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Them's Fightin' Herds |OT| Fighting is Magic

Battlechili

Banned
Thems-Fighting-Herds-Logo.png
Developer: Mane 6
Publisher: Humble Bundle
Platform: PC
Genre: Fighting
Release date(s):
WW (Early Access): February 22, 2018

What is Them's Fightin' Herds?
Them Fightin' Herds is a fighting game made in the Skullgirls engine where you can play one of 6 animal chararacters to have them compete in mortal combat! Having originally started as a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fangame titled Fighting is Magic, it morphed into what you see here after the team behind it received a cease and desist from Hasbro. Not deterred, they received the help of Lauren Faust to create new character designs, and, with the help of Indigogo to receive funding, wound up revamping it into a new fighting game, Them's Fightin' Herds!

The characters:
Arizona
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Arizona exemplifies what is best of Cattlekind. Honest, hardworking, honorable and brave, she cherishes the life she leads and believes that green grass, clear skies, and a life free of fences should be available to all of Fœnum. She’s immensely righteous, the kind of kid who fights off other kids’ bullies, who never tells a lie, who believes in always doing the right thing. In fact, she’s so idealistic she can seem a little naïve, and sometimes her good intentions get her into trouble simply because she isn’t always realistic about life.

It’s kind of hard to believe such a big heart sits inside such a small frame. She’s only a calf, but her determination and compact, muscular build packs a surprising wallop! As an opponent, her greatest strength is… well, her strength. Though her horns are only budding, they’ll throw a challenger across the field, her back hooves hit like a freight train and she’s so literally down to earth, she’s nearly impossible to knock down.

Gameplay: Arizona tramples all over her foes with devastating headbutt attacks. She can quickly close distance and maintain her proximity with her amazing lasso skills! Keep close to your enemies with your above average movement speed and shorthops, then maintain momentum with your lasso grabs! Get in and stay in, as most of your basic attacks do not reach very far on their own!

Velvet
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Once the call for the Key Keeper went out to The Tundra, absolutely ALL of the reindeer in the nation entered Rein’s competition to win the honor, for all the Deerfolk of Rein thought highly enough of themselves to take the prize. But it was a young doe named Velvet who ultimately prevailed. Delicate and lithe, she is by no means the strongest, but she is by far the fastest and most agile of the Ice Sprites’ pets, and she demonstrates a talent for conjuring and controlling snow and ice that no other deer could hold a candle to.

Almost as if to flaunt her superiority to jealous competitors, Velvet’s fighting style is not only formidable, it is a vision to behold! Her technique could easily be mistaken for dancing, and she takes down her opponents with the utmost ease and grace. One would say she was simply PERFECT if being completely full of yourself was not considered a personality flaw— and she, for one, does not consider it so. Don’t get her wrong — it’s not completely “me, me, me” all the time with her. She does care about the fate of her world. She just knows it will take the best to save it, and that is undeniably HER.

Gameplay: Velvet's ice cold magic stops opponents in their tracks. She'll allow you to admire her beautiful sculptures, but only from a distance! Control your opponent's movement with your magical ice crystals from afar. Velvet channels her magic faster the farther she is from her opponent. Keep them out of your personal space!

Paprika:
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Her name is Paprika and she has a lot of love to give. A LOT. If only she could find somebody to give it to. Somebody. Anybody. She’s not picky. All you need to do is have a heartbeat and she will devote her heart, her life, her very SOUL to your mere existence. And should she have her heart set on you, whatever you do, don’t run. It seems that her neediness and desperation infuses her with some kind of super strength that makes her extremely dangerous! Her hugs are crushing, her declarations of adoration will burst your eardrums. She will leap passionately into your arms – and knock you through a brick wall. Once she decides you are the love of her life, there is no escape. You are doomed. Whenever Paprika the Alpaca is in the mix, love can KILL.

Gameplay: Paprika is quick on her feet and confusing in her approach. Her attacks are bewildering and full of fluff. Don't breathe that! This playful alpaca has tricky movement and specials to confuse opponents. Add even more variables to the fight with her randomized magic attack!

Oleander:
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Oleander has been long known as the Order of the Horn’s resident rebel. Frustrated with the closed mindedness of her people’s philosophies, she longed for progress and new ideas, and she found these in a book. A book of DARK MAGIC. She believes, that harnessed for the right reasons, dark magic is just as good as light magic. But the use of the book and its spells has marked her. Unlike the rest of her clan, her white coat has turned dark and now they turn deaf ears whenever she tries to speak her mind. It’s no matter. She does not need their permission to save Fœnum. And when she does, she’ll prove that darkness is as good as light.

Gameplay: Oleander literally uses every trick in her demonic book to devastate her opponents. As she reads, her power grows and a horrifying creature makes its presence known! Initially Oleander only has enough magic to cast one type of projectile. Her gameplay transforms completely when she gains additional knowledge from reading her book, allowing teleportation, casting of spells mid air and explosive traps!

Pom:
pomwat.png
Instead of roaming Fœnum competing for the key, Pom is doing everything she can to avoid it, but she keeps running into the other Key Seekers. And to make things worse, her puppies’ protective instincts make them formidable fighters. She keeps winning the key! So the other Key Seekers keep tracking her down, picking fights! She’s desperate to find the strength to escape her predicament – but what she doesn't know is that the one little lamb who had the strength to speak her mind just might have the strength to save the world.

Gameplay: Pom is the unwilling leader of a pack of protective puppies. Watch your step, as her supporters are more numerous than you realize! Puppet style gameplay allows you to control Pom and her puppies simultaneously to control a huge part of the battlefield! Bounce your opponent off of a carefully laid obstacle course of puppies for the KO!


Tianhuo:
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For certain she is an intimidating sight, emitting stoic confidence, but not a hint of arrogance. She has no disdain for her opponents. In fact, she greatly admires skill and strength and cannot enjoy a duel unless she faces a combatant who offers her a challenge… and it takes quite a combatant to stand up to her bat-winged, aerial attacks or the force of fire she is able to magically conjure when she reaches her greatest speeds. Indeed, not many are even able to get past the daggers that shoot from her fiery, dragon eyes when she stares you down. No one is more disciplined, no one more determined, and even the Predators’ Champion should beware.

Gameplay: Tianhuo, Captain of the Imperial Guard strikes from above, below and all around! Flexible, aerodynamic, and explosive, she is a real firecracker! Flight-based attacks keep your opponent’s head in the clouds! Cancel any and all of your attacks into her Firecracker Magic attack to overwhelm your opponents, or use it to move quickly across the stage.

Bonuses:
Thanks to Arc Sys and Lab Zero, owners of a few of their games that also buy this will get some cosmetics viewable in the Pixel Lobby of the game!
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Owners of Blazblue Centralfiction on Steam automatically unlock exclusive Jin and Ragna Cosplay cosmetics for all characters in Pixel Lobby.
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Owners of Skullgirls Second Encore on Steam automatically unlock exclusive cosmetic items for the Pixel Lobby: Cerebella's Hat Vice Versa, And Peacock's Hat and Bomb minion George.
CrossPromotion-GuiltyGear.png

Owners of GUILTY GEAR Xrd REV 2 on Steam will automatically unlock exclusive cosmetic items in the Lobby: Sol Badguy's Outfit/Hairstyle, and Ky Kiske's Outfit/Hairstyle, for all characters.

Screenshots:
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Trailer:


FAQ:
Q: Where's the story mode?

A: Due to real life issues troubling those involved with making the story, it has been postponed to a currently unknown date. There will be a free story update in the future however once Mane 6 is able to get its key people available to work on it and their real life issues taken care of. While the delay is unfortunate, the game at least still has every other feature intended for the initial release (Arcade Mode, Survival Mode, Pixel Multiplayer Lobbies, etc.) out with it. Nothing else has been delayed!

Q: Only 6 characters? Is there any hope for more at some point?
A: There is in fact! After being funded in one of the stretch goals for the Indiegogo campaign, a seventh playable goat character is planned for the game as post-launch DLC!

Q: How's the netplay?
A: Fantastic in fact! Them's Fightin' Herds uses GGPro, thus ensuring a smooth online experience.

Q: What about Mac and Linux?
A: While the game is not currently on Mac or Linux, as per the Indiegogo campaign, Mac and Linux versions are planned and should release later in the future!

Official Website
Steam Store Page
IndieGogo
Bandcamp
 
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Oddspeak

Member
Goes without saying that the MLP-influenced art style might push away people who feel "above" it, but this is an extremely legit fighting game with lots of obvious effort and passion put into it. The art is beautiful, the music is catchy, the characters are unique in design and varied in gameplay. Training mode is insanely good and lets you customize damn near every aspect of the AI, all the way down to how often they block and break your throws.

I'm really liking Tianhuo, as I typically enjoy offensive characters.
 

Battlechili

Banned
Buffalo, Deer, Llama, Unicorn, Sheep, but what's the last one? Chupacabra?
Tianhuo is a longma, which is a sort of half horse, half dragon creature from Chinese mythology.
the music is catchy
I've been loving this game since it came out but this in particular I can't stress enough. The music in this game is amazing.
I love Oleander's theme so much:

It sounds like something you'd get out of some final battle or major story fight in a JRPG, which really fits the character's edgier, more serious personality (and probably the least similar to her MLP counterpart in comparison to the others). Really looking forward to seeing her relevance in story mode once that finally comes along. Well, really all of the tracks fit their characters well.
And of course Paprika's battle music is something else
 
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Dr. Claus

Banned
Tianhuo is a longma, which is a sort of half horse, half dragon creature from Chinese mythology.
I've been loving this game since it came out but this in particular I can't stress enough. The music in this game is amazing.
I love Oleander's theme so much:

It sounds like something you'd get out of some final battle or major story fight in a JRPG, which really fits the character's edgier, more serious personality (and probably the least similar to her MLP counterpart in comparison to the others). Really looking forward to seeing her relevance in story mode once that finally comes along. Well, really all of the tracks fit their characters well.
And of course Paprika's battle music is something else


Wow, the music is pretty dang catchy. If this is coming to PS4/Switch I may have to give it a try. Might be a fun little game to play when I babysit my lil' cousins. They are huge fans of anything MLP.
 

Mecha Meow

Member
Grabbed this earlier for a quick and easy $11(seems cheap but, eh, whatever). Will mess around with later tonight and I did enjoy its original incarnation.
 
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woopWOOP

Member
I was randomly thinking about this game a few weeks back, but figured it got quietly cancelled at some point for some reason.

Didn't expect the cosmetic crossovers with Arc System Labs, pretty neat. Game's pretty cheap, I might get this at some point.
 

Battlechili

Banned
Did the dynamic match music system make it in?
Yes! Its really cool. As the fight goes on, depending upon who's winning/beating the other up at the moment and (I think) depending on who has more health , the stage theme will change a bit to reflect that particular character. Each stage has slightly different renditions of it's theme for each character. For example, this is Sunset Prarie if Paprika is winning the fight. And this is Sunset Prarie if Oleander is winning the fight. In addition to this, after each round the stage theme also changes slightly to reflect that another fight is going on. Typically if you've already fought two rounds the final round theme will have a greater sense of finality to it than the first two rounds if that makes any sense music wise.
 
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Nikodemos

Member
Yes! Its really cool. As the fight goes on, depending upon who's winning/beating the other up at the moment and (I think) depending on who has more health , the stage theme will change a bit to reflect that particular character. Each stage has slightly different renditions of it's theme for each character. For example, this is Sunset Prarie if Paprika is winning the fight. And this is Sunset Prarie if Oleander is winning the fight. In addition to this, after each round the stage theme also changes slightly to reflect that another fight is going on. Typically if you've already fought two rounds the final round theme will have a greater sense of finality to it than the first two rounds if that makes any sense music wise.

Awesome! The dynamic combat music is an amazing concept and I'm happy it was retained in the finished product.
More games should use dynamic music. It really adds that personal achievement touch to the progression.
 
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