At Gamescom, Blizzard just unveiled two icey trailers for its most popular games, Overwatch and Hearthstone . If you were too busy crying at Mei’s unfortunate fate, then you might have missed “Hearth and Home,” the musical number at the Hearthstone tavern. It feels like a Disney CGI movie circa- Bolt era, when cute characters with over-exaggerated limbs dominated the animation studio. It’s obviously trying to sell cards to a younger demographic, one that doesn't need to see all the gore and violence of its World Of Warcraft origins. Hearthstone is now a game about adventure and camaraderie, available to all age demographics.
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As a long time Hearthstone fan, I’m not sure how to feel about this. My favorite trailers were for The Grand Tournament and Whispers Of The Old Gods expansions because I love a good hummable tune. “Hearth and Home” isn’t catchy, it’s full of generic lines about being yourself and enjoying life, which doesn't fit the theme of the card game. We just got an expansion with an entire theme based around, “what if all the good guys lost and the Lich King took over Azeroth?” It seems really weird too jump to “let’s all hang out and sing together” after that. Though, if it is just the last thoughts of a girl freezing to death in the wilderness, it would make more thematic sense.
Still, I wasn’t entirely disappointed as there were a ton of awesome Easter eggs to look through in the trailer. References to old cards, combined with appearances by some of WoW’s most interesting races, makes me feel slightly less bitter about the Disney ad I just experienced.
The Tavern’s resident mouse is named Sarge.
The Innkeeper, who’s now called Harth, the first (and in my opinion, only) original character in Hearthstone , is front and center,
You can see Brann Bronzebeard , explorer extraordinaire in a framed picture as the girl, Ava, pops into the tavern.
Malto, the mage that looks like a rejected Merlin concept from Disney’s The Sword In The Stone, uses Polymorph .
The singing goblins, named Fewz and Wik, mention that the Tavern exists in a place “where the magic of the Void comes alive.” Considering that’s a hellish nightmare where demons frolick, it seems like a pretty bad place to play a card game.
In the background, you can see a Murloc walking around with a beer, Hogger playing a game and Ogre Magi saying it’s classic catch phrase “I’m not ready.”
Malto sings about “a hero lies inside of you,” which is odd since he blatantly cheats and pulls a Golden Monkey right out of the deck.
The goblin getting held up by the douchey knight, called Lou, with the Fabio curls is holding a Death’s Bite axe.
An Ancient Of Lore is just chilling in the background, which is odd since it’s card was nerfed to the ground. You think it would be kind of pissed about that and not show up to the magical song rehearsals.
Silver Hand Recruits alongside Horde Orcs can be seen across all the Tavern boards, even slapping each other in one scene.
I can’t tell if the weapon the gnome is holding as he plunges to the ground is Rallying Blade or Ashbringer.
You’ve heard that dapper Blood Elf, named Velaris, before, he’s voice by Jim Cummings, who’s voiced countless Disney characters.
Possessed Villager joins in the song, because that makes sense.
As the rope ticks down, she top decks Deathwing, who makes that Orc very angry.
