RGR007 - Partly Cloudy, 100% Chance of Brain Monsters

I know, I know, the ring only regenerates HP; it was the Golden Arrow that started the whole automatic arrow recovery trend. My mistake. Anyway, I finished up my map of the North Tower and took on the boss, a goofy frog thing. He'd have been a complete joke if his attacks hadn't included those debilitating fireballs I hate so much, along with a temporary scythe-wielding demon transformation. And before you start saying "Oh, that's the Parapo Beam; you need to use the Parapo medicine for that", there are two things to note:

1. The fireball's effects prevent you from bringing up the item menu, so you can't use it.
2. There is no Parapo Beam, so the Parapo medicine is useless.

Because I KNOW you were about to give me crap about the Parapo Beam.

I can't take this guy seriously.

Wait, yes I can.

Aww, the peninsula looks sad.

No thanks, I'll fold my own.

Hey, that sounds like a clue...

That too!

The frog guy was guarding the coveted Sky Shoes, which allow their wearer to walk on clouds. I had heard that if I had them, an old lady shopkeeper (that's not very PC, but whatever) in the mountains would escort me to the sky world. Of course, no one ever said WHICH mountains. It turns out there's a small volcanoesque mountain in the middle of the forest east of Ehdo, where the game's controls get all wonky. I think you're supposed to be wandering confusedly.

So THAT'S the mountain!

Oh, I thought you used a ladder.

As advertised, the Sky Shoes let me walk around on clouds of varying shades of gray. There are new enemies up here, including some slow-moving things that look an awful lot like Beholders from the D&D universe, as well as the disgusting multi-eyed floating brain monsters you see below. I found a single building up there, where an old man told me to find a narrow hole and jump in it, which sounds kind of similar to taking a long walk off a short pier, so I might be offended.

But I decided to listen to him and start looking for little holes, and sure enough, I found one and jumped in it. I came up empty-handed, though, and had to swim back to shore and start over. My second attempt was much more successful, as I found a rope. Not a magic rope or anything, just a regular old rope just sitting around.

With rope in hand, I started looking for high platforms to climb, and found one just west of Riria, where I found a tiny little town called Zellia. The people there (all three of them) act as guardians, watching over the people of Faria and waiting, apparently for me. One of them (an old man whose speech kept running one line too long for screenshots) gave me the Crystal of Truth, a magical artifact with an obvious power. For me, though, its only purpose is to show me which of the Phantom Towers is the real one.

The Phantom Tower is different from previous towers. Its rooms loop and link together in confusing ways, so that you could head in one direction indefinitely, and most of them look the same.

Which one's Cloud 9?

Eew, not this one!

He's just trying to get rid of me.

Hmm, this hole looks narrow...

But at least the view is nice.

Let's try this again...

That's more like it!

Who builds a town on a rocky plateau?

That's creepy.

So it's like a newspaper?

This one went by kind of fast.

Now you see them...

Now you don't!

This will be interesting.

Maps aren't going to be of much use to me this time.