Blizzard Entertainment announced on June 28 the new extended version of the digital card game Hearthstone . The implementation is scheduled for August 2nd to the Pacific Ocean Time. At the same time, we will have an opportunity to cover this time, and we will conduct media joint interviews on the contents of the new expanded version to Cora GeorgioU (Game Designer) and Valerie Chu (Senior Narrative Designer), a member of Hearthst1. It was carried. In this article, we will deliver the pattern.

-The subject of this expansion pack is a murder case instead of the last time, but please tell us why you made this theme.

Cora:
I agree. Certainly, it is a very different theme compared to the previous extension pack Sleeping Sleeping in the Abyss. However, it was my dream to make an extended version about Murder Mystery. I liked reading mystery novels since I was a child and watching movies and TV programs on mystery. I feel that it is very fun to be able to express dark and terrifying materials in a funny way that is perfect for Hearthstone, and I think it is a very compatible theme.

――Please tell us why you chose the theme of murder at this time. Is it because it’s the second extension? Or is it because the release time is summer?

Cora:
I think both reasons are mixed little by little. Last year, I spun a long story throughout the year (on the theme of mercenary growth). There was an idea from the beginning to connect three extended versions. It brought great results. And this year, after a long time, I had the opportunity to talk about various worldviews and stories through three extended versions. I like scary stories and I think it’s very fun, so I feel just the right time.

-The extended version of Yanomori Witchwood, which was announced four years ago, was originally a Gilnias Express Murder Case, and it was planned to be a mystery as this time. Are there any elements inherited by this extended version?

Cora:
I did not belong to the design team at the time of Yanomori Witchwood. However, when I first started the idea of the Nasria Castle Castle Case, it was necessary to decide where to be the stage of the extended version (the world of WORLD OF WARCRAFT), and everyone always suggested me. Was Gilney Ass. However, the end of it was the Revendless area in the expanded version of World of WarCraft and Nasria Castle. It is certain that the extended version, Nasria Castle Castle Case, is a subject similar to Yanomori Witchwood. Both have an eerie expansion content, and it may have a slightly darker impression than others.

Regarding the title Gilnias Express Murder Case, Valerie is more familiar with the situation at that time. However, as far as I know, I think that the setting of eerie forests and fairy tale style and the existence of the key character Witch Hagasa did not fit the first planned Merder Mystery.

―― I would like to ask you about the new gimmick reasoning*. When hitting the card from three choices, I felt that it was not effective if I did not have the knowledge of the trendy deck type or cards that are easy to adopt for each deck type. Is reasoning a design that can be used by all players regardless of knowledge?

New gimmick reasoning …… When activated, a card is presented in three choices along with the problem (which card is now in your hand?), And if you answer correctly, you can get the advantage.

Cora:
Modification is a design that has been discussed many times. In drawing the key characters of this expansion, Marlock Holmes, I wanted to make a character modeling to solve the mystery in various ways, so I decided to ask the player to find a clue in the game. did. And, of course, if you have the knowledge of meta games and know what your opponent’s deck is, it will be easier to solve the clue mystery.

However, for example, Marlock Holmes should be able to derive the correct answer (at least the knowledge of meta games) (at least the knowledge of meta-games) is to be preserved until the end of a lot of cards. And most importantly, this is a game. I want the players to enjoy it, and I don’t want to give the stress that needs to be answered correctly.

――Please tell us more about the effects of the new keyword sucking soul.

Valerie:
When a certain number of minions written for each card dies in play, the card with the sucker in the hand turns into a sucking soul and has an upgrade effect. I think that changing the card into a sucking soul will lead to focusing on the battle between minions, contributing to promoting battles on the board. You usually worry or be sad if the minion is defeated. But in the stage of this extended version, Revendress, the death may help you use the card correctly. I’m really excited when you think that everyone will enjoy this.

Cora:
Soul soul is effective only when you are in your hand. The card text clearly says, If your ally minion dies X body when you are in your hand, you will be upgraded. For example, suppose you have a corpse priest in your hand. If the number of minions written behind the sucking soul in the card text dies, the card will be upgraded to the sucking soul and the additional effect will be activated. In the case of corpse priest, the status is up. And the card illustration is also renewed. The appearance of the card transformed while in the hand is similar to the keyword Yen that appeared in the Invitation to the Dark Moon Fair.

――Please tell us more about the new card type that will appear for the first time.

Cora:
The new card type name is place. We are also excited because it is a new card type since the Hero card in The Knights of the Frozen Sagme. This has been trial and error in various years, changing its shape for several years. At least when the rough earthly strong people had already begun to do the effect of launching on the board. And in the Nasria Castle Castle Case, we found the form we liked.

The location card is not a minion, not a spell, but a type of card on the board, which has a durability and startup effect instead of attack power and physical strength. The effect can be started by tapping the location card. The effect can be started without mana costs, but all location cards require a cool down of one turn. When the effect is activated, the durability is reduced by 1. It disappears when it reaches 0. The location card has no physical strength and is not attacked. It is not destroyed by the card effect, and does not subject to the effect of spells, hero power, or minions. In a sense (in terms of the effects that can be used at the target timing), it may be considered a hero power that can be placed on the board.

The first idea of this card type implementation was that we wanted to introduce various worldviews in the extended version we create. In particular, there are many places where you want to focus on Nasria Castle, and in the original WORLD OF WARCRAFT, the raid * player was able to see the cool runes around the castle. I wish I could introduce it this time according to the theme of banquet. At the same time, I wanted to create a new card type that could be seen at any point of the game and could see that the establishment would be promised.

• Content that 10 to 30 players cooperate and capture. Nasria Castle was a raid implemented in Patch 9.0 and was the main number of people in the early 2021.

-Will the location card be added in future expansion?

Cora:
The place card will continue to appear in the future. From now on, I will use the place card as much as possible to show the expansion worldview as much as possible. I would like to make it carefully so that there are not many places cards, but we plan to make more than Hero cards. Therefore, you will see more and more in the future.

――The expansion of Shadow Lands in World of Warcraft has appeared in a new Death Night. The stage of the Nasria Castle Castle Case is a location that appeared in the Shadow Lands expansion of World of WarCraft, so can you expect a Death Night-related card?

Valerie:
In this extension, the characters appearing in the Levendres area, such as Denasrias and Renasal Taishi, have been familiar with Hearthstone, such as Marlock Holmes. Because they are the protagonists of this time, the spots are mainly hit by them. In the extension, there may be some other familiar faces in the suspect, but this time, please pay attention to the characters in the Levendres area.

-This time, the character of the Sherlock Holmes motif appears with the theme of murder case, will the culprit actually appear? Is there a card with the motif of Moriarty?

Valerie:
The cast this time is Denasrias, the suspects, and the Marlock Holmes. And Marlock Holmes is the one to solve the mystery. I don’t want to do much spoilers, but there are many donden-like developments. Furthermore, the intelligence of Marlock Holmes is so amazing that I don’t think there is any character that can be called a rival.

I thought about the Moriarty card, but it was too difficult to think about Marlock’s Dajare with Moriarty as a story, so we couldn’t do it (laughs).

-Then, will the role of Watson appear?

Cora:
If you look closely at the card illustration of Marlock Holmes, you can see that your friend’s frog is on your shoulder. His name is Watfin.

―― I have a question about the effects of the new card Lenasal Taishi that appear this time. It says, The number of decks and physical strength will be 40. Why is it 40? Please let me know if there is a development episode.

Cora:
Actually, this card has a back story. This is a story when I was making a mini set Cave of Wailing for Strong Earth Strong. Do you remember a card called Daiko Duid Nararex that appeared in the mini set? At the beginning of the development, it gave the large druid Nararex effect to become 40 decks. I thought it was a very favorite and exciting factor for us. However, when I tested it in the actual battle, it was not very strong.

And when I worked on the design of Lenasal Prince, I thought it would be interesting, so I decided to bend the rules of the game a little. On the back, there was a skill to implement a system to assemble 40 decks, so I was able to make Lenasal Taishi easily. However, I still felt that something was rewarded for assembling 40 decks. Personally, I think it should be a reward for building 40 decks, but for that reason, it was decided that adding 10 physical strength was a good drop. Thus, Lenasal Taiko was born.

――― The development team has been sending a message on SNS that I want to promote the game makeup that fights on the board in the future, and the results are actually appearing as a deck type. think. On the other hand, I feel that the old-fashioned control type deck has decreased, I can fully endure the opponent’s actions. Will such a deck not appear in the future?

• Many of the current control types are to prepare a clear game finish plan, and take it slowly to achieve it and win. Endure is not the main.

Cora:
(For me) I think it is possible to coexist both deck types now and in the past. As you can see, the strategy of control warrior, which endures the number of decks of the opponent until the number of decks in the past, has not become popular. This may be related to the fact that we love designing a fun, flashy and extremely technical card, and that card actually ends the game with a very exciting development. However, he does not say that there should be a type of deck that wins the exhaustion battle. I think such a deck should definitely exist, and I think it will be successful in an environment that mainly fights on the board. In particular, if you can use a deck that can be used as a strategy, you will be more successful.

For these reasons, I don’t think we’ll completely eliminate traditional control type decks. You don’t have to worry if you like the exhaustion battle. We also like the deck type. But at the same time, we recommend gameplay on the board. I want to reduce the one-shot deadly combo deck that can be seen in the current trend. That is what I aimed for in the Umoda City Sleeping in the Deep Sea at the beginning of this year, and in other words, I am trying to make the most important goal through this year.

Therefore, development and operation will proceed with similar policies in the future. And if a meta game that makes the combo deck get a little more abolished, you will have a chance for the control deck to flourish. In particular, the possibility of a warlock deck that makes full use of small minions and the popular dleid deck based on the board battle is likely. Please take a look at the results brought by the Nasria Castle Castle Case. I think you will be satisfied.

――When you check this year’s roadmap, there are some updates that have not been revealed yet. Is this related to the whole Hearthstone? Or is it a comfortable experience?

Cora:
It’s a mystery. In my intuition, I can’t talk yet. However, when I started to design the whole picture of this year, I have started various specifications. They are very wonderful specifications. Some of them will be unveiled at the same time as the release of this expansion. I think that you can get excited about various specifications, and to provide the best experience for all players, we have optimized play as the main goal of this year. Last year was a big year for the implementation of Mercenaries, but this year we want to strengthen our support in order for all players to provide playful content through various modes.

-In Japan, the first thing to focus on when the expansion version is announced is the impression of PV. Please tell me the concept of this PV.

Cora:
Without spoilers, it is a very different PV compared to the PV of Sleeping Sleeping Sleeping in the Abyss. And it should be a very enjoyable content for Fans of Denarius fans. Some familiar faces come out, and the creepy atmosphere we were aiming for with this expansion can be expressed properly. I think it’s a very wonderful PV.

―― This is not a question but a request, but when there is a large update in the battle ground mode, I want a PV like when the extended version was released. I think the community will be exciting.

Cora:
When that happens, we are happy too. In fact, I personally love battle grounds. Of course, spoilers are not possible, but I play a lot of battle grounds, including test play. I and Valerie are not in the battle ground development team, so I don’t know what their plan is. But we want to see the Battle ground PV, and it’s very cool if we realize. When the BLIZZARD story & franchise team makes a cut scene, something wonderful is completed. So no matter what you make, it would be amazing if they had the opportunity to make them. The Nasria Castle Castle Case also offers wonderful content unique to battle grounds. I am impressed that there are so many players who enjoy the battle ground.

-The official offline event in Japan was held on June 26, but are there any plans to continue in the future?

Activision Blizzard Japan Koga:
As a plan, we will continue to continue this year and have a place for interaction with you as much as possible. However, please note that it will be a decision based on the status of the new Coronavirus.

The new expansion pack of Hearthstone will be implemented on August 2 of the Pacific Nasui Castle Time. In line with this, we accept pre-purchase of packs that are more advantageous than usual. Check out the official website for details.