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Them's Fightin' Herds (Early Access) |OT| Fighting is Magic

Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,500
Ibis Island
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Release Date: Feb 22, 2018
Price: $14.99 (Early Access)
Genre: Fighting (Influence from Marvel vs Capcom)
Developer: Mane 6
Publisher: Humble Bundle
Platforms: Steam (Possible console releases later)
Steam Store Link (Also purchasable on Humble Bundle)
*Currently 25% off on Steam if you own Skullgirls*

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Them's Fightin Herds originally started development as a My Little Pony fan game (Which was taking inspiration from MVC). After a cease and desist from Hasbro the team at Mane 6 decided to take matters into their own hand. They were later contact by Faust who offered to work with them on character designs (An offer they graciously accepted). Later on an indiegogo was established in late 2015 raising $586,346 out of its planned $436,000. Before their indiegogo was fully established however, the Skullgirls Team offered the team use of the Z engine (The engine used to develop Skullgirls) if the Keep Skullgirls Growing indiegogo funding reached $725,000 (2013). The Skullgirls funding surpassed that and now after 3 years the game is out.
If you'd like a more in-depth look at the history. Wikipedia has it nicely detailed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Them's_Fightin'_Herds

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  • Story Mode (Currently Delayed but will be a free update)
  • Arcade Mode
  • Survival Mode
  • Training Mode
  • Target Mode
  • Dynamic Music (Character themes that adapt in the heat of the battle makes every fight a treat))
  • Multiplayer Lobbies
  • Online Training
  • The Pixel Lobby (Similar to Arc Sys lobbies)
  • GGPO Netcode
  • More Upcoming Fighters
  • Extensive Lore (Link here)
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Character bios here
(Fred isn't playable but is a part of Oleander's Move Set)

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(Bonuses are unlocked by owning the corresponding game on Steam)
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Renteka-Bond

Renteka-Bond

Chicken Chaser
Member
Dec 28, 2017
4,271
Clearwater, Florida
Will buy and Play around with it a bit once I get off work. I've fallen off the original show the past couple of years, but I remember when Fighting is Magic was first announced way back in my Sophomore year of College and being really into it (then disappointed when it got cancelled). I'm a sucker for cool indies and fighting games in particular (It's too bad Cerebrawlin will probably vanish), so even if end up dropping it rather fast, I'm more than happy to throw some bux their way. The support of Lauren and, surprisingly but not surprisingly, Tara Strong is really cool to see.
 
Sou Da

Sou Da

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,738
Guess I'll always have to look at this and wonder what Cerebrawl could have been
 
J-Tier

J-Tier

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
3,735
Southern California
This actually looks great. My love for fighting games greatly overshadows my hesitancy to approach anything related to MLP. I followed this game quite a bit at its inception and am really surprised at how (relatively) quickly this came along.
 
SigmasonicX

SigmasonicX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,499
I'd add brief bios for the characters, a description of the story, links to the lore, and a mention of the dynamic music to the OP.
 
PSqueak

PSqueak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,464
Tested the game while on my lunch break, man for a game with cutie-wutsie characters, the AI in arcade mode is pretty unforgiving, it's funny that this game actually made me go into online to get a few wins.

Also, i absolutely love that Salt is the prize you get from winning matches.

Im grateful there is a pink Paprika color scheme, heh.
 
Sylvee

Sylvee

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,562
maouvin

maouvin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,757
Blumenau - Brazil
Oleander's flaming blobs (or whatever they are) are still incomplete it seems.
And Afterburner/Rivatuner isn't logging/showing the fps here :/

Been away from fgs for a while, so will use this to try to get back to it~
 
PSqueak

PSqueak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,464
maouvin said:
Oleander's flaming blobs (or whatever they are) are still incomplete it seems.
And Afterburner/Rivatuner isn't logging/showing the fps here :/

Been away from fgs for a while, so will use this to try to get back to it~
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Alot of Oleander's animation seem to be place holders, specially the book's animations.
 
PSqueak

PSqueak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,464
Sylvee said:
There's also a Great and Powerful color variation for Oleander and a Fennekin color for Velvet.
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Oh, no i mean, uh, i wanted Pink Paprika for other reasons.

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coff coff

Tho i did find amusing that the game is framing Pink Paprika as an Animal crossing reference (along with the blue one)
 
Sylvee

Sylvee

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,562
PSqueak said:
Tho i did find amusing that the game is framing Pink Paprika as an Animal crossing reference (along with the blue one)
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I believe all of the recolors in the game are backer rewards and the names are based on whatever the backer wanted to name them. That's why some of them sound like someone's OC name. Also like a 3rd of Oleander's colors are references....

flashman92 said:
I imagine the dragon girl's flying animation is supposed to be more animated as well.
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Yeah, kinda unfortunate because Oleander, Tian's flying animation, and several of the supers looked a bit off in the footage I saw, and it doesn't seem like any of it got fixed from the beta version to the one now.
 

Deleted member 401

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,251
This seems very much early access right now, a bunch of animations aren't complete.

Also, even if you set the AI opponents to medium, I'm finding it surprisingly challenging in single-player. I don't know, the AI in the Capcom fighters I've been playing don't seem this tough.
 
Just

Just

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
213
I still remember when this game was MLP Fighting is Magic. I'm glad to see game has found it's own style.

Are there any reviews yet?
 
SigmasonicX

SigmasonicX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,499
Jawmuncher said:
I couldn't for the life of me find character bios.
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Lore can be found here.

On mobile so I won't link each character page. I'm sure brief official bios are somewhere, but I wrote these myself. Guessing someone else will have already posted something by the time I finish. EDIT: Guess not!

Arizona the cow
Despite her small size, Arizona became the Cattlekind champion through sheer strength and speed, along with a bit of stubbornness. She uses a lasso to draw foes in close and blows them away with earth-shaking stomps.

Velvet the reindeer
To find their champion, the Deer of Rein's strongest bucks faced off in a competition of strength. Then dainty Velvet danced in and blew them away. Her ice magic keeps foes at a distance, allowing her to show off her beauty and elegance.

Oleander the unicorn
Oleander was outcast from The Order of the Horn for her study of dark magic, which she believes can do good. Her kind wish to just stand by and observe, so she uses her tome and her familiar, Fhtng (AKA Fred), to protect her home.

Paprika the alpaca
The Alpake are a tough, hardy, and very very serious race. Which makes Paprika all the more annoying to them. Her erratic behavior and constant hugs made her a constant threat for her kind, and now they hope she can be the same for the Predators.

Pom the sheep
When it came up to vote whether to send a champion to face the Predators, the Sheeple were all too cowardly to vote yes. Outraged, Pom made her voice heard... and was promptly voted champion. Whoops. Though scared out of her mind, she's backed up by her many sheep dogs.

Tianhuo the longma
The half-dragon half-horse longma of Huoshan are a proud race, and were eager to send their strongest, Tianhuo. She is capable of flight and deadly fire attacks, and greatly wishes to live up to everyone's expectations.
 
KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,093
If you want to use your Midna inspired Oleander Skin, feel free to do so.

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(The book is coloured like the Twili Wolves she summons in Hyrule Warriors)
 
OP
OP
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,500
Ibis Island
Just got done playing all of the modes available and trying out the characters. I like what is currently here.
Doesn't seem to be anything major missing outside the Story Mode, Regular Online Matchmaking (There's still Online MP though, just only lobby atm), and some overall polishing (Some animations are filler and such).
Oleander and Velvet seem to be the characters I like the most. But regardless of that. I love the skins a lot of these characters have. Much like Skullgirls. There's a lot of references there.

SigmasonicX said:
Lore can be found here.

On mobile so I won't link each character page. I'm sure brief official bios are somewhere, but I wrote these myself. Guessing someone else will have already posted something by the time I finish. EDIT: Guess not!

Arizona the cow
Despite her small size, Arizona became the Cattlekind champion through sheer strength and speed, along with a bit of stubbornness. She uses a lasso to draw foes in close and blows them away with earth-shaking stomps.

Velvet the reindeer
To find their champion, the Deer of Rein's strongest bucks faced off in a competition of strength. Then dainty Velvet danced in and blew them away. Her ice magic keeps foes at a distance, allowing her to show off her beauty and elegance.

Oleander the unicorn
Oleander was outcast from The Order of the Horn for her study of dark magic, which she believes can do good. Her kind wish to just stand by and observe, so she uses her tome and her familiar, Fhtng (AKA Fred), to protect her home.

Paprika the alpaca
The Alpake are a tough, hardy, and very very serious race. Which makes Paprika all the more annoying to them. Her erratic behavior and constant hugs made her a constant threat for her kind, and now they hope she can be the same for the Predators.

Pom the sheep
When it came up to vote whether to send a champion to face the Predators, the Sheeple were all too cowardly to vote yes. Outraged, Pom made her voice heard... and was promptly voted champion. Whoops. Though scared out of her mind, she's backed up by her many sheep dogs.

Tianhuo the longma
The half-dragon half-horse longma of Huoshan are a proud race, and were eager to send their strongest, Tianhuo. She is capable of flight and deadly fire attacks, and greatly wishes to live up to everyone's expectations.
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Thanks. Linked to the post in the OP.
 

Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
Just looking at videos, the alpaca is already the greatest character because of her amazing attack animations.
 
capaoculta

capaoculta

Member
Oct 27, 2017
53
Played around an hour or so. I don't think I dislike any of the characters except Pom but I just don't know how to play her yet. Also, can't believe this is finally out.
 
Spirit of Jazz

Spirit of Jazz

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
10,499
UK
Paprika has a smooch command grab that leads into a full combo plus she's essentially alpaca Faust. I don't understand why this game needs more than one character.
 
sibarraz

sibarraz

Prophet of Regret - One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
18,106
The combo mechanics really make it feels like they could do a vs game with skullgirls without having to make a big effort to respect both game mechanics

Is cool that lab zero gave them the engine
 
Sylvee

Sylvee

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,562
So I had a theory, and this reddit post I found sort of lines up with what I imagine is going on:
Okay, from what I can find, here's the dealio:

Once the devs realized they couldn't fit Arizona's story in before release, they had to roll back to a previous, beta, version of the game to release. (0.95) Presumably this was because the story was half-finished in the more updated build, and they didn't want to leave customers high and dry halfway through the mode.

That might explain why we're still missing a few bits, despite being promised a completed foundation. The story roll-back cost a few minor details!

(Part of) My reasoning for this is I still have a "Backer" banner underneath my profile pic, even though I didn't actually manage to back the game - so I'm guessing the beta version assumes everyone playing it is a backer.

That's the conclusion I'm drawing, anyhow. Read about it here. Specifically:

"We've had emergency meetings, we've looked at the cards, and we think the best solution we can go for at this stage is switching the release of the game from a "1.0" finished build and "regular" release to a slightly rolled back "0.95" Steam Early Access version..."

and...

"We might also need to rollback/reintroduce a couple minor and middle changes made between the currently existing version of Backers' Beta and the Release build candidate..."

I'm guessing these "minor and middle changes" are why we're missing stuff.
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I'm guessing that what's going on is that the version they released today is the last beta version that they made and a lot of the new animations and other features that are already fixed aren't in this version because they didn't make a new one that had all of the updates but didn't have the story. So as a last-second way of reaching their deadline they pushed through an outdated version instead of the one that had the incomplete story. Similar to the redditor, I can confirm I have backer underneath my profile despite not backing it.
 
SigmasonicX

SigmasonicX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,499
Sylvee said:
So I had a theory, and this reddit post I found sort of lines up with what I imagine is going on:



I'm guessing that what's going on is that the version they released today is the last beta version that they made and a lot of the new animations and other features that are already fixed aren't in this version because they didn't make a new one that had all of the updates but didn't have the story. So as a last-second way of reaching their deadline they pushed through an outdated version instead of the one that had the incomplete story. Similar to the redditor, I can confirm I have backer underneath my profile despite not backing it.
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That makes a lot of sense. Glad that means they probably do have all these animations done.
 
Virtua Sanus

Virtua Sanus

Member
Nov 24, 2017
6,492
I realize they swapped it to early access a few days ago but I am a little surprised at how certain aspects of the game are still clearly unfinished. Game absolutely is fun but has some serious issues at the moment. The big one being that the pacing is just dreadful. Damage is just way too low and turtling is far too easy to do.

Excited to see how this game grows over the year and beyond. Really happy the team was finally able to launch this game after all these years.
 
sandboxgod

sandboxgod

Attempting to circumvent a ban with an alt
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,919
Austin, Texas
how is this influenced by MvC it looks like its just 1 vs 1?

Read the OP and didnt see any mention of tagging out/in. Plus watching this stream it looks 1vs1 with ponies (yes, I realize the point of the game is its PONIES but wondering where is 2vs2 etc)
 
HibbySloth

HibbySloth

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,159
Been playing for the past hour. I wish I wasn't so bad at fighting games. Otherwise, I'm having a lot of fun.
 
Sylvee

Sylvee

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,562
sandboxgod said:
how is this influenced by MvC it looks like its just 1 vs 1?

Read the OP and didnt see any mention of tagging out/in. Plus watching this stream it looks 1vs1 with ponies (yes, I realize the point of the game is its PONIES but wondering where is 2vs2 etc)
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It is currently just 1v1 and I don't think I've heard any plans to change that at some point. It is using the Skullgirls engine so it might not be too difficult to add it later but at this point there's only 6 characters so picking 2 would be picking a 3rd of the roster. I'm no FGC vet but my impression is that the game is more similar to an anime fighter but without airdashes aside from one of the characters.

Found this showing off all of the recolors, although some of it is hard to see well. Didn't realize that Oleander was that popular.

https://m.imgur.com/r/ThemsFightinHerds/YBC1I
 
SigmasonicX

SigmasonicX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,499
Sylvee said:
It is currently just 1v1 and I don't think I've heard any plans to change that at some point. It is using the Skullgirls engine so it might not be too difficult to add it later but at this point there's only 6 characters so picking 2 would be picking a 3rd of the roster. I'm no FGC vet but my impression is that the game is more similar to an anime fighter but without airdashes aside from one of the characters.

Found this showing off all of the recolors, although some of it is hard to see well. Didn't realize that Oleander was that popular.

https://m.imgur.com/r/ThemsFightinHerds/YBC1I
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Were there directions not to have any recolors that matched the pony originals? Though Oleander has a Rarity-like color scheme at least.

Sad that Pom got no love.
 
Sylvee

Sylvee

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,562
SigmasonicX said:
Were there directions not to have any recolors that matched the pony originals? Though Oleander has a Rarity-like color scheme at least.

Sad that Pom got no love.
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It would make sense, they clearly don't have any problems making any other references. Given that they seem like obvious alt colors and aside from a light pink Paprika none of them have any costume that remotely resembles the character they're based on I would assume that they left them out intentionally.

Or maybe they're planning on adding full skins that change the voice acting in a crossover with Hasbro. I can only dream.

CloverNotes said:
Got the game and enjoying it, but man arcade mode is evil.
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I haven't messed with it yet but the default setting for Arcade is apparently really high in this game. You can change it in the options menu at the main menu.
 
PSqueak

PSqueak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,464
I didnt expect to like the pixel lobby this much, specially with the little dungeon crawling minigame, its pretty awesome.
 
Obnoxious JoJo Fan

Obnoxious JoJo Fan

Banned
Feb 18, 2018
421
I'll maybe consider Picking this up when it's ported to consoles and when there's some more characters added as well

Game looks great though
 
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