As she picks up more spirits and collects resources, Stella expands the ship and its capabilities further. However, eventually, Stella must begin sending the spirits to the Everdoor, with each of them giving an emotional send off as they thank Stella for everything she has done for them, leaving her a spirit flower to remember them by. As Stella sends off more and more spirits, she soon begins occasionally encountering Hades, in the form of a giant owl. Hades shows Stella images of what are apparently her past life as a palliative care nurse, taking care of terminally ill patients before falling terminally ill herself. Hades then questions Stella's motivations, wondering whether her desire to help spirits is truly altruistic or simply a selfish means to ease her own insecurities. Eventually, Stella sends off the last spirit through the Everdoor and she has one final confrontation with Hades. Hades reveals that Stella's real body is on the verge of death in the real world, and it is now her time to pass through the Everdoor. With her purpose fulfilled, Stella sails back to the Everdoor with Daffodil one last time. She passes through the Everdoor with Daffodil and they both become a constellation in the sky. Development Creative director Nicolas Guérin mentions that the game's stories are based on its own experiences of loss. They wanted to make a game that handled death in a way that felt more personal and intimate, referencing the loss of family and loved ones. The original concept had the game take place on a train instead of a boat but the team decided that it did not really fit what they wanted. Changing seasons were also discussed but then scrapped because the scope of putting that into the game was much too large and served little importance to the game as a whole. Farming sections were much larger too, putting the original concept closer to competing simulation games like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley so Thunder Lotus made the decision to tone it back, making the resource collecting portions not as time consuming and setting it apart from those competitors. The game is also padded with stories from the spirits that measure up to 90,000 words at the time GameSpot published the interview with Guérin on July 28, 2021. Guérin also mentioned doing research at end-of-life care facilities for a month as well as