not end up hitting roadblocks because some boss enemies were weak to job types the player had not focused on. A notable Daemon cut during development was a human-monster hybrid who used tarot cards in combat. The weapon drop system was inspired by item drops in Kid Icarus: Uprising, a game on which Hashimoto worked. An important element was keeping the gameplay accessible to casual players. Scenario and art design Tokita's aim for the narrative was to return to his long-held principles of using games to tell a narrative only games could tell, as well as pushing narrative boundaries in terms of theme and tone. One of the things Tokita pushed for was breaking away from the convention that Square Enix role-playing games had to fit within a certain age range. While Inaba was worried, Tokita encouraged him to include far more mature or disturbing content than either Lost Sphear or I Am Setsuna. The game's main motif was life and death, drawing inspiration from many Eastern philosophies that incorporated the concept of reincarnation. The team wanted players to see the story and revisit their own views on the subject. The team crafted the narrative so it would disturb people who experienced it. While the story was dark, the team wanted players to feel rather than see it, so there was no gore or graphic violence and many of the "shocking" moments are implied rather than shown. Despite the story's dark tones, the team actively worked to avoid a high age recommendation that would bar younger players. The Daemons' backstories helped communicate the narrative's somber tone. The world's faith and its related imagery drew from real-world rituals for the dead such as the Bon Festival. Following the globe-spanning adventure of Lost Sphear, Inaba wanted to write a story on a small scale similar to Vagrant Story. During production, the two halves of the plot underwent extensive changes, including different character roles, and several planned character subplots needing to be dropped. Sara's role as the main antagonist and one of the final bosses was a later addition during the last rewrite, and the inability to explain her role until late in the game proved complicated to work around. Kagachi was designed to appear mature without being old, with his cold attitude and actions giving players incentive to find out about his personality. This played into the two halves of the game,