Part 6: Shadow of the Tiger

Update 5: Shadow of the Tiger

Last time we'd beaten Sei-Ryu and gotten the Red Orb, which still leaves the Blue Orb as a key component to unlock the gateway. How you mix a Red Orb and a Blue Orb and get a Blue Sphere rather than a purple one is beyond me.


ou get for 2 longswords, 3 gold helms, and 4 potions?

I actually briefly forgot about what I had to do, but the key is to go find this old man who gives you a "riddle." The total price of those items is 989 Gold, which is equivalent to the price of a brand new battle sword. Remember when we bought one of those way back at the beginning of this world?


t answer!

Talking to him with an unused battle sword in your inventory will gain you the Blue Orb. Obviously this is supposed to be Ryu-O disguised as an old man, but I'm thinking he's kind of senile.



Combine the two orbs for our ticket out of this world.



Climbing up, the tower has a new motif. I like this a lot more than the boring setup the previous floors had.



The monsters, naturally, are immediately stronger on the other side of the door.



Naturally this wouldn't be complete without sub-worlds on the way up.



This one is a bit tricky since if you don't try to walk into the water you'd think it's just a pointless island. Instead, heading north you'll find something strange.



At the northern edge of the world is a row of fish statues, some of which give up Xpotions when you search them.



Aika asks a very pertinent question. Why indeed?



More often than not talking to a statue will plunge you into a fight.


ck of time in the tower.

This kind of makes me think of the Dark Tower for some reason. How long have we been climbing at this point?



A few floors up we run into another area, although this one is more benign.



This is a hospital, where one of the patients tells us about the archfiend. There's also an inn here that you can use for a mid-tower recharge.



The P-knife is a handy weapon that's pretty much exclusively for the use of mutants since in this game humans can't get any magical power. It uses mana as its attack base, which means that Fina can tear up enemies with it.



Finally we arrive into a change in decor, which signals a new world.


calling for guards.

Mr. Hat and Tails here gives us a bit of a hint as to our course of action in the next world.



A quick glance at the door reveals that it's locked by magic of white, indicating that our enemy is going to be Byak-ko, the White Tiger. I'm trying to think up a Siegried and Roy joke here...



This is our first look into the third world, which appears to be made up of clouds that are dense enough to support trees.



And also dense enough to support an entire town. Your guess is as good as mine.




The townspeople have a lot to say about Byak-Ko. Evidently he lives in a sky palace, has a rebel problem, and wants guardsmen to help put it down.



This is a little tidbit to investigate later.



There's also a few details about the resistance. We'll never meet Charles, but he has two daughters that are running the rebellion now.



Heading into the pub we get into a fight that it's taking me longer to talk about than it took to beat. Afterward, the guards offer us a job working for Byak-Ko. Things start moving pretty fast here, so I had trouble getting shots.



Byak-Ko is a wordy bastard, but long story short he's hired us on and our first mission is to go find Jeanne, the leader of the resistance.



After that he kicks us out of his awesome sky palace and hands us a glider. Freedom!



The glider can't cross trees. Thus, we can assume that this area will be important.



I have no explanation as to why this building looks like an igloo. What the hell is it even made of? At any rate, this is our destination.



Somehow the inside of the building is square. There's a girl in a corner surrounded by monsters.



Fina is the one asking if we're actually going to help her. Aika seems to act like it's a forgone conclusion, but is it really? Why should the heroes support the resistance if it's so incompetent that these monsters which our party can one-shot are a threat? You could argue that it's very logical to turn her in and then use that opportunity to strike at Byak-Ko



Evidently the other sister is already being held, so our new mission is to rescue her. It kind of makes you wonder if there were any witnesses to the trouncing we just gave the original guards.



Before that, however, let's investigate the hidden town. In a corner of the map is a two by two square of cloud that we can fly into.


in the clouds.

I thought it was supposed to be found when the two sisters were reunited? Does Byak-ko have the damn thing or not?


the two daughters come together again.

But...but...I thought?



A bit on the expensive side, but I'll have to come back for it later.

Next time: we storm the castle and take that orb regardless of who has it or when it's going to appear. There should be some