Hearthstone’s 28th expansion, Festival of Legends, launched this week, which is pretty staggering to someone who’s been playing the game as long as I have. After so many years (and so much controversy) it would be easy to assume that Hearthstone is past its prime creatively. But even as an old jaded player who’s been around for all the highs and lo🦋ws, I can’t help being charmed by Festival of Legends. The music festival theme is so fully and completely realized throughout every facet of the gꦫame, from the artwork on the cards, to the new keyword and harmonic spells, to even the board design and audio effects - every element is working together to create a story and experience. It’s the kind of thing that reminds me why I fell in love with Blizzard’s games in the first place, and I’m glad to see that the Hearthstone team still has so much juice left even all these years later.
I've been big into the Pokemon TCG ever since I semi-retired from grinding Hearthstone a few years ago, and the thing I’ve missed the most is Hearthstone’s themes. Pokemon is an ever-evolving game that has a lot of beautiful cards to collect, but there’s just no cohesion or structure to the expansions. Every set feels like a random assortment of cards with no real narrative and thematic connection between them. Every Hearthstone expansion has a setting, a genre, and a stylistic direction that every card revolves around, and Festival of Legends might be its most on-theme expansion ever.
I didn’t look much into the expansion until I started busting packs, and it only took a few before I realized that every card is perfectly on theme. That’s not an exaꦛggeration. There are 145 cards in the set, and every single one of them is a person, object, or event you would find at a World of Warcraft music festival.
I’ve had more fun exploring the card list than actually playing the game so far. You can tell the Hearthstone team got to really let loose while coming up with card designs this time. Famous Warcraft characters have become music artists, like DJ Manastorm, MC Blingstron, and Rock Master Voone (formerly War Master). There’s also your standard i♏nstrument techs, hipsters, mixtapes, obsessive fans, and paparazzi, combined with some clever combat-themed musical minions, like the boxing gloves Beatboxer and the Metrognome. Get it? There’s a naga Flowrider, a Rolling Stone, and a Freebird. The set is full of silly puns and musical reimaginings, as well as some Far Side humor that will make you groan just to hide your amusement. I dare you to without laughing at how stupid it is.
Hearthstone has always had strong themes, but the mechanics of the cards haven’t always aligned well with the art. It’s harder to find a sense of identity in the cards when the text doesn’t really match what the card is, which is something I&r𒉰squo;ve come to appreciate about Marvel Snap, and something I admire about the upcoming Disney Lorcana. Festival of Legends does a lot to address that disconnect, and it seems like there are more cards than ever that have their design baked into the theme of the card. Cards like Drum Soloist get bonus stats and abilities if they’re the only card you control, which is exactly what you’d expect a soloist to do. There are harmonic spells that change their ability every turn, flip-flopping back and forth to the rhythm of the game. Annoying Fans stop other minions from being able to attack, which is quite annoying, and the Arrow Smith, which deals one damage to the lowest health enemy when you cast a spell, kinda sucks, just like its namesake.
Then there&rs𝓀quo;s all the things that Hearthstone can do as a digital CCG that physical trading card games can’t. The battle arena is a recording studio full of drums to bang on, pianos to tap, and DJ equipment to… scratch, I think. The fiddly bits have always been a quiet strength of Hearthstone, and this one feels more natural than most. Music is always baked into the visual and audio cues of the cards. One of the most impressive from this set is Stranglethorn Heart, a spell that resurrects all your beasts while transforming your side of the battlefield into a peaceful beach at sunset, complete with easy listening tunes and some calming ASMR ocean sounds. Practically every card ha🌠s its own little guitar riff or musical motif to go along with it, including Banjosaur, who plucks away on that thing like there’s no tomorrow.
I have no idea what’s going on with the meta or game balance - it’s probably too early to tell anyway - but seeing archetypes like Freebird Rogue and Banjo Hunter on the tier lists is delightful. Memorable themes like this help to cement seasons in Hearthstone history. The same way I remember C'thun and Whispers of the Old Gods all the way back in 2016, I’m going to remember Festival of Legends too. For a game that’s constantly changing year after year, memorability is the best thing you can hope for. That, and the ability to design something as lovably dumb as Banjosaur.