and the central theme of the relationships between Sara and her brother. Linne was designed as a cute character players would want to protect, and while her change to an adult was quick in the final game, Hashimoto had wanted her to grow as the story progressed. Mayura was initially a throwaway character who would die at an early stage, but her design and further elaboration from Inaba led her to taking on a greater role in the narrative. To increase the feeling of connection to events, some story sections were made interactive rather than playing out as a cutscene, including Kagachi's suicide and his killing of the mob. The former scene was incorporated based on a piece of concept art with Kagachi posed with a demon, appearing as if he were stabbing himself. Each of the Daemons was inspired by and created around a specific emotion or feeling they would have had in life that caused them to linger after death. Due to the connection of the lance Daemon Zarf with the main storyline, Inaba had wanted to connect all the Daemon weapons with the narrative, but due to the complexities of this their stories were made into unlockable standalone vignettes. In the game's Japanese release, multiple linguistic writing systems were employed, including kanji, hiragana, and katakana. This mixed use of writing styles was well received in early game concepts as certain scripts are considered more evocative and descriptive than others in Japan. This innovative approach to game writing was retained in the Japanese release. The game's Japanese title, Oni no Naku Kuni, emerged during early discussions about potential titles. A key influence was the concept of "demon", which was present from an early stage. Once the concept and title were decided, the scenario writing proceeded quickly. Its title translates directly from Japanese as "Country Where the Ogre Cries". Kagachi's name had several meanings; the word is an alternative word for the Hozuki flower used during the Bon Festival, a homonym for "snake" which is a common symbol of reincarnation, and when written a certain way included the character for "Oni". All of these tied into the game's themes. While earlier Tokyo RPG Studio titles had used their graphics to evoke nostalgia, the team opted to use those same graphics to create an original worldview. The artistic style of the game blended Western photorealism with a stylised appearance drawn