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Shadow Heart

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Hundreds of years ago in Japan, there was an old man who was raising a son. However, the son was rather unusual. He was hideously in appearance due to birth defect. The man was the last in a long bloodline, so it was essential for him and his son to carry on the bloodline. However with his son's appearance, finding a wife for him would be impossible. It was then that he decided to devise a special curse, one that would ensure his son eventually got a wife. The curse was designed to infect women and change their bodies so that they would bore only female children, and that their offspring would then in turn only give birth to female children and so on, with the exception of those conceived by his son. The curse would also stop the aging of any girl once she reached marriageable age, leaving them eternally young and beautiful. The first woman to be targeted by the curse was a young woman named "Makiko". She was the most beautiful girl in the land. The curse worked and all of Makiko's children were born female. The man's intention was to fill the land with so many pretty girls that any one of them desiring marriage would eventually have to marry his son due to lack of supply of marriageable men. After a generation, the land was abundant with young and beautiful girls- just as the man had hoped for.

However, with the male population repeatedly suffering due to constant war. That, combined with only girls being born due to the "Makiko Curse", this quickly lead to a population crisis. A law was passed by the samurai that any girl born with the curse or any woman seen resembling Makiko (a sign that they had the curse) were to be killed on sight. This lead to a terrible slaughter. Those who survived fled to the secluded mountains. Over the generations, their numbers grew as quickly as their hatred did. They trained to fight and to kill by the bloodthirsty Lady Akuza. Lady Akuza then formed the "Shadow Heart" clan and organized it into a standing army, posed to reclaim the lands the woman lost and to extract revenge on those who exiled them. Makiko herself disappeared shortly after this began and decided to hide among a neighboring mountain range, where she did everything she could to spread the curse. Her aim was to make every individual in Japan infected with the curse so that no more perverted men like the one that cursed her would ever exist again, and that Japan would then be ruled by only women with eternal lives.

Unknowing the what Makiko was doing, The hatred growing among the clan for the outside world gained the attention of Yohko, a half demon under the mind control influence of Yaksha, the goddess of war. Yohko and Akuza formed a pact that would eventually lead to the summoning of Yaksha to the realm of mortal- to Earth. Under Yaksha's seemingly limitless magic over women, she rendered the Shadow Heart troops invulnerable against attacks by men- whether they be swords or arrows alike.

Ancient texts described that a cure for any curse could be obtained by capturing shrines in all of the holy cities. The desire of every Shadow Heart member was to resume a normal life and raise a normal family, free of the curse that binded them. They quickly mobilized with the goal of seizing those cities. This was during the peak of the fighting during the feudal era, so battles were frequently waged all across the country. During this peak, the Shadow Heart army descended form the mountains and dominated every battlefield. Army after army were completely destroyed without the loss of even a single Shadow Heart soldier. One Shadow Heart woman was single handedly capable of wiping out entire battalions. Due to such flawless victories, the clan was able to secure the capital of Edo in only a week. Yaksha intended to rule Japan and use it as a base of operations in advancing into and conquering the rest of the world, using the Shadow Heart as her tools.

Meanwhile, Makiko herself had become nothing much more then a walking corpse. She had become the very source and sustainment of the curse.

The Samurai and other warlords were greatly alarmed by trhe Shadow Heart's war progress. Their very power and rules had become threatened almost overnight by this new menace. One warlord, Lord Masamune, sent a spy named "Mayumi" to infiltrate the Shadow Heart. The infiltration was successful and Mayumi provided Masamune with a great deal of information about the clan, including who their leaders were, what their soldier strengths were, what their combat capabilities were, and where the army currently occupied at any given time. However, her most important piece of information was that Yaksha, being a female god, could not protect her troops from attacks wielded by other females. Word got out and the warlords scoured the land for combat-competent females that weren't already in the Shadow Heart. Masamune had one capable female assassin who loyally served under him. Her name was "Aya," a girl with blood ties to the west. Masamune sent her on a mission to eliminate Yaksha before his rule was threatened by the advancing Shadow Heart army. Aya has served for many years, and was wanting to retire from the business of killing. Lord Masamune agreed that she could leave the clan to live a normal life- on top of a heap of financial rewards, if she completed her mission.

However, during that time Mayumi's cover was blown, and she was captured by her enemies. This distressed Masamune and added that Aya should also rescue her during the course of her mission. This did not stop Mayumi's sister, Natsumi, from venturing out to save her as well. Mayumi's last bit of information the discovered before she was caught was where Yaksha would be staying for the night in the outskirts of occupied Edo...in an area where the troop concentration would be the lightest. There were 20,000 combatants in the Shadow Heart army and another 20,000 noncombatants in support of it. The area would have not much more then 2000 at the time of Yaksha's stay. It was Aya's perfect opportunity to carry out her mission.

-----------------------------------------

Remember, this map has a melee system that's different then usual. You mast stay moving to dodge enemy attacks. Normal enemies can slay Aya very quickly if you go toe to toe with them. Stop in between enemy swings to attack, use special abilities when outnumbered and keep using drain soul to keep mana topped off.

Credits to all resource authors are given in the map.
Contents

Shadow Heart (Map)

Reviews
Wolverabid Rating: 8/10 This map is a complete package: custom loading screen and music, a fine opening cinematic, excellent terrain, models, quests, credits... this map has it all. The gameplay is VERY difficult: a player must be swift and...

Moderator

M

Moderator

Wolverabid

Rating: 8/10

This map is a complete package: custom loading screen and music, a fine opening cinematic, excellent terrain, models, quests, credits... this map has it all.

The gameplay is VERY difficult: a player must be swift and deadly to stand a chance in this scenario.
Update: (vengeancekael) Added missing rating => Wolverabid's review.
 
Level 22
Joined
May 11, 2004
Messages
2,863
This is a dedicated solo version of Shadow Heart. It has more musics, more cinimatics, more story, more quests, more variety in enemies, some speech, ect. But obviously due to file size its single player only.

You can get the multi-player version here:
http://www.wc3sear.ch/index.php?p=Maps&ID=6512&sid=b00ce12a30e8e74091d905902338bb15
-VGsatomi
 
Level 3
Joined
Sep 23, 2005
Messages
49
Wow very good game
i love the terrian and the rivers
kinda hard but after a few trys you get threw it
the vocies are sorta robotic but its not thats big of a deal
hopefully i can make a game as good as you one day XD
 
Level 1
Joined
Jul 1, 2004
Messages
5
why r all the voices sound like robotlish

also i recommanded that you hire some people to do those voices but not those programs that make certain voices and that can't act like in this game.

btw the map is pretty good 4.8/5
 
Level 4
Joined
Sep 22, 2004
Messages
52
Review time:

VG this was an impressive map I did have some fun the first 15 munites, all the kiling and stuff but you say more quests but all I see is kill commanders and kill the Goddess of War......

Good Points:

GREAT terrain
It's difficult and I love that in a map.
Story was alright.
I don't know why I can't give alot of good points for a map but know this your map was cool

Bad like REALLY bad points.

Those voices, they need life not some Microsoft Sam and Microsoft Ann voices.
Like I said I only had fun for 15 minutes two reasons why:
1:It's cool that she's lvl 10 in the start but it is fun to be able to lvl up a character think about that.
2: Mindless killing there's really no point if you only hack n slash the entire map, Could just as well be playing The UnIncredible Hulk.
Please do put in more quests.
I did put in hard in the good points but thats just for me but alot of people hate maps that are to hard.
Rivers don't flow that badly on a sunny day......

Well thats what I thought about the map.
 
Level 22
Joined
May 11, 2004
Messages
2,863
Thanks, everyone.

Please do put in more quests.
I'm planning on adding in more quests as Jigrael and Black_stan make more models. Right now its just the Akuza and Mayumi quests alongside the original ones. I already have one more in ready in the next version where you have to stop a gold shipment...might get it posted today.

why r all the voices sound like robotlish
I used a text to voice program. Figured it was better then nothing since the voices really didnt increase the file size that much.

It's cool that she's lvl 10 in the start but it is fun to be able to lvl up a character think about that.

I understand completely, but keep in mind this is not an RPG. its an offense/arcade action-style game. I'll be fixing some of the abilites on the next version.

i recommanded that you hire some people to do those voices
Easier said then done. :? Especially with female voice actors. If I had access to them, the whole game would be voiced dialoge.

The map may be difficult, but it is only single player, so you can use the normal save feature whenever you want to save your progress (or just cheat :()

-VGsatomi
 
Level 22
Joined
May 11, 2004
Messages
2,863
Im preparing another girl model just now hopw u ll use it too

I look very forward to seeing it. Any female models made by you and Black_stan are pretty much guarenteed to be added into this map, as long as they are human. It gives me more reasons to add additional quests and endings, too.

Oh, and I can't wait to hear the voices

Dont get your hopes up too high, they're not that great. WOuld be wonderful to have real voice actors and actresses.

Are you planning on maknig more maps of this theme

I'm not sure yet. If I do make more shadow heart maps, it will likely be in the form of a campaign rather then additional stand-alone maps.

Thanks for the comments and feedback, everyone!
-VGsatomi
 
Level 3
Joined
Jul 21, 2004
Messages
11
2.5/5 Gameplay
3.4/5 Terrian
1/5 Creativity
4.5/5 Custom Mods
5/5 Music

3.5/5 Overall

Review:
-Game has no point, random story, random clan of ninjas.
>>omg, they came from the mountians...
>>so little and limited detail...
>>what were the goddesses motive for her actions?
>>I guess she hates men...
>>And of course she wants to live a peacefull,meaningless farm life...so cliche..again creativity lacking.
-Gameplay is very boring, repetitive
>>Killing ninja women and hearing them scream was nice...
>>killing over and over and over... and not even able to skip the cinema is horrible
-Music
>>good job, too techno..
-Terrain
>>good job, however wth is up with your enviroment terrian. The cattails doodad, isnt being used properly, and looks bad, remake your river terrain, the flow is good though. ^_^
-Custom Models........
>>Ok...good job....lol using the ones this site provides. good job though, you are putting good models to good use.

over all good job....you should spend more time in story development. Although it was about the gameplay, gameplay is lacking when people don't have a reason for killing, or playing. And the reason stated was to kill this goddess because she threatens lord masamune's rule. Ya...
 
Level 22
Joined
May 11, 2004
Messages
2,863
-Game has no point, random story, random clan of ninjas.
>>omg, they came from the mountians...
>>so little and limited detail...

And the reason stated was to kill this goddess because she threatens lord masamune's rule.

Hence the story unfolds. You cant expect to have everything right off the bat. The idea was to discover who they are and why they are fighting. (even one of the quests is to find out who the Shadow Heart really are)

And your critique of my terraining doesnt help me at all. Please be more specific.
-VGsatomi
 
Level 5
Joined
Jun 13, 2005
Messages
169
Ok I tested and I like what i see on it but i have some suggestions.
-on begining cinimatic voice overs were kind of....robotic, the lady one didn't seem to fit her that well and they would continue to talk even after the sound finished so make them stop talking after sound is finished.
-It was very difficult I ended up running from 50+ Ninjas all over the town so maybe give some training time or something like that before the ninjas just start running up to you so you can get used to the abilities of the hero first.
And that is well basically all i found wrong so far but really good map high quality.
 
Level 9
Joined
Sep 8, 2004
Messages
633
Okay, so i'll add my review too.

Good points:
- I love the custom models and sounds.
- It's different from known maps, original
- Definately done with care

Points to be improved:
- (again) the cinematics, skippable please
- (again) the voices, if possible
- (again) a little warmup would be nice, first try took me 30 seconds to die.
- The models, they tend to jump alot, especially during the cinematic.
- It might be a bit too hard for some people, how about difficulty settings? A dialog at start that sets the difficulty maybe? (which influences the hp/mana of Aya?)

Altogether a good map, and with these few points improved one of the greatest imo.
 
Level 2
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
Messages
10
WOW 10/10! You know people if its so "lacking and made poorly" why dont u go make ur own :?: :?:
 
Level 1
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
4
The Warcraft crashed when loading the map. I have iMac 2,1 gthz and 1gt memory and the latest patch so that shouldn't be a problem. Is this WIndows only map or something like that?
 
Level 3
Joined
Dec 24, 2005
Messages
42
as far as i know, i've never run into a "windows only map". i'm pretty sure there isn't such a thing. that being said, it doesn't work for me either. i can't even open it in worldedit and test the map from there. probably isn't anything to do with the computer itself, just the software. maybe the format of the sound files or something...
 
Level 22
Joined
May 11, 2004
Messages
2,863
What does it say when you try to open it? I dont have it protected or anything, and I used only the official blizz world editor. I can't give advice for mac users, but for win users, all I can say is that I had world editor crashes frequently after I switched to Windows XP...I simply chaged the compatability of worldedit.exe (properties-->compatability) and set it to windows 2000 and it fixed all my problems right up.

Sound formt problem does sound feasible. All the sounds are in either .mp3 or .wav. If you comp doesnt have mp3 support, when it goes to play the music in a format the comp cant read, it may cause a crash.
-VGsatomi
 
Level 1
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
4
What does it say when you try to open it?

Nothing. WC3 suddenly quits when it has loaded about 5/6 of the map.

Sound formt problem does sound feasible. All the sounds are in either .mp3 or .wav. If you comp doesnt have mp3 support, when it goes to play the music in a format the comp cant read, it may cause a crash.

My comp should have both .wav and .mp3 support.


I think that I now know what is the problem: I opened it in world edit and it crashed when it was downloading units. I repeated it several times and noticed that it crashed when it was 460/491 units. So the problem is propably in one of the units.

btw I just tried the multiplayer version and it was pretty good. I'd really like to try solo version.[/quote]
 
Level 22
Joined
May 11, 2004
Messages
2,863
I dont know what to say...maybe try downloading it again. I havent used any 3rd party programs or mods to make it, so as long as you dont have any installed as well, there should be no conflicts in regards to blizzard software. It must be something else, like unrelated hardware or software. I can still open it, so not sure what else I can do on my end. Just make sure you're patched up.
-VGsatomi
 
Level 1
Joined
Jan 9, 2006
Messages
4
download-I've downloaded this map 4 times. Everytime the same problem.
3rd party programs-I don't have any.
hardware/software-This might be the problem. I tried it in my older computer and it still crashed.
patch-1.20b
I can still open it, so not sure what else I can do on my end.
Well, you could check the units, but I'm not sure if you can really do anything to it.

[/quote]
 
Level 22
Joined
May 11, 2004
Messages
2,863
Edit completed. Map is now almost 50% bigger with more missions to do. Just a reminder that I reccomend using winzip classic mode, not wizard, when extracting from the zip.

EDIT: Another Edit done. Added a chapter that takes place after Yaksha is defeated. Map is now full size, and I have no more room to expand, out of units, doodads, ect, no more room to add anything else in. The story now concludes. So I guess I can consider this map "Gold" now.

Also, there is now an option to skip the opening cinimatic.
-VGsatomi
 
Level 4
Joined
Nov 9, 2005
Messages
113
Hey VG, use Sony SoundForge to record voices, delete noise and modifie or distort.
I'm using it and i can say it's great. You can pitch dawn to make it monster-like.
 
Level 22
Joined
May 11, 2004
Messages
2,863
Updated again. Removed the voices and lowed the quality of some of the mp3 tracks to reduce file size (11 megs gone :shock: ). Took out the seperate endings due to potential bugs and made it so the mountain area is no longer an optional area (players must now finish it to reach Yaksha). Added in more variety of enemy death knells, added in civilians, added in an time limit during the second chapter and fixed a few other minor bugs. Enjoy.
-VGsatomi
 
Level 2
Joined
Aug 12, 2006
Messages
26
OMG hmm nice very nice hmmm
that MUSIC is great work
hmm 4/5
and about that size dont worry i have map which is
75 mb big.
 
Level 6
Joined
Aug 22, 2006
Messages
253
Godamn thats quite hard :)
But im looking forward to completing it! A good job well done, VG!
The only thing i would say:
Its quite hard to use all the skills you have. Perhaps it might be better to have them hotkeyed to Q,W,E,R,T,Y? Just a thought. Anyway, real nice map.

Are the ninjas that come at you endless? I am able to fight a few of them just by dodging and attacking, but to fight 50 of them, you need loads of mana, and i always run out. I never seem to have enough time to siphon it too, as im always trying to run around...

Anyway, job well done!
 
Level 2
Joined
Nov 4, 2006
Messages
17
:shock:p-E-R-F-E-C-T.Can you make a version without a time limit?I think that the map will be more appreciated like that because the players will have their time to see what you have done.I admire you anyway, VGsatomi you are the leader.And the best mapper i think.Keep up the good work to make us follow your example. (Greetings from Greece) Teron
 
Level 2
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
17
Very good map.
This map is perfect for those who likes extreme challenges (Like me).
Anyways, good job.
I'd like to see this kind of theme on a more RPG-oriented map.
8/10
 
Level 3
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Messages
46
How about a better hotkeys? and also wind shield and force wave have the same hotkeys. But really nice map overall, best mele fighting system I'v seen.
 
Level 4
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
Messages
50
Great map for hardcore gamers, though I'm not the one. Could you possibly add an easy-tour mode just for those who can't click the mouse as fast as it's meant to. Just more health or health regeneration plus less frequent enemy unit respawn. The first impression is 5 of 5 but many people may have to do only with the first impression just because it's too hard to play
 
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