I tend to overlook the theme of expansions and focus on what the cards do. But, yeah, you’re right. I should expect this kinda thing, and yeah, it does give Hearthstone its charm. It’s light hearted.
1 Like
Cartoonish here is being used as ‘child-friendly’.
At least that how I used it.
Very circular shapes, lighter contrast between black and white, and less fantasy-fiction like but more ‘nickelodeon’ so. Fantasy-fiction tends to used more dark colors, like the sky being purplish-black, characters eyes being dark to portray a more dark-mature tone. At least that’s what I am getting when I look at the Antonidas artwork.
Everything is too vibrant now.
I do see it, I guess it’s all dependent on where one puts the lines between cartoon, mature and realistic.
For me when I look at Antonidas all I am seeing are triangles, everything being crisp to portray maturity.
I don’t see triangles in the new artworks but only circles.
That’s how I tend to distinguish between the two.
Yeah, for me when I look at Archmage Antonidas, I don’t see heavy wrinkles or baggy droopy eyes with a “look of aging and wear”. That’s on purpose. Deckard Cain has more detail in the face to show that.
Maybe that’s what I mean. Cartoony-fake doesn’t have the in-depth detail of features, whereas Cartoony-realism does.
1 Like
Remember the reason they removed Succubus only to print this a few sets later:
1 Like
Yeah, I think the “reasoning” behind the change had nothing to do with the real reason they gave and everything to do with pleasing a certain country.
2 Likes
It used to have grownup artwork because it was just easier to reuse the Warcraft card game art.
For sure. But they were still trading in that country when Priestess went live. I remember the discussions on it at the time. Hilarious!
1 Like
You know what they say, better to ask forgiveness than permission 
1 Like
Not actually the best advice with respect to authoritarian governments, if history is a guide.
2 Likes
I personally don’t have a problem with it being cartoonish, but this expansion is way too childish for my taste. The themes have been more and more childish over time and i don’t like this trend.
The Barrens-Stormwind-Alterac year was top notch for me and it was when I really got into hearthstone. The mercenary storylines were absolutely amazing and the overall themes were cool, warcraft-like while still being light-hearted and fun. Now it feels more and more like the audience of the game is between 8-12 year-olds and that’s not even the objective target audience of this game so I don’t even get it from a commercial pov.
Maybe it’s just me idk, I wish we got something a little more interesting and captivating than music festivals, cowboys and toys. Titans was an exception but even that was devoided of substance in a story or theming sense. It felt more like an art prompt than anything else. I feel like there’s no narrative department since the person that created mercenaries left team 5 (awesome dude btw, all my respects to him).
2 Likes