A custom story made out of ONLY BOSSES!
My name is Jestar Heart.
I've been watching you for a long time.
Just waiting for one of my assassins to defeat you.
Failure after failure...
They all failed me!
I've been watching you for a long time.
Just waiting for one of my assassins to defeat you.
Failure after failure...
They all failed me!
— Jestar Heart revealing his Evil Plan to the player
Black Heart is a story series of Project Arrhythmia custom levels created by ol666. The series is made up of two "chapters", with the story only revealed at the end of the first - Jestar Heart, the Big Bad, has sent several assassins to steal your three souls so he can use them to become a god and take over the world. Every single level included has a boss fight - whether against new characters or ones already introduced.
The series can be found on the Project Arrhythmia's Steam Workshop here
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Along with tropes from Project Arrhythmia, Black Heart contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Nearly all of the assassins - it's never spelled out how Jestar found them or convinced them to do his work. The only time it's referenced is Total Destruction, where the level description says Solario wants your soul to avoid dying.
- Audience Participation: Medusa was originally male, but was changed to be genderless after a poll was held to decide on their gender.
- Art Evolution: As earlier levels in the collection were among the first ol666 made in the Project Arrhythmia level editor, there's noticeably more detail in animations and designs the further in the levels are. The collection's description on Steam even acknowledges this.
- Big Bad: Jestar Heart, a shape with an upside-down heart body. All of the bosses in the first chapter are assassins sent by him to steal one of your three souls - which he intends to use the power of to take over the world.
- Boss Game: Every single level in the collection has a boss fight. Surface Tension even features two. Justified in the first chapter with the premise of Jestar recruiting numerous assassins.
- Character Title: Inverted. Nautilus, Aura, and Medusa all appear in levels with titles matching their name. However, Project Arrhythmia levels are named after the songs used for them. As a result, the characters are actually named after the levels instead of the other way around.
- The Cameo: A few characters by other Project Arrhythmia level creators appear in the series:
- King Crazy shows up at the beginning of Exoplanet, as his creator Crazy Train helped with the level.
- Irqus, a character from Linkyop, appears petrified alongside the assassins in Surface Tension.
- Fan Work: Of the base game Project Arrhythmia, due to being made in its level editor - though it's a complete departure from the game's own story and universe.
- Ironic Name: Played with. Colossus is extremely small in reality, due to him being a virus. However, he actually does appear giant in his level Exoplanet, thanks in part to how you fight him from the perspective of a white blood cell.
- Mythical Motifs:
- One of Medusa's abilities is, fittingly, turning people into stone.
- The boss Siren spends her entire level singing to you, with the fight implied to take place underwater.
- The Namesake: Jestar Heart's body is an upside-down black heart shape, which also serves as the series logo.
- Retcon: Nearly the entire first chapter is incorporated thanks to the one of all their bosses being assassins, as almost all of the levels in it were originally created without being a storyline. The first level of the second chapter clarifies which levels are included by showing almost every previous boss as a petrified statue.
- Shout-Out:
- In First Crush, Aura powers up Nautilus with something that resembles the attacks of a Magikoopa from Super Mario Bros..
- The level Funk Hole has its boss Predator use their own versions of attacks from a few other Project Arrhythmia custom levels, with on-screen text giving sources for the references.
- The character Medusa is designed after the album artwork for their level's song by F-777 - they use a similar green color scheme, have lightning-based attacks, and have some hair visible.
- Title Drop: Not of the series itself, but the level/song names:
- Jestar says he'll bring the world to A New Dawn under his control.
- Solario's debut level describes him as trying to avoid Total Destruction.
- Wham Episode: A New Dawn, which was the first level to reveal Black Heart as a story and its antagonist. It doubles as the Season Finale as it was the final level in Black Heart's first "chapter".
