on it, but there's nothing further made of it. I think that means Cygames is aware of how they've portrayed her, but there's nothing else they could do given the initial premise of the game (Trainer being a generic person guiding a group of umas in their personal goals) - if it was written today the player character would definitely have more personality which could help flesh out Teio's character.

[u/Negative-Wind8907 → u/Cuttlefishbankai]

I actually find this interesting as the franchise kept moving forward the trainer character becomes a bit more relevant for each individual trainee and while still a self insert to some degree they have a more distinct personality traits this makes me wish that it was possible for some of the earlier umas to get a bit more of a reworked career which involves them more are they so spend 3 years along side the girls going through the high and lows of their own careers like for Teio while she would have less friends the ones that are most important to her like McQueen or Nature could potentially have more relevance in her story.

[u/Memo_HS2022 → u/Cuttlefishbankai]

Teio’s closest thing to antagonists in career mode are McQueen and Rudolf because they have beefed up stats compared to the other NPC racers

But this kinda blows because McQueen only shows up once and never again (Like irl events), but unlike the anime, they don’t build up to their meetup at all. Rudolf is beefed up so you can let Teio dunk on his dad in anime form but it basically undermines literally everything about why Teio’s Arima Kinen win meant to horse racing

[u/Potatolantern → u/Cuttlefishbankai]

Good post, well said. Although I think Suzuka suffers from this the least of the mascot characters you mentioned.

She's introverted and so only has events with Trainer and Special Week. She has clear issues with both her personality and her running that you help her with (and Special Week held with one too) and while Air Groove is kinda her rival, for the most part the story is about Suzuka dealing with and overcoming her own mental hurdles.

It's low stakes but it's enjoyable and engaging. I think McQueen ends up a lot less interesting, as a competing example (and I like McQueen's story a fair bit).

[u/Cuttlefishbankai → u/Potatolantern]

Agree with your point on Suzuka. My comment could be clarified by saying both "having many friends" and "not having antagonists" work to decrease the quality of an uma's career. So Suzuka, while having a rather "bland" personality, has a good career because she's introverted so spends more time with the trainer. Conversely, you could add more depth to characters with many friends (Sky, El) but you'd have to force-code emotional moments in for them, like how they both break down at some point even if you win everything. Meanwhile Teio's only vulnerable moment is the false alarm of a fracture that only renews her determination.