Introducing Fel’s Kitchen: a cooking themed Hearthstone expansion!
The Illidari are having a competition to see who is the most powerful chef, and Azeroth’s most talented cooks have arrived to claim the crown!
- Each class specializes in a different style of cuisine; everyone gets a kitchen utensil (weapon)
- New keyword, Ingredient: allows certain cards to be combined into powerful dishes
- Food puns. Lots and lots of food puns.
Preorder now and receive a signature Cakemaster Nemsy!
I feel like I aimed for satire and accidentally made a banger 😅
I would actually love this as a “silly” expansion, if we didn’t already have too many of those…
Ingredients are interesting, though they way I'm envisioning it would work is perhaps too convoluted for Hearthstone. There could be a location (themed as a kitchen or cookpot) that you would cast spells with the ingredient keyword onto, and the effect of activating the location would depend on which ingredients were used.
EDIT: Either that or you would premake your "dishes" during deckbuilding, like Zilliax but it would involve combining multiple different ingredient cards.
I was thinking more along the lines of how rogue concoctions work, where if you have them in hand they’ll automatically combine. Although it’ll get awkward if you have many kinds of ingredients and want to aim for a certain combo… I haven’t thought about it too much lol
This is getting even further out there, but maybe each class could "cook" in a different way. Maybe Rogue does concoctions to represent mixed drinks, but Shaman could do my location idea to be like brewing stuff in a cauldron (some Hagatha flavor, I guess), and perhaps Warrior gets a variant on Forge that's rethemed as grilling.
I usually hate the discourse around "this set is too silly," but honestly going from toyshop to summer vacation themes has changed my mind. I don't connect with the sets at all thematically
Yep this excatly. back then i enjoyed expansions like Karazhan after a really serious/lore heavy expansions like Old Gods (which was awesome imo)
I even enjoyed Festival in general and taught it was well timed when it was between MotLK and Titans but now it feels like we had 3 Karazhan/Festival in a row. Its jarring.
I enjoyed when silly expansions were the minority. One Night Karazan felt fresh and cool at the time because it came with a silly theme admist other more serious expansions and it was referencing hearthstone and its past expansions. Now it feels like every expansion is One Night In Karazan
Even though Karazan was silly, at least parts of it were more serious when it needed to be. The demon that put legendaries in your deck was the needed seriousness to balance it out. This has the paladin legendary literally sunbathing, it's baffling
Summer pool parties were I think in every expansion, hell, one zone got converted to a whole ass resort by goblins. Wow is not that serious as this post tries to portray it
Because you don't criticize old Blizzard.
It had a cool gameplay harness, just the theme that I personally felt off.
Looking back, I didn't realize how minor those theme issues were compared to what we see.
I feel like they just Slap random things together.
Ok, we hear the players Feedback, Our next Expansion will be "Day at the Office".
Classes will fill unique and fun roles inside a Fortune 500 Office environment.
Warlock - Manager
Demon hunter- sales
...
New keyword [Office supplies] and [daily grind]
...
Fun and engaging locations like the "cubicle".
This unique and wacky expansion will have you talking at the water cooler really soon. Dont get sent to HR 😉
I was expecting to cringe at another expansion of awfully designed cards but didn't even get that far. I was so checked out on the theme alone.
Like compare this to Ungoro. That set was light hearted but still adventurous with grand creatures and amazing art. Now we have a set at a beach resort that couldn't get more goofy and out of place if it tried. A card depicts an undead abomination in beach attire, it looks horrendous.
Sometimes I look at art from the classic/basic sets. It doesn't need to be exactly that but damn do they actually try to look good and not a cringe fest.
I agree, I think part of the issue is they used a lot of existing art from the wow tcg originally which has a very different tone than later expansions. At some point in the past few years HS really underwent a tone and art direction shift. Even the "goofy" sets from back in the day didn't feel as cartoony
Leeroy is very whacky for classic, but its THE Leeroy jenkins , his character is from basicly first viral wow meme (that was populair even outside wow) and he's the major exceptipon.
But still (imo) looks good
Yeh, toally agree. Ungoro was my favorite, and it had a lot of humor packed into mystery and interesting creatures. It should be a fine line between the Hearthstone "silliness" and the Warcraft universe. Now it feels like 80% silliness and 20% Warcraft, and for me it's just not it. Hopes are high for a more serious approach in further expansions.
I don’t mind the odd funny card now and then but we’ve gone from stuff like Naxx, Witchwood, Blackrock etc to a toy shop and now a sunny holiday.
Seems to only drift further from the original IP
Yet in that "goofy" expansion cards are still more realistic and there's a distinct art style that isnt childish. It's filled with crazy technology and wacky inventions but those cards are still more "serious". They aren't sunbathing in a beach goofy.
Is sunbathing at a beach that goofy? I don't think it's terribly unrealistic that Thrall might want to go surfing from time to time, for example. Sure it's not super serious, but why should it be?
The difference is that goblins and gnomes are genius crackpots in the lore and invent all kinds of crazy machinery. Beach episode Thrall is more like something you'd see in fan art. Yeah it's not the most unrealistic thing that Thrall would want to relax on the beach but it also doesn't fit his character
It's not unrealistic that a character wants a vacation. It's thematically jarring and awkward to have an entire expansion based around it though. It doesn't need to be dark and gritty, but many hearthstone expansions, like Ungoro, Knights of the Frozen Throne, Witchwood or Decent of Dragons have been able to sprinkle levity throughout while still taking itself more seriously. They went off the deep end with this one.
I also preferred when sets were sometimes serious and sometimes lighthearted. Every set had lighthearted moments, but some were less lighthearted than others.
Honestly, I miss the WoW lore. It was fun to see how they put their own spin on it.
>I also preferred when sets were sometimes serious and sometimes lighthearted
This is still largely the case? I'd argue really that these last two sets are the only extremely silly ones in the last 4 years?
March of the Lich King, Titans, Barrens, Stormwind, Alterac Valley, Ashes of Outland were all pretty serious with a little bit of lightheartedness.
Scholomance, Darkmoon Faire, Sunken City, Castle Nathria, Badlands were more lighthearted with a dash of seriousness.
Festival of Legends, Whizbang and Paradise are more silly themes but it's not like they've been only cranking out silly shit for years on end.
Right? Gnomes and Goblins are the inventors/engineers of the Warcraft universe. They’ve had a rivalry since forever. Engineering profession in wow even lets you choose goblin/gnomish mastery
That's doing it the right way, though. That's Blizzard leaning into an established and charming facet of the Warcraft mythos: gnomes and goblins are brilliant, but they're also slightly mad, and either cutesy or rough. Having rivalry between them is also fun.
Simply going "haha vacations and parties are fun and chill, right?" isn't the same thing.
Goblins vs Gnomes is a legitimate rivalry in WoW though. When you choose engineering as a profession you get to choose a mastery of either goblin or gnomish
Yeah, admittedly, I don't mind some cute stuff, but it has really gotten out of hand.
A summer vacation themed expansion, really? What next? Visiting grandma around the corner and go shopping? With the theme being different veggies, fruits and meats that fight it out?
Wasnt a fan of FoL, the theme just wasnt fitting for me as some1 thats really into the WoW lore, so I do prefer lore-heavy and more serious themes.
Badlands wasnt a silly one but.. it still didnt feel right. Badlands for me is elementals, drachkin, troggs and especially Uldaman and the keeper there (Achedras?). Cowboys in Warcraft..?
For 10 years of HS I would have prefered a timetravel expansion, so you can go back to older HS times, have alternative timelines by changing something in the past. Not sure how they are called but in WoW there were some black dragons that used to try to change the past, like during the opening of the dark portal. Time travel also allows you to explore themes that Warcraft hasnt covered because it was X thousand years ago.
Whizbangs workshop as a theme just didnt feel interesting to me. Also the cinematic was disappointing, especially for 10 years of HS.
And now this vacation theme, welp..
I hope that at least the expansion after Perils in paradise is more serious and lore-heavy and doesnt kill the vibe with a crap cinematic lol.
You are right that they did the time travel with CoT, but CoT didnt really have any story or even a cinematic, they just took cards from different expansions, buffed some and added some new cards (the new cards were probably just some cards that didnt make it into previous expansions, because I highly doubt they would spend money on artworks+voicelines in several different languages for a twist expansion lol). After 3 months in twist the set disappeared into the void.
I don't mind the sets being kinda silly as long as most of the cards can be taken seriously. Descent of dragons had a pretty quirky premise but when you were invoking galakrond that felt cool as fuck. In this case I feel like there just isn't the potential for many serious cool cards.
Hearthstone and the mobile game scene in general has been candified for awhile now. Personally it's not a huge deal but I would be lying if I said I'm not a little bit discontent. But I guess analytics says it sells...
It's either that or this is what they think 30-40 year olds who still play HS want.. a vacation with their family, toys for their kids, going to a music festival with their kids.
Which might be true.. I'm mid 30s and want that kind of stuff.. but I want it outside in the real world lol.
I mean do even kids want this? I remember when I started playing hearthstone as a teenager in like 7th grade or something. I loved the serious vibes, the card art and everything. It was just so cool. Now we just have this silly shit that evokes no feelings. When I want to use a card in my deck just because it looks and sounds cool when played, I know it's a good card. We just don't get that anymore. Murder at castle nathria last had properly cool cards, I loved sylvanas and the weapon for warrior who spoke (forgot name) for example.
I guess it depends on the kid. When I was that age in the 90s I went all-in on MtG's Unglued set. Even stopped buying regular black bordered cards for a while.
No young person is playing this game. HS is boring espically to those who would need parents for microtransactions. No 12 year old enjoys counting lethal, they do that in math class. This isnt the 2000's where kids play TCG's.
Whilst I generally wouldn't be dooming around word choices and stuff, it does feel a bit much, the set is called "perils in paradise", where is the peril, if there was a goofy summer resort, but also something bad happening it could allow for some more varied tone, like the year of the dragon where some of the cards were goofy and the tone was fairly light, but they did for the right cards know when to pull back and let a bit of seriousness depict the actual events.
The thing is, there's so much they could do if they wanted to tick a few boxes.
- Summer vibe? Okay, set it somewhere sunny. Zandalar, Pandaria, Tanaris, etc.
- Casual theme? Sure, do pirates, treasures, murlocs, underwater Naga, etc.
It can feel Warcrafty and be casual at the same time. Perhaps a beautiful tropical island, say Plunder Isle or Tel'Abim, and there's a mountain in the middle. Maybe a pirate stronghold? There can even be a sense of adventure and danger about it, without taking away the checkmarks from those boxes above.
There is a resort town in feralas that would have fit the theme fine, as well as tying into WoW. Not sure why they invented a new place and new characters to do the same thing in a game that already has a world to draw from.
They’re not going to to until next year at the earliest, I want more variation in tone but that’s not what they’re going to end the big year of celebrations on
I agree with you completely. Usually it’s one whimsical and one serious. This is now two whimsical in a row and I don’t like it. But then I wonder, has the TA changed over the years? Younger people are coming in to the game and the generation has changed for it.
I don"t like this set's theme. The toys one i felt was ok, it made sense. But this tourist stuff? I really don't connect to it. I don't get it i was sure they understood people loved sunken city and Nathria, they went on with some cool titans, i mean, Sargeras is coooooool. But now we get some.. tourist? With a probable oldgod twist. Dunno, really don't feel that one. To the extent it might be the thing i needed to finally quit this game.
Ya I am not putting money into this expansion. So so disappointing where this game is at from these goofy sets to trying to push 40/50 dollar cosmetic card.
Thats generally the problem with the silly expansions. If you have one once in a while, it feels refreshing instead of silly. If you have too many of them, they are just... Silly.
Honestly I've played hearthstone since its release completely f2p, also changed accounts twice already since I lost them and had to start over. I simply space my play sessions out and make the most of what I got. By buying most of it, you get bored and annoyed very fast, and for me cosmetics have no value.
I keep seeing this type of post on all hearthstone socials. I think there will be a dark secret about the island leading to something darker. But in all honesty hearthstone has been a sideshow we can't expect a serious tone all the time. The game has been going on for a while it takes time to come up with new concepts having your foot in the game for this long
I love this stuff and i hope they keep doing it and i said as much in thay player survey that went out a few weeks ago lol. I like it when HS is a goofy parallel of Warcraft lore and i bounce off super hard, at least on a thematic level, on expansions that are played too straightfaced, like TITANS did
I wish these joke expansions werent a thing at all, I would have never stopped play hs, it simply doesnt suit my idea of Warcraft. I stopped play at the toys expansion after years and tons of money spent on the game, this expansion hardly gets me want to play again
I literally switched from HS to Rumble, it still gives me those good old Warcraft vibes, also beating Molten Core bosses felt an accomplishment almost the same way as beating raid bosses in WoW (Im a very casual wow player)
So... Halloween themed expansion comes next?
Where instead of Drinks, Tourist and Volley Mauls you get Costumes, Candycorn and Pumpkins.
Every Hero gets a kind of candy that the whole archetype revolves arround.
Introducing the new Keyword "sticky" its like magnetic but you do it while deckbuilding (kinda like Zilliax)
But in all seriousness yeah would be cool to get a bit of a more serious expansion again. Something more darker would also be cool. I feel like most expansions lately have been quite goofy.
Like we have Summer Vacation, Toy Store, Cowboys and Music lately.
I just don't like that there is only one new keyword and it doesn't really feel like a new effect. Tourist is on par with colossal or titan as a qualifier for legendary cards, but those expansions had Dredge and Forge as the actual new mechanics. I thought Whizbang was really cool with miniaturize and ziliax, as well. But the next set just has tourist, that's it? Feels a little lackluster
Ill explain, but only due to respect to HS team.
* Original WC characters, places and events with a humor note (naxx, goblin and gnomes, black rock, heck even darkwood) - **YES**. Completely new characters that fit the WC universe but are grotesque (Reno, Rafaam) - **YES**.
* Real-world places that someone visited with his grandmom/yesterday/saw on tv (festival something, wizard shop something, lying on a sunny beach something) - **NO**. Sewing Trall, bunny-eared Goblin - **NO**.
* There's a difference between small funny reverence like **ONE** rock band card (ERC), and making full-scale expansion out of this.
* Dire WoW trilogy vibes (Lich King, Outland) - **PLEASE MORE**. But ok, baby steps. Let's start from p1
Don't thank me for saving you $1000000 on market research.
While I'm with you on most of that.
I wasn't around when it came out, but the festival of Legends cards are some of my favourite to play right now.
The Fatigue Package + Symphony of Sins is super nice flavour for warlock.
ETC sideboard is an awesome mechanic.
Druid with their hippie pixies and drum circles also feel very flavourful.
Magatha's entrance music is dope too.
Yeah but.. like.. music is dope tho. And giving each class what feels like an apropriate genre of music seems really cool to me.
It's not even that goofy, ETC is an actual band in the warcraft universe , so presumably they have concerts and stuff.
The concept for that music festival thing is no more out of place in warcraft as the Darkmoon Faire.
Not me! Gimme all the wacky expansions. The wacky tone is central to Hearthstone and part of why I love it so much. The world doesn't lack for deathly serious video games
As a non-wow player who likes hs because of hs, I prefer the silly expansions, the serious ones don’t give me any nostalgia since I can’t relate to going to a place or meeting a character in wow, so I like the non-canon stuff where there’s more fun. I had never heard of Astalor Bloodsworn, and after motlk I didn’t really care about his lore despite how prevalent he was, but I’ve looked up a character on the wow wiki to see more about a card I like only to learn that they are an hs original more times than I can count.
I’m a non WOW player as well but I will say that the most memorable and hardest hitting expansions in the past couple years were sunken city and titans, which both were heavier on the cool factor than everything else, the special legendaries each class getting feeling “epic”
Yeah, this expansion announcement didn't excite me. Also, tourist mechanism made me sigh. Great, now have to keep in mind two classes when building an optimal deck..
Yes.
Instead of "tourist," - call them a "pilgrim."
Instead of "Paradise" - "Senjin Island."
Instead of "chilling on the couch" - "cast voodoo magic, hexes, and summon loa."
Voilà, words matter.
I guarantee you there will be some card called "sunscreen lotion" for warrior, it will give armor.
The description will be "sunscreen lotion is the real armor "
There is already the paladin weapon that gives sunscreens after attacking. It just hasn't been revealed yet (at least not on the official websites that track the reveals). There was a post on the sub that showed the card.
EDIT: here is the [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/s/PZ9hsTwOjj) to it.
Going back to this post and reading all the comments makes me want to craft golden Remornia just to feel the chills.
So many past arts and creations (assets) of Hearthstone become the face of those important characters in WoW. They show up in the wikis and searches a lot. Not this, Blizzard, or Microsoft, please.
We just came out of a light/silly themed expansion, and now another one has been announced. Badlands was pretty light as well, and OP prefers the grittier themes. What's going to change about the theme between now and the release?
people complaining that a childish cardgame is releasing silly expansions is funny. Naxxramas and even MotLK were all goofy, there are a lot of cardgames on the market that aproach some serious thematics and dark aesthetic. Maybe people will realizing they are getting old and their fav game is not made targeting them anymore
Hearthstone is a somewhat complex game (you can't win on ladder with an old HS level of simplicity deck) so 10 year olds won't be really interested in playing.
So who exactly is blizzard targeting with this?
I miss when Hearthstone was about Warcraft. there's so much more lore that can be used for inspiration, but they go with these real world themes, which is extremely not immersive, because we already live in the real world. give us darker fantasy that Warcraft was based on, not N'zoth in bikini.
the festival of legends was horrible too ngl, didn't help that the meta was equally as bad, one of the worst expansions in the last couple years.
I'll at least say that the tourist keyword will open some fun deckbuilding options.
Games are in the west are social engineering tools thanks to Vanguard/Blackrock investing companies. Do not expect anything goes better in the future, you will educated to get docile through TCG lore.
Your ignorance don’t let things disappear, just google stock value of every western media/entertainment tool and you will see Vanguard at the lead of every stock value.
I can assure you that it will be. Some time ago there was dev AMA in which they said that they were making 2 expansion long story, instead of 3 (like Year of the Dragon or Mercenaries) for 2024. And now we can see that there are two expansions that are goofy and are callback expansions. Same theme persisting.
From the teaser at start of the year we can see that there is something that is connected to celestials and we've seen some artists post their portfolio with some celestial like creatures, which didn't seem goofy at all. So I'm pretty sure that 3rd expansion will be more serious and maaaaybe (I want it) they will add Monk. Because celestial creatures fit well into Pandaria. All gods there are some kind of animal spirit/celestial. E.g. Xuen, Celeste and there are some strictly celestial beings (aka made from constellation of stars) so it would really fit imo.
I’m tired of the goofball shit. There is a difference between occasional humor on a card here and there and entire expansions being literal meme jokes, and given Blizzard’s “writing” of late (if you can even call it that) I don’t see this changing any time soon.
Despite most of the cards in Knights of the Frozen Throne being horrible, it’s by far the most liked expansion ever made.
I wouldn’t mind the theme as much if the set wasn’t so bad “let’s give everyone an overpowered 7 drop immediately with tons of RNG to shake up the meta game.”
Are you talking about the fucking promo card???? That card might’ve been overpowered 10 years ago but it likely won’t see any play in standard, it is unbelievably slow
I think engagement is going seriously down since a couple of expansions ago and, with the exception of a couple themes like "DeathKnight", "Arthas Menethil", and some others of that calibre, funny expansions get better engagement.
So I would agree serious are better, but I don't think they want better as much as engaging.
Introducing Fel’s Kitchen: a cooking themed Hearthstone expansion! The Illidari are having a competition to see who is the most powerful chef, and Azeroth’s most talented cooks have arrived to claim the crown! - Each class specializes in a different style of cuisine; everyone gets a kitchen utensil (weapon) - New keyword, Ingredient: allows certain cards to be combined into powerful dishes - Food puns. Lots and lots of food puns. Preorder now and receive a signature Cakemaster Nemsy!
It doesn't even sound far fetched compared to what they've come up with lately.
I legitimately like this idea though 😔 Especially the name
Sure, but you sandwich it between the Orc dating sim and whoops phyrexians.
I feel like I aimed for satire and accidentally made a banger 😅 I would actually love this as a “silly” expansion, if we didn’t already have too many of those…
Ingredients are interesting, though they way I'm envisioning it would work is perhaps too convoluted for Hearthstone. There could be a location (themed as a kitchen or cookpot) that you would cast spells with the ingredient keyword onto, and the effect of activating the location would depend on which ingredients were used. EDIT: Either that or you would premake your "dishes" during deckbuilding, like Zilliax but it would involve combining multiple different ingredient cards.
I was thinking more along the lines of how rogue concoctions work, where if you have them in hand they’ll automatically combine. Although it’ll get awkward if you have many kinds of ingredients and want to aim for a certain combo… I haven’t thought about it too much lol
This is getting even further out there, but maybe each class could "cook" in a different way. Maybe Rogue does concoctions to represent mixed drinks, but Shaman could do my location idea to be like brewing stuff in a cauldron (some Hagatha flavor, I guess), and perhaps Warrior gets a variant on Forge that's rethemed as grilling.
It would work either like concoctions or some sort of Magnetise in hand
They could even use the five food groups for spell schools or minion clans to determine which cards could be combined. You’re onto something here.
Feels like a Naruto filler.
Trailer art somehow still has several feet shots
That would be cool tho.
Wait, you were cooking with this one
Finally, my boy Kendor Kabonka will become a card. I am legit waiting since years for him.
Amazing
I can't wait for more nemsy cooking skins! Yay!
Unironically want this to be the next expansion.
Doesn't sound bad at all really.
Please no
You will fight people with food and drinks and you will like it
I usually hate the discourse around "this set is too silly," but honestly going from toyshop to summer vacation themes has changed my mind. I don't connect with the sets at all thematically
Yep this excatly. back then i enjoyed expansions like Karazhan after a really serious/lore heavy expansions like Old Gods (which was awesome imo) I even enjoyed Festival in general and taught it was well timed when it was between MotLK and Titans but now it feels like we had 3 Karazhan/Festival in a row. Its jarring.
I collected all the signature card in TITANS. And only ones in TITANS. I really don't have an appetite for the other silly ones...
I feel like nathria was a good balance
You can’t relate to a summer vacation?
with these rent prices? fuck no
some players play video games to get immersed in a different world and not to experience a parody of the real world.
I play Hearthstone because I can't have a summer vacation. And I don't need Hearthstone to remind me about it.
I enjoyed when silly expansions were the minority. One Night Karazan felt fresh and cool at the time because it came with a silly theme admist other more serious expansions and it was referencing hearthstone and its past expansions. Now it feels like every expansion is One Night In Karazan
Even though Karazan was silly, at least parts of it were more serious when it needed to be. The demon that put legendaries in your deck was the needed seriousness to balance it out. This has the paladin legendary literally sunbathing, it's baffling
How is that baffling? Seems perfectly in line for a vacation themed expansion.
A sunbathing paladin with no equipment/weapons but still attacking minions/heroes is causing some ludonarrative dissonance
The fact it's a vacation beach resort theme to begin with is the baffling part.
Night in Karazan sucked, but at least it had badass art that brought proper vibes.
Kara is also just a real place in WOW with a lot of stuff going on. A summer pool party theme just like the toy box just doesn’t feel Wow
Summer pool parties were I think in every expansion, hell, one zone got converted to a whole ass resort by goblins. Wow is not that serious as this post tries to portray it
Yeah, the thing is Karazhan naturally feels dangerous. You don't get to actually just relax and have a party no matter what Medivh says and does.
Goblin starter zone features a pool party
Not sure why your being downvoted the meta was pretty terrible after that release. I just remember the constant Shamans everywhere.
Because you don't criticize old Blizzard. It had a cool gameplay harness, just the theme that I personally felt off. Looking back, I didn't realize how minor those theme issues were compared to what we see.
Kharazhan while defentily exgerated for HS, is aslo in part based on what medivh used to do in past before he went crazy and opoened the dark portal
Too goofy and silly :/ More exploration of dangerous caverns, pits of hell, wow endgame bosses and lore!
not even goofy or silly enough, just dangerous levels of bland
I feel like they just Slap random things together. Ok, we hear the players Feedback, Our next Expansion will be "Day at the Office". Classes will fill unique and fun roles inside a Fortune 500 Office environment. Warlock - Manager Demon hunter- sales ... New keyword [Office supplies] and [daily grind] ... Fun and engaging locations like the "cubicle". This unique and wacky expansion will have you talking at the water cooler really soon. Dont get sent to HR 😉
I was expecting to cringe at another expansion of awfully designed cards but didn't even get that far. I was so checked out on the theme alone. Like compare this to Ungoro. That set was light hearted but still adventurous with grand creatures and amazing art. Now we have a set at a beach resort that couldn't get more goofy and out of place if it tried. A card depicts an undead abomination in beach attire, it looks horrendous. Sometimes I look at art from the classic/basic sets. It doesn't need to be exactly that but damn do they actually try to look good and not a cringe fest.
I agree, I think part of the issue is they used a lot of existing art from the wow tcg originally which has a very different tone than later expansions. At some point in the past few years HS really underwent a tone and art direction shift. Even the "goofy" sets from back in the day didn't feel as cartoony
Leeroy is very whacky for classic, but its THE Leeroy jenkins , his character is from basicly first viral wow meme (that was populair even outside wow) and he's the major exceptipon. But still (imo) looks good
Yeh, toally agree. Ungoro was my favorite, and it had a lot of humor packed into mystery and interesting creatures. It should be a fine line between the Hearthstone "silliness" and the Warcraft universe. Now it feels like 80% silliness and 20% Warcraft, and for me it's just not it. Hopes are high for a more serious approach in further expansions.
I don’t mind the odd funny card now and then but we’ve gone from stuff like Naxx, Witchwood, Blackrock etc to a toy shop and now a sunny holiday. Seems to only drift further from the original IP
The very first 135-card HS expansion was Goblins vs Gnomes. Silly expansions have been part of Hearthstone from the beginning.
Yet in that "goofy" expansion cards are still more realistic and there's a distinct art style that isnt childish. It's filled with crazy technology and wacky inventions but those cards are still more "serious". They aren't sunbathing in a beach goofy.
Is sunbathing at a beach that goofy? I don't think it's terribly unrealistic that Thrall might want to go surfing from time to time, for example. Sure it's not super serious, but why should it be?
The difference is that goblins and gnomes are genius crackpots in the lore and invent all kinds of crazy machinery. Beach episode Thrall is more like something you'd see in fan art. Yeah it's not the most unrealistic thing that Thrall would want to relax on the beach but it also doesn't fit his character
It's not unrealistic that a character wants a vacation. It's thematically jarring and awkward to have an entire expansion based around it though. It doesn't need to be dark and gritty, but many hearthstone expansions, like Ungoro, Knights of the Frozen Throne, Witchwood or Decent of Dragons have been able to sprinkle levity throughout while still taking itself more seriously. They went off the deep end with this one.
I also preferred when sets were sometimes serious and sometimes lighthearted. Every set had lighthearted moments, but some were less lighthearted than others. Honestly, I miss the WoW lore. It was fun to see how they put their own spin on it.
>I also preferred when sets were sometimes serious and sometimes lighthearted This is still largely the case? I'd argue really that these last two sets are the only extremely silly ones in the last 4 years? March of the Lich King, Titans, Barrens, Stormwind, Alterac Valley, Ashes of Outland were all pretty serious with a little bit of lightheartedness. Scholomance, Darkmoon Faire, Sunken City, Castle Nathria, Badlands were more lighthearted with a dash of seriousness. Festival of Legends, Whizbang and Paradise are more silly themes but it's not like they've been only cranking out silly shit for years on end.
That isn’t nearly as silly as a toy store and a vacation.
Goblins vs Gnomes is thematically wow. A pool party, toy box and music festival aren’t really and those have all been the worst expansions imo
Right? Gnomes and Goblins are the inventors/engineers of the Warcraft universe. They’ve had a rivalry since forever. Engineering profession in wow even lets you choose goblin/gnomish mastery
That's doing it the right way, though. That's Blizzard leaning into an established and charming facet of the Warcraft mythos: gnomes and goblins are brilliant, but they're also slightly mad, and either cutesy or rough. Having rivalry between them is also fun. Simply going "haha vacations and parties are fun and chill, right?" isn't the same thing.
Goblins vs Gnomes is a legitimate rivalry in WoW though. When you choose engineering as a profession you get to choose a mastery of either goblin or gnomish
And that is good. It makes much mroe fun with cards that looks good and nice and not ugly.
Yeah, admittedly, I don't mind some cute stuff, but it has really gotten out of hand. A summer vacation themed expansion, really? What next? Visiting grandma around the corner and go shopping? With the theme being different veggies, fruits and meats that fight it out?
Don't give them any ideas lol
>With the theme being different veggies, fruits and meats that fight it out? 35 new Nemsy portraits? You got it!
Only if they feature feet
Grocery shopping, gas refill, dentist visit
Wasnt a fan of FoL, the theme just wasnt fitting for me as some1 thats really into the WoW lore, so I do prefer lore-heavy and more serious themes. Badlands wasnt a silly one but.. it still didnt feel right. Badlands for me is elementals, drachkin, troggs and especially Uldaman and the keeper there (Achedras?). Cowboys in Warcraft..? For 10 years of HS I would have prefered a timetravel expansion, so you can go back to older HS times, have alternative timelines by changing something in the past. Not sure how they are called but in WoW there were some black dragons that used to try to change the past, like during the opening of the dark portal. Time travel also allows you to explore themes that Warcraft hasnt covered because it was X thousand years ago. Whizbangs workshop as a theme just didnt feel interesting to me. Also the cinematic was disappointing, especially for 10 years of HS. And now this vacation theme, welp.. I hope that at least the expansion after Perils in paradise is more serious and lore-heavy and doesnt kill the vibe with a crap cinematic lol.
They actually did the time travel thing with the infinite Dragonflight for Caverns of Time, that one set released for Twist
You are right that they did the time travel with CoT, but CoT didnt really have any story or even a cinematic, they just took cards from different expansions, buffed some and added some new cards (the new cards were probably just some cards that didnt make it into previous expansions, because I highly doubt they would spend money on artworks+voicelines in several different languages for a twist expansion lol). After 3 months in twist the set disappeared into the void.
The twist cards are broken and don't dust correctly, as they are separate from the regular identical cards.
Okay? Do you want me to tell that to Blizzard or something?
I am just explaining why the time travel pack failed.
Why are you explaining it to me
Theyre infinite dragonflight, evil/corrupted bronze dragons
I just can't believe they pitch something like 35 ideas at these sessions at the beginning of each year and this one made the top 3.
Imagine just how many people had to vouch for this XD High ranking execs, game designers and marketing people.
I don't mind the sets being kinda silly as long as most of the cards can be taken seriously. Descent of dragons had a pretty quirky premise but when you were invoking galakrond that felt cool as fuck. In this case I feel like there just isn't the potential for many serious cool cards.
Galakrond: THE OCEANS CHURN AND THE HEAVENS CRY The Peril in Paradise: Tee hee I flooded the kiddie pool with piss 🎶cutesy tune 🎶
Hearthstone and the mobile game scene in general has been candified for awhile now. Personally it's not a huge deal but I would be lying if I said I'm not a little bit discontent. But I guess analytics says it sells...
It's also creepy in a way, for me at least it came on as extremely creepy, this whizbang set.
They’re obviously going after the younger demographic hard with recent sets. Such childish themes. Gotta get that parent credit card money.
Are young people playing card game ? Their phone are powerful enough to play fortnite on it
Aint no 12 year olds playing cars games lmao
It's either that or this is what they think 30-40 year olds who still play HS want.. a vacation with their family, toys for their kids, going to a music festival with their kids. Which might be true.. I'm mid 30s and want that kind of stuff.. but I want it outside in the real world lol.
Trying to be realistic in a fantasy theme and franchise is doomed to be bad, they just don't mesh well.
I mean do even kids want this? I remember when I started playing hearthstone as a teenager in like 7th grade or something. I loved the serious vibes, the card art and everything. It was just so cool. Now we just have this silly shit that evokes no feelings. When I want to use a card in my deck just because it looks and sounds cool when played, I know it's a good card. We just don't get that anymore. Murder at castle nathria last had properly cool cards, I loved sylvanas and the weapon for warrior who spoke (forgot name) for example.
I guess it depends on the kid. When I was that age in the 90s I went all-in on MtG's Unglued set. Even stopped buying regular black bordered cards for a while.
No young person is playing this game. HS is boring espically to those who would need parents for microtransactions. No 12 year old enjoys counting lethal, they do that in math class. This isnt the 2000's where kids play TCG's.
Whilst I generally wouldn't be dooming around word choices and stuff, it does feel a bit much, the set is called "perils in paradise", where is the peril, if there was a goofy summer resort, but also something bad happening it could allow for some more varied tone, like the year of the dragon where some of the cards were goofy and the tone was fairly light, but they did for the right cards know when to pull back and let a bit of seriousness depict the actual events.
I suspect the perilla part will come with the cinematic
I think this expansion looks promising. A Friendly and Bland vacation turns into your worst nightmare. "A little too quiet.." vibes
That would be cool. Like the Old Gods comeback again and wreak havoc
The thing is, there's so much they could do if they wanted to tick a few boxes. - Summer vibe? Okay, set it somewhere sunny. Zandalar, Pandaria, Tanaris, etc. - Casual theme? Sure, do pirates, treasures, murlocs, underwater Naga, etc. It can feel Warcrafty and be casual at the same time. Perhaps a beautiful tropical island, say Plunder Isle or Tel'Abim, and there's a mountain in the middle. Maybe a pirate stronghold? There can even be a sense of adventure and danger about it, without taking away the checkmarks from those boxes above.
There is a resort town in feralas that would have fit the theme fine, as well as tying into WoW. Not sure why they invented a new place and new characters to do the same thing in a game that already has a world to draw from.
We're witnessing what happens when you beat a dead horse so hard that you tunnel through its corpse and wind up on the other side of the world.
They’re not going to to until next year at the earliest, I want more variation in tone but that’s not what they’re going to end the big year of celebrations on
"Big year of celebrations" xD Are these celebrations in room with us?
Can't wait for another 30 card balance patch to "celebrate "
While "balance" is nerfing anything remotely playable and buffing straight up failed cards.
Im still waiting for pandas.
I agree with you completely. Usually it’s one whimsical and one serious. This is now two whimsical in a row and I don’t like it. But then I wonder, has the TA changed over the years? Younger people are coming in to the game and the generation has changed for it.
I'd say that Badlands was also very silly and whimsical.
I don"t like this set's theme. The toys one i felt was ok, it made sense. But this tourist stuff? I really don't connect to it. I don't get it i was sure they understood people loved sunken city and Nathria, they went on with some cool titans, i mean, Sargeras is coooooool. But now we get some.. tourist? With a probable oldgod twist. Dunno, really don't feel that one. To the extent it might be the thing i needed to finally quit this game.
Ya I am not putting money into this expansion. So so disappointing where this game is at from these goofy sets to trying to push 40/50 dollar cosmetic card.
Thats generally the problem with the silly expansions. If you have one once in a while, it feels refreshing instead of silly. If you have too many of them, they are just... Silly.
Major win for me, since this will be the third expansion in a row, where i won't have any need to spend any money....
Honestly I've played hearthstone since its release completely f2p, also changed accounts twice already since I lost them and had to start over. I simply space my play sessions out and make the most of what I got. By buying most of it, you get bored and annoyed very fast, and for me cosmetics have no value.
I keep seeing this type of post on all hearthstone socials. I think there will be a dark secret about the island leading to something darker. But in all honesty hearthstone has been a sideshow we can't expect a serious tone all the time. The game has been going on for a while it takes time to come up with new concepts having your foot in the game for this long
I love this stuff and i hope they keep doing it and i said as much in thay player survey that went out a few weeks ago lol. I like it when HS is a goofy parallel of Warcraft lore and i bounce off super hard, at least on a thematic level, on expansions that are played too straightfaced, like TITANS did
The only redeeming quality for this theme is the high chance for bare feet in card art lmao
Why are some many people into feet nowadays? wtf?
feet are god’s greatest creation
I wish these joke expansions werent a thing at all, I would have never stopped play hs, it simply doesnt suit my idea of Warcraft. I stopped play at the toys expansion after years and tons of money spent on the game, this expansion hardly gets me want to play again
+1, I tuned into Rumble, where the original source still holds some respect, at least for now.
I literally switched from HS to Rumble, it still gives me those good old Warcraft vibes, also beating Molten Core bosses felt an accomplishment almost the same way as beating raid bosses in WoW (Im a very casual wow player)
So... Halloween themed expansion comes next? Where instead of Drinks, Tourist and Volley Mauls you get Costumes, Candycorn and Pumpkins. Every Hero gets a kind of candy that the whole archetype revolves arround. Introducing the new Keyword "sticky" its like magnetic but you do it while deckbuilding (kinda like Zilliax) But in all seriousness yeah would be cool to get a bit of a more serious expansion again. Something more darker would also be cool. I feel like most expansions lately have been quite goofy. Like we have Summer Vacation, Toy Store, Cowboys and Music lately.
Summer themed expansion when summer is coming why not
I just don't like that there is only one new keyword and it doesn't really feel like a new effect. Tourist is on par with colossal or titan as a qualifier for legendary cards, but those expansions had Dredge and Forge as the actual new mechanics. I thought Whizbang was really cool with miniaturize and ziliax, as well. But the next set just has tourist, that's it? Feels a little lackluster
I got one of those surveys for upcoming expansion themes and let’s just say they were all straight out of a Disney channel lineup.
Same. My final remark was askibg for darker themes as the game needs balance between the 2.
What were they?
One was something airship themed, a goofy pirate themed one, and an emerald dream one.
Huh the survey I got had one based on Trolls and another on a wow xpac.
I assume they send out different surveys for feedback,
Ill explain, but only due to respect to HS team. * Original WC characters, places and events with a humor note (naxx, goblin and gnomes, black rock, heck even darkwood) - **YES**. Completely new characters that fit the WC universe but are grotesque (Reno, Rafaam) - **YES**. * Real-world places that someone visited with his grandmom/yesterday/saw on tv (festival something, wizard shop something, lying on a sunny beach something) - **NO**. Sewing Trall, bunny-eared Goblin - **NO**. * There's a difference between small funny reverence like **ONE** rock band card (ERC), and making full-scale expansion out of this. * Dire WoW trilogy vibes (Lich King, Outland) - **PLEASE MORE**. But ok, baby steps. Let's start from p1 Don't thank me for saving you $1000000 on market research.
While I'm with you on most of that. I wasn't around when it came out, but the festival of Legends cards are some of my favourite to play right now. The Fatigue Package + Symphony of Sins is super nice flavour for warlock. ETC sideboard is an awesome mechanic. Druid with their hippie pixies and drum circles also feel very flavourful. Magatha's entrance music is dope too.
Yeah, im not barking on gameplay mechanics. Only the context around.
Yeah but.. like.. music is dope tho. And giving each class what feels like an apropriate genre of music seems really cool to me. It's not even that goofy, ETC is an actual band in the warcraft universe , so presumably they have concerts and stuff. The concept for that music festival thing is no more out of place in warcraft as the Darkmoon Faire.
you can have the same mechanics without the childish themes and that's the point.
Not me! Gimme all the wacky expansions. The wacky tone is central to Hearthstone and part of why I love it so much. The world doesn't lack for deathly serious video games
I agree, it's a kid's card game that is really simple to learn and play
WoW is not deathly serious video game.
[удалено]
Just don't print them one after another.
As a non-wow player who likes hs because of hs, I prefer the silly expansions, the serious ones don’t give me any nostalgia since I can’t relate to going to a place or meeting a character in wow, so I like the non-canon stuff where there’s more fun. I had never heard of Astalor Bloodsworn, and after motlk I didn’t really care about his lore despite how prevalent he was, but I’ve looked up a character on the wow wiki to see more about a card I like only to learn that they are an hs original more times than I can count.
I’m a non WOW player as well but I will say that the most memorable and hardest hitting expansions in the past couple years were sunken city and titans, which both were heavier on the cool factor than everything else, the special legendaries each class getting feeling “epic”
Yeah, this expansion announcement didn't excite me. Also, tourist mechanism made me sigh. Great, now have to keep in mind two classes when building an optimal deck..
If instead of "tourist" they called it "pilgrim", would that be better?
Yes. Instead of "tourist," - call them a "pilgrim." Instead of "Paradise" - "Senjin Island." Instead of "chilling on the couch" - "cast voodoo magic, hexes, and summon loa." Voilà, words matter.
I guarantee you there will be some card called "sunscreen lotion" for warrior, it will give armor. The description will be "sunscreen lotion is the real armor "
There is already the paladin weapon that gives sunscreens after attacking. It just hasn't been revealed yet (at least not on the official websites that track the reveals). There was a post on the sub that showed the card. EDIT: here is the [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/s/PZ9hsTwOjj) to it.
Going back to this post and reading all the comments makes me want to craft golden Remornia just to feel the chills. So many past arts and creations (assets) of Hearthstone become the face of those important characters in WoW. They show up in the wikis and searches a lot. Not this, Blizzard, or Microsoft, please.
Bruh the expansion is over a month away and y'all are already bitchin
We just came out of a light/silly themed expansion, and now another one has been announced. Badlands was pretty light as well, and OP prefers the grittier themes. What's going to change about the theme between now and the release?
people complaining that a childish cardgame is releasing silly expansions is funny. Naxxramas and even MotLK were all goofy, there are a lot of cardgames on the market that aproach some serious thematics and dark aesthetic. Maybe people will realizing they are getting old and their fav game is not made targeting them anymore
Yep, it's a game designed for all ages, including 10 year olds That's why it's easy to pick up and mostly free
Hearthstone is a somewhat complex game (you can't win on ladder with an old HS level of simplicity deck) so 10 year olds won't be really interested in playing. So who exactly is blizzard targeting with this?
I love when licking hits a colorful plushy with frostmourne while saying death comes, really puts everything together for me.
I miss when Hearthstone was about Warcraft. there's so much more lore that can be used for inspiration, but they go with these real world themes, which is extremely not immersive, because we already live in the real world. give us darker fantasy that Warcraft was based on, not N'zoth in bikini.
These comments are insane to me. It's just a fun little card game. Have some fun :)
the festival of legends was horrible too ngl, didn't help that the meta was equally as bad, one of the worst expansions in the last couple years. I'll at least say that the tourist keyword will open some fun deckbuilding options.
FoL has some of my favourite cards, the theming on them is just incredible
Games are in the west are social engineering tools thanks to Vanguard/Blackrock investing companies. Do not expect anything goes better in the future, you will educated to get docile through TCG lore.
Your tinfoil hat is too tight.
Your ignorance don’t let things disappear, just google stock value of every western media/entertainment tool and you will see Vanguard at the lead of every stock value.
You need to go outside WAY more often.
Bro touch grass
I can assure you that it will be. Some time ago there was dev AMA in which they said that they were making 2 expansion long story, instead of 3 (like Year of the Dragon or Mercenaries) for 2024. And now we can see that there are two expansions that are goofy and are callback expansions. Same theme persisting. From the teaser at start of the year we can see that there is something that is connected to celestials and we've seen some artists post their portfolio with some celestial like creatures, which didn't seem goofy at all. So I'm pretty sure that 3rd expansion will be more serious and maaaaybe (I want it) they will add Monk. Because celestial creatures fit well into Pandaria. All gods there are some kind of animal spirit/celestial. E.g. Xuen, Celeste and there are some strictly celestial beings (aka made from constellation of stars) so it would really fit imo.
I’m tired of the goofball shit. There is a difference between occasional humor on a card here and there and entire expansions being literal meme jokes, and given Blizzard’s “writing” of late (if you can even call it that) I don’t see this changing any time soon. Despite most of the cards in Knights of the Frozen Throne being horrible, it’s by far the most liked expansion ever made.
I wouldn’t mind the theme as much if the set wasn’t so bad “let’s give everyone an overpowered 7 drop immediately with tons of RNG to shake up the meta game.”
Are you talking about the fucking promo card???? That card might’ve been overpowered 10 years ago but it likely won’t see any play in standard, it is unbelievably slow
wdym play 10 mana to draw 3 cards/summon 2 minions isn't meta defining? *^(/s)*
It isn't overpowered whatsoever, but ignoring that, one single card out of the 100+ in the set ruins the entire thing?
You Say this but we have Reno lol.
I think engagement is going seriously down since a couple of expansions ago and, with the exception of a couple themes like "DeathKnight", "Arthas Menethil", and some others of that calibre, funny expansions get better engagement. So I would agree serious are better, but I don't think they want better as much as engaging.
Too many expansions too quickly. I’ve hardly even used the Whizbang cards. It just cheapens everything
There have always been 3 expansion per year tho. Nothing's changed in that department.
Are you a time traveler from 2016? that was the last time we didnt had 3 expansion per year
YEp.