What Happened to Them's Fightin' Herds | Story Mode Status

[@purrsianplays]

🐐👉UPDATE: Do you love games with MLP inspired characters? YOU gotta take a look at Billie Bust Up... kzbin.info/www/bejne/gWW2epmbgZuKrq8

[@notsodogninja35]

*sigh* I'm already at acceptance phase. I loved this game. Worst part is that the story is 100% written and we won't ever get to see it.

[@pippo17173]

That is where fans come in to fill the blanks at this point.

[@HeilRay]

I'd read a comic if they made one

[@MrKilljay]

​@@HeilRayUnfortunately, they cannot as Modus owns the TFH IP.

[@pixelpawzgaming]

It be better was if a comic.

[@harryshum4139]

@@pippo17173 Don't flatter yourself. Fans would rather trust a mere fabrication, part of a system of lies, rather than commit to the truth.

[@aaronstavely]

This is a well-researched video. Thank you for taking the time to put it together. I can confirm that the resources we asked for (and needed) to develop story mode did not materialize. Perhaps there was more we could have done to convince Modus of its importance, or maybe we could have made further scope reductions to allow to us ship something using fewer staff, but in the end, time ran out.

[@purrsianplays]

Aaron, it means a lot to hear that the timeline and details I presented in this video has your seal of approval. The game industry is full of brutal peaks and valleys - I know this quite well as I’ve worked at a game studio or two myself. I do look forward to the creations that may come from all of you in the future and hope you all are given a new home to do so quite soon. Thank you again for leaving this open and candid comment.

[@aaronstavely]

The game industry, and art in general, is indeed brutal. It's important to understand that these are complex systems and sometimes the hardest choice is the best one in the long run. No one is to blame. We will find a new path, just as we have always done. Keep up the good work.

[@cagejones7757]

​@@aaronstavely over the past 2 years, the time since Modus acquisition, very little was actually delivered, and what was delivered felt rushed at best. When the team's performance is this lacking, there would be objective reasons behind that happening. And there would surely be somebody to blame. As much as I appreciate a developer sharing at least some inside, I wish you would do it in a way others can learn from your mistakes, instead of just dodging all the responsibility.

[@dogman15]

Could you continue making the character spotlight videos you were working on before you started working at Mane6? You've done Arizona and Oleander; it would be great to see the other characters, too. Or at least just Paprika, Velvet, Tianhuo, and Pom.

[@Janfon1]

No NDA stopping you from saying that about Modus? That's odd Shame the publisher deal turned out the way it did, the game seems to have been sentenced to a slow death for a long while. Kudos for holding out as long as the team could despite the circumstances ❤

[@purrsianplays]

12/12 IMPORTANT UPDATE: It has just been announced this morning that the majority of the Mane6 studio have been let go by Modus with the exception of 3 people.

[@Doughboy123x]

Well that sucks. I hope this game can be given new life somehow someday.

[@pirobrony8101]

@@Doughboy123x I agree with you i been livestreaming Them Fightin Herds since it came out to home consoles then Stronghoof came along and I couldn't until newest patch which mostly fix the crashes but it was also bad news as well Since I was huge fan when it came to home consoles I saw the potential ether as animated series comic book more game ideas and much more I even got some story ideas if I came up with comic book idea I got from Mlp TFH Sonic and Zelda but now that the future content is done for now I wanted to focus Them Fightin Herds ideas like fan art livestreaming more now maybe coming up with story ideas ect But no matter what I'm not giving up on Them Fightin Herds the fact that it was Mlp fan game to a actual game still amazed me showing that nothing is impossible

[@unripetheberrby6283]

What! They're the creators! Terrible... :''(

[@LutherKujo]

Lmfao now this is funny,thank god I never bought this boring game

[@noseboop4354]

@@pirobrony8101 Don't give up hope yet, Lauren Faust may do a comic version of the Story mode. At least one other person also expressed interest in doing that.

[@DaCaptainDerpy]

This angers me As an original funder, the story mode was one of my most excited moments of the game.

[@purrsianplays]

The reviews have been sharing this stance too! I saw a screenshot of PM Aaron saying that he realizes they had 2 audiences and a significant part of the audience was like you. Also, story mode’s been a staple of tons of fighting games. The only popular game that doesn’t necessarily have one is Virtua Fighter.

[@Zero254]

Virtua fighter has anime and a game centered around story(on game gear lol). It definitely had endings also which puts it ahead of this game even in it's most primitive form.@@purrsianplays

[@purrsianplays]

@@Zero254 Fair point!

[@Galgus2000]

I only joined in 3.0, so it's nice to have a summary of the game's history. It seems like a case of poor planning and not enough resources. TFH still has a healthy and friendly community with plenty of small biweekly online tournaments, and what story we got is nice. I'd still say it's a great game that will keep on kicking, though it may be doomed to be more niche than it deserves.

[@purrsianplays]

Good on the community!

[@SBaby]

@@purrsianplays Yeah, bronies still like it. The thing is, this fandom tends to get things done (the fact that we have the game at all and that people play it competitively is proof). So I wouldn't rule out the possibility of someone coming along and finishing it later.

[@disgustof-riley]

They had resources. They just also had some of the most unprofessional community moderators known to man

[@SBaby]

@@disgustof-riley It was Modus that was the problem. They confirmed it was a lack of resources. Nothing to do with community moderators.

[@gilla2092]

This is crazy i was JUST looking back at this game yesterday and checked and saw that with days away from 2024, they hadnt released any other 2023 DLC yet. I knew something was definitely off then, what an informing video though thank you for your time gathering all this!!

[@purrsianplays]

Thank you! I found out the news in a very similar way. It’s encouraging to hear, based on what I’m seeing so far, that people want to still keep the community around this game alive. We’ll see how things go moving forward.

[@pippo17173]

This entire projects shows that the main 6 did not evolve from making the fan game. It also doesnt help when the game suffer the fate as overwatch when they tried to make two game.

[@sporetv57]

Two months after this video's release and with the final DLC Nidra and Baihe arriving on February 22nd, the game is somehow in an even worse state. With more of the development team getting fired, this resulted in the characters being broken, unfinished, and making the game unfair for many. I am extremely disappointed by the state of this game. I really want to get my hands on Nidra, but after seeing videos of how broken they are (especially Baihe since she can crash the game) I cannot bring myself to play Them's Fightin Herds anymore. The damage has already been done, and everything feels too late since more DLC is coming to big fighting titles such as Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1, Guilty Gear Strive, and many more. This is a spit in the face of the community. Modus needs to get their crap together. Update: Them's Fightin Herds has been patched to fix Nidra and Baihe's problems. Unfortunately, this is still not enough for me to come back. I can't bring myself to buy a painfully unfinished game worth $20 on Steam due to poor mismanagement.

[@thetruebloodchannel6194]

Honestly, it's a shame the publishers didn't agree to at least some physical form of the completed story like a book or graphic novel. Maybe one day

[@Zephora_and_ate333]

Soon..very soon...

[@deejayf69]

Hearing this devastating news only now really sucks. Not only will the game never get its well-deserved story mode, but the game won't be getting any more updates?! On top of that, most of the staff of Mane6 was let go... Definitely a dark timeline we live in.

[@Liz66.]

I feel the same. Suddenly, I remembered this game exists and was excited to see any new updates, just to get real shocked about what was happening. My only comfort is to know no one is really surprised at this point.

[@Zero254]

I love how through one circumstance or another, they ended up putting off the thing that people wanted most from this game on a casual point of view. Shame on them. Can only put it off for so long.

[@Synthiewavu]

This is really unfortunate. Personally one of the best indie games I’ve played especially written by the legendary Lauren Faust

[@GammaBrace]

Amazing video! It was super informative and a pleasure to watch! Really glad other people are spreading the word about TFH. Keep up the amazing content!

[@purrsianplays]

It really is a game with a lot of attention to detail and the minds behind it clearly built in-depth characters/backstories. Thank you so, so, so much for your kind words!

[@UniqueHybridDragon]

This is upsetting to hear. I've been looking forward to this game for sometime. The support from all over was already enough of reason to keep me interested. I'm still going to keep my physical copy for the Switch, & buy the Season 1 pass when I have the money. Maybe development of this game can return someday. There have been Miracles within the Gaming Industry before.

[@zootddrnl]

Sad that season pass have only 2 characters extra

[@TheManofBrisk]

Between this and the Skullgirls censorship fiasco, it seems the indie fighting game scene just can't catch a break. As far as the comparisons to Overwatch 2 for an unfinished story mode, the points I'll give Mane6 over Blizzard is that they're a much smaller company and that they didn't lie to their user base. If you didn't know, Blizz decided before the release of OW2 that the story campaign would be severely watered down and not what was promised, yet still continued to hype it up before release in order to keep players on the hook, with continued assurance that "it's coming soon, just be patient!" even though the dev team knew it wasn't happening anymore. I don't know who to blame for the story mode problems for either TFH or OW2, but it has to be put on someone.

[@purrsianplays]

My jaw still drops about the forced silence regarding the original OW2 plans. In regards towards Blizzard, it does feel like they put the devs on the firing line and the decision to completely alter the way campaigns mode would be handled feels more like a decision enforced by execs.

[@ivanyy]

It's a shame that Skullgirls has to go through so much stuff even today, but at least we got the new soviet announcer and Marie+ new balance changes soon, so I'm happy.

[@G1ingy]

Wait wtf, what happened to Skullgirls?!

[@violetthebat8810]

​@@G1ingy Political Correctness Happened... ;(

[@pastelpurpledeathbed]

@@violetthebat8810”political correctness happened” 🤓

[@Zodia195]

I honestly forgot about this game. I definitely remember the MLP fan game. Heck even Death Battle used footage of it when they did their Pinkie Pie and Deadpool battle. But I do remember hearing about how Lauren Faust got involved too. I am not into fighting games as much as I used to be when I was younger. I think it's because I got tired of getting pounded by my brothers, especially my youngest when playing Super Smash Bros Mele and Brawl lol. Great video overall Poetess! It had to be hard and tedious to get all of that background information. Now I believe IF you make ANY promises, you need to keep them. I think the game devs should have been 100% sure they would be able to deliver on those promises. That's just me though.

[@purrsianplays]

I really do hope backers get those physical rewards. I know resources are tight however, it would be a much nicer way to finally tie the knot on this bow. It would also help the steam reception too because many got vocal when this news broke. Thanks for compliment as well - tried out a lot of new things with this video! ❤️

[@SBaby]

I'm guessing that Modus itself must not be doing well if they let most of the development team go from one of their most popular games.

[@honeybeeami2654]

I am honestly stunned that there wasn’t more of an attempt to market this game. Most people familiar with it is due to them already knowing fighting is magic or being in the MLP community. I’m sure this came could’ve been more popular thanks to the charm and aesthetic that’s recognizable from other fighters but its like they didn’t fully take advantage.

[@disgustof-riley]

They could've but chose not to, because some of the head members of the team were too proud to do so

[@retelefe]

I had this game in favorites on the e-shop for the longest, I was very frustrated long time ago when I read about Fighting is Magic getting shut down by Hasbro, I was a big MLP fan back then. I still haven't played it but now knowing the backstory behind I want to support it, I hope something good comes out in the end. Like Skullgirls, it had a long time with no updates, even the core creators behind it left, and then they announced a whole season pass of new characters, so never lose hope! I love Lauren Faust's work, she should buy the IP or something if the current owners don't want to do anything with it...

[@PragmatikReviews]

Really good summarizing here. Weird to think the full history of this game having so many ups and downs. I guess at the most they should try to get out what's promised, though it's hard to say if it will be to that quality they strived for. I've heard the dlc characters are particularly overpowered at the moment.

[@purrsianplays]

Thanks for the praise! Yeah all of this is unfortunate. The new character designs are so solid and appealing. It’s such a blow that balancing issues will distract from that.

[@PragmatikReviews]

@purrsianplays Yeah, I remember enjoying their presentation, but I've heard some horror stories from tournaments, so hopefully these issues can eventually be addressed and fixed to bring the game to what it needs to be. Keep up the great work!

[@dddaaa6965]

I was expecting this channel to be wayyy bigger with this much research and editing, looks like making those shorts paid off lol, great video, awesome channel that’s going to blow up one day.

[@purrsianplays]

Goodness you’re making me blush and smile! It’s definitely been a project that’s been a joy to work on. I appreciate the kind words 💕

[@Grape_Rush_Goat]

Bad news. As someone from the future, I can confirm that everything went to s**t and Modus is an awful company. The game is officially completely dead with (basically) no one from the mane 6 team left, leaving the game in an unfinished, buggy, unbalanced state. I hate Modus.

[@Liz66.]

It's really sad the game will only be remembered as this for the future generations.

[@Grape_Rush_Goat]

@@Liz66. without a doubt. Just another craphole of a fighter, it would seem…

[@huskyplay_66]

there are always some failures with MLP fan games... MLP Fighting-IM was closed due to copyright issues, they decided to make a separate TFH game, and something happened to it.. :(

[@PeiceofNick]

This game died after EVO 2020 got cancled and the game never game back agin and thats a hill I will die on to this day.

[@Sabata101]

As some one who backed the game but has already got their rewards, I do think that Mane 6 should follow through with what they promised just to keep some good will. A kind of hindsight view, they probably should have not promised some physical awards like a fight stick cause cost or a physical pc version cause of practicality and how most pcs now don’t have an optic drive. Also a better compromise could have been the team stating that they’re putting a pause on story mode and working on other projects for Modus to get some funds to continue. Buuuuuut I’m not a game dev so I’m not sure if that could be a solution.

[@sauvagess]

They literally can't, Modus fired the development team.

[@Sabata101]

@@sauvagess well that sucks to hear.

[@MetaSynForYourSoul]

I slept on this game and was hype cuz I saw dlc trailers. I saw it was on sale and I bought it, 2 WEEKS BEFORE THIS ALL GOES DOWN!!!🤬

[@LobbsterSockrates]

Man ive been waiting FOREVER for more story mode content Every so often id check into see if there were more updates on how it was going so i was REALLY disappointed to hear they were cancelling development

[@otaking3582]

Between this and Skullgirls, the lesson seems to be "don't trust indie fighting game devs with your money".

[@JoseRodriguez-mj1qm]

Or in Mane6 case... don't cooperate with shady companies?

[@otaking3582]

@@JoseRodriguez-mj1qm Also true

[@G1ingy]

What happened to Skullgirls?

[@otaking3582]

@@G1ingy They kicked out the co-creator over stuff that verifiably didn't happen, decided to heavily censor the game that people had already paid for, and compared the fanbase to literal trash.

[@Liz66.]

@@otaking3582 Omg, the game was crazy criative, but I knew deep down something was shady

[@theremix54]

Shockingly great view, I saw you had 200 subs and was shocked. Keep at it. your style is great.

[@serPomiz]

at least they focussed on the core of the game, before getting stuck in the swamp of long-to-produce-content that the story mode was. as someone that has been on-board since the start, and has some light professional behind-the-courtain experience, I've seen this coming from a mile away, but it's still very sad. the game is still a breath of fresh air and completely different approach from the others, and the acquisition from the publisher really didn't help it. with the team being let go, there may be some more to say on the matter after the holidays, but I don't believe there will be nay more lines of code touched on the game

[@ThePillent]

This is one of those games that I absolutely adore to watch but don't play myself (even if I got the game on release.) Sadly as someone who goes on steamcharts for fun, I've seen this coming for years. I've always hoped that something would happen! That something would eventually give and the game would explode. Would it be Lauren Fausts love for the project? That they got help from the Skullgirls team? That they got into EVO and youtubers/streamers are talking about them? That they have some really awesome dlc characters? Alas, it never happened. It's truly heartbreaking. But despite the cancelation of the storymode and the eventual shutdown of the game, the core of what's there seems really good. A lot of people I've watched love the mechanics and the tutorials. The music and art are completely in a league of their own. It's sad to see it go despite it all. But it made great with what it had.

[@JacobAllen918]

5:29 Tease of a future stream! Love it!! This video was very informative and entertaining! It was cute how you popped up on some of the screens, and we finally got to see Purrsian's full model!

[@purrsianplays]

He he he - I got lots up my sleeve! Can’t wait for what’s coming next 🐱

[@B4dr4bbit]

O was shown Chris Sabat stag and Franky bull, so I bought the game recently.

[@Galgus2000]

There's still a friendly community around it, with a lot of small tournaments on various Discords: including two Discords geared for newer players. If learning the PvP interests you, I'd recommend checking them out.

[@pokekitty2748]

I've been bumbed about this man. The games great but with better planning it could've shined even brighter

[@ianmitchell5979]

It really is tragic what happened to this game. It really felt like like this was gonna be the break from bad gaming news we needed when 1.0 first launched. But really, development and just general stuff going on behind the scenes was much more of a mess. This is a VERY well made video BTW, both in editing and research.

[@takokiba4852]

I will never get over this one, i loved this game

[@LunaMinuna]

Also with voice actors they Got Dio from Jojo bizarre adventure, Ragna the Bloodedge from blazblue(even cross promotion has a Ragna hair and chest plate), and Samson from Skullgirls(also cross promotion), as Patrick Seitz they could have done the same with him as well

[@Sucrosaicin]

This video is an excellent one, made clear and simple points. I bought them's fightin herds a few months before I learned that they were ceasing development. It's a shame because TFH would have been my first ever fighting game. Ah well, I least I got it when it was on sale. I also had a feeling Mane 6 ran out of money or something similar, since I haven't seen any updates in a while. It wasn't until I saw a video a different content creator made that I learned the news. However, I'm not mad or anything at the devs, not really disappointed either. At least we had something, even if it's not completed. I do wish the devs success in their future endeavors, maybe even come back to TFH some day, if that's even possible. One thing that bugs me though is the way the community reacted to the news. Leaving negative reviews in mass quantities isn't going to do anything but draw other people away from the game. I understand why they're upset, but still. TFH was Mane 6's first ever game (if you don't count MLP: fighting is magic), I'm sure they'll take the experiences they learned from it and do better.

[@harryshum4139]

Well, you can't blame them either. They're already promised with the full story mode of all of the base characters (plus Shanty) years ago when the game is in the crowdfunding stage.

[@Sucrosaicin]

@@harryshum4139 I know I can't blame the players as I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of broken promises. I just think that they should look at the positives. For one, the devs said that they're going to follow through on at least some of the promises from the crowdfund, albeit with some changes to make sure that every cent is put to good use. If I remember correctly, the story was completed, they just needed either money or the go ahead from Modus to put it in the game. What I think the devs should probably do is let us see the full story, even if it's in text form. I don't know if they can, but if they could, I would see it as an apology of sorts and maybe us creators and players could make animations and such from it. Who knows, if the devs and Modus see that people still like the game, maybe they'll figure something out and continue TFH in the future. But I guess that's just wishful thinking, huh?

[@disgustof-riley]

You absolutely should blame them. People like Cam should've been fired for unprofessionalism forever ago. They shot themselves in the food. Nappy is really the only person I feel bad for here

[@Sucrosaicin]

@@disgustof-riley Do you mean the devs? Why should they be blamed? I know about the broken promises (my original comment). I don't know everyone who worked on TFH, except for Aaron, Lauren, and the people who made MLP: FiM (If any of them continued to make TFH, I don't know). I also don't know who has controversy and who doesn't (you mentioned Cam for being unprofessional).

[@CraftyArts]

I mean i didnt back anything but id rather have a complete single player then a sound track, since playing online is good if you like watching strangers do endless 20 string combos on you.

[@LyndanTylor]

I was really enjoying the story mode, especially since I don't really enjoy fighting other players. I was using the story mode to help engage me enough to ease me into learning the game so I could start playing against real players at some point. However, after hitting the dreaded TO BE CONTINUED... I was extremely disappointed. I was loving the game and the world they seemed to have crafted, but after paying for a game just to find out it's unfinished, then waiting for them to finish it just to find that they AREN'T WORKING ON IT?? But they have been making a SEASON PASS?! Nah this is just ridiculous.

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

Damn that sucks. I was really hoping to finish the story mode ... still its a miracle that the game was finisged at all considering that it went from a ran game to original project Developing a game in the best of times is a nightmare even when you have a mega corporation backing you. Still I really hope the story mode gets finished one day Ugh

[@ultramaster7893]

They can’t just abandon the story mode like this! I was looking forward to seeing more chapters! 😭😡

[@ZzigZaG00NIN]

Would be cool if they could somehow get the written story out at least

[@girogirosantos]

MY GOD WHY, BECAUSE THIS IS HAPPENING, MY PASSION WAS INCREASING MORE AND MORE AND MORE AND THIS HAPPENS 😔😔😔

[@macbrebonicks8668]

Yo Herd to yo mother!

[@zootddrnl]

Its sad i have a Season pass and we never going to see Nidra etc 😭😢

[@fmc291]

It’s too bad, because the concept is really interesting

[@PeiceofNick]

This game offically died the moment it never was allowed back for EVO. It was only a matter of time until the corpse fully decayed.

[@joaquinvanhouten]

it's over... we are screwed. there is nothing we can do. but i'm still happy with what we got.

[@AverageEggmonEnthusiast]

This is such a shame. I loved this game and was really hoping the story was just on the back burner and would be out eventually.

[@renamon5658]

Well things change all the time. Maybe story mode will get made

[@GuiltlessGear]

Never trust a publisher. I can't understand how anyone could see being acquired by one as a good thing. They take as much as 30 to 70% of a cut of your revenue, in exchange for...what? promoting the game? Something anyone can do now in the digital age for themselves? How about these wholly undefined "resources" that the mane6 team apparently needed to do their job? There's clearly no guarantee you'll get them, as painfully demonstrated here, and now the team has been gutted, in much the same way done by EA countless times in the past. You don't need a publisher.

[@JDReC100]

game design is...more complicated than people like to admit

[@disgustof-riley]

They wanted to get the porta out because people were begging for them

[@middyjohn]

how unfortunate, perhaps the visioned game was too ambitious for modus the indie publisher to give them any more resources or miscommunication. Furthermore, its a furry cartoon pony fighter stacked against tekken8, sf6, ggst, anime fighters etc and not a lot of mlp fans too fond of fgc. Financially, hard to convince for more resources for TFH, which is already high production value

[@RiderOfKarma]

Awww poor herds

[@macbrebonicks8668]

Ya Herd Me!

[@Powerfantasyforever]

Oleander deserved better than this

[@sergiok6660]

Are they at least finishing the season pass i paid for??

[@purrsianplays]

According to the last update, Nidra and Baihe are planned to be released in an early 2024 6.0 update. They have 3 team members left to check for final bugs and issues. Modus let the rest of the staff go.

[@sergiok6660]

@@purrsianplays damn. This is such a bummer

[@zootddrnl]

​@@purrsianplaysi dont think it hets released ever

[@eclat4641]

I have it on ps4 😊

[@otomeroid]

Dang I feel bad for them... Welp time to move on...

[@Dr.trolly]

Mid game

[@cyxceven]

As an original backer of both Skullgirls and TFH, I am so disappointed in the stewards of both franchises. I won't be supporting crowdfunds any more due to this.

[@PeiceofNick]

Remider Skullgirls actually got a proper comeback. S9mething Thems Fighting Herd will never get.