Heart of the Storm

Heart of the Storm
Heart of the Storm
Alignment	Bad
Appears in	Rayman: The Dark Magician's Reign of Terror
Location	Dark Storm
Portrayed by	{{{portrayed by}}}
Resistance
Attacks	Dark magic projectiles
Sex	{{{sex}}}
Species	{{{species}}}
Relatives	{{{relatives}}}

One peaceful day, everything was going fine in the valley... until a great dark storm arrived! No one knew where the sinister storm had come from. Everyone trembled in fear, waiting for the storm to pass. Suddenly a giant red lightning bolt struck the Great Protoon! Something was happening... The dark powers of the storm... caused the Great Protoon to create something terrible...

—The Magician, Rayman: The Dark Magician's Reign of Terror

Heart of the Storm is the final boss of Rayman: The Dark Magician's Reign of Terror. It is the core of the mysterious Dark Storm, the true main antagonist of the game, which invaded the atmosphere of the valley with its dark magic and gave life to the Dark Magician.

In Rayman: The Dark Magician's Reign of Terror

The storm first appears in the game's introduction, suddenly obscuring the skies of the valley and striking the Great Protoon with one of its lightning bolts, which subsequently birthed the Dark Magician, who claimed he would take over the valley for the great darkness, possibly referring to the Dark Storm.

The Dark Magician has been beaten, but... I'm afraid there is still something you have to do. The dark storm that started all this has grown bigger. It will only keep causing more and more horrors! You have to find the Heart of the Storm and destroy it. But my magic alone can't open the path for you... You must free all of the Electoons.

—The Magician, Rayman: The Dark Magician's Reign of Terror

It isn't mentionned again until the end of the game, once Rayman defeats the Dark Magician and reaches the roof of the Dark Stronghold. The Magician informs Rayman that the storm is still active and has grown bigger, and he must thus locate and destroy its Heart. Entering the Eye of the Storm thanks to the Electoons, Rayman finds and battles the Heart of the Storm in its final part, a Big Power being placed above it. It is one of the few bosses in the game with an accurate health bar, having twenty life points in total.

The Heart is incapable of movement, but attacks Rayman with the same dark magic projectiles as Dark Magician, first spitting them in a slow continuous stream and then shooting dozens of them very quickly in a torrent, which Rayman can avoid by circling around the Heart using the clouds. It is invincible during these attack phases, and its subsequent vulnerability is indicated by pulsing dark waves around the Heart. Once vulnerable, the Heart of the Storm switches continuously between propelling four dark magic orbs horizontally and vertically, and shooting them in diagonal directions. Rayman can hit the core ten times, which becomes increasingly faster the more damage it takes.

Once it loses half of its health, the Heart becomes invincible and repeats its first cycle of attacks, for a much greater duration and by shooting the final streams of dark projectiles in lines. It subsequently becomes vulnerable once again and repeats its attack sets of four dark orbs, shooting even faster as Rayman damages the Heart.

After ten more successful hits, the Heart of the Storm pulsates violently before exploding, which immediately starts the game's end cutscene. As Rayman falls down, the sky starts to clear and the dark clouds disappear one by one, the atmosphere becoming clean of the Storm's dark magic, and the valley becoming peaceful once again.

Gallery

• 
  Rayman finding the Heart of the Storm.
• 
  The Heart attacking Rayman with dark magic.
• 
  The Heart of the Storm glowing as it explodes.

Trivia

• The Heart's sprite is a purple recolor of the water drops thrown by the bubble throwing clowns in the original Rayman.
• As Dark Storm is both an antagonist and a location, a parallel can be drawn to My Heartburn's for You, as Rayman battles the storm from its heart in Rayman: The Dark Magician's Reign of Terror while the heroes travel into El Stomacho's stomach and must overcome his heartburn from within in Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends through Back to Origins.
• Mr Dark's final battles and transformations in Rayman Redemption are reminiscent of the Dark Storm, as both are beings embodying "great darkness" and are ultimately fought in the skies of the valley, and both have corrupted the Great Protoon. Before bursting into a void engulfing the End of the World after his defeat, Darker Mr Dark claims that he will always come back as long as there is darkness in the world, which could be interpreted as the inexplicable Dark Storm's appearance being a form of reincarnation of Mr Dark, although the parallel between the two antagonists is likely unintended.

See also

• Eye of the Storm