There were originally plans to include a sidequest to restore Lilac's treehouse after it's destroyed in the beginning of the game, which would have required its own system of saved variables in the save files in order to have progress carried over.

It would've begun by talking to the NPC Wallace in the Singing Water Temple hub area who would ask the player to talk to Foreman Mun in Shuigang, who would assess the damage and give the player a price quote, which would be a ridiculous amount that the player wouldn't be able to pay at that point in the game.

So the player would either pay the amount later or recruit the extra labour he asks for, and then the player would go ask Lilibeth in Parusa to help rebuild the treehouse, which she would accept after the player does something for her.
The questline was cut due to time constraints and the extra work that would've been needed to implement it.