I am seriously basing everything about Miao Village by what we have.
Firstly, due to how the games are actually built, it's possible for really old and outdated files to be leftover on the disc.. and yes we're talking about even cut things,
such as the bicycle. That's because of the nature of the way the games are built, they were built using a complex set of different build systems which were in the form of different scripts which would compile the various assets into the file formats which the game reads and then places them into the staging directory (the folder that eventually becomes what is burned to the disc).
However, sometimes it appears they run this build process with different options and depending on the type of build they used (and also quite often, if they didn't recompile X asset) these scripts will then use old copies of them.. which is exactly how the possibility for cut and unused content can be left on the disc. Sometimes this can happen in the form of a script/software bug, as is seen in this recent beta, whereby some of these build scripts can be seen with filenames completely unrelated to their contents (SCENE\02\UPLOAD2, it's just a text file, take a look).
One reason is, why do these NPCs hit a brick wall and start their general conversational elements right after the Wulinshu is found?
We can't really answer that with any amount of reasonable certainty, not with the (limited) amount of data available.
During the time this Game Jam build was made, the area had already been cut, which means any plans they had were already done. If there were any more story created for this area and spoken lines, they would be in here too. Ryo would have more conversation with Haihe, Wenyuan, etc... Don't tell me it makes sense to you that the developers would have meticulously went in to the subtitle data (of characters that had already been axed, thus especially ignored) to remove traces of any further story after the Wulinshu segment. What would be the point? Fans are never supposed to see any of it. It's more than extremely unlikely, I dare say impossible that happened.
Okay well, the script I just mentioned to you, present on the GameJam beta, Disc 1.. here's an excerpt of it:
Code:
mkdir ARA0
mkdir AR03
mkdir AR02
mkdir AKT3
mkdir AKT2
mkdir AKT0
mkdir AKA3
mkdir AK00
cd /p39/prj39p/s2new/main/vcd/scene/02/MAP0
ln -s ../../01/MAP0/* .
cd /p39/prj39p/s2new/main/vcd/scene/02/0549
ln -s ../../01/0549/* .
cd /p39/prj39p/s2new/main/vcd/scene/02/WET0
ln -s ../../01/WET0/* .
cd /p39/prj39p/s2new/main/vcd/scene/02/AK09
ln -s ../../01/AK09/* .
cd /p39/prj39p/s2new/main/vcd/scene/02/ARM0
ln -s ../../01/ARM0/* .
cd /p39/prj39p/s2new/main/vcd/scene/02/AKS0
ln -s ../../01/AKS0/* .
This is part of the build system which puts the files, specifically the maps, quite literally makes takes a copy of the map files from some place over the internal network. I'm sure you're aware of MAP0, the cut map with developer comments written everywhere.. this is still present in this list. Perhaps they forgot to delete it from the internal network directories, hence why the oldest version of it, the one with the developer comments was still being copied?
What other assets are there, on any build, related to Miao village that would suggest any larger plans for this area? Cutscene data in particular. I'm not talking about some NPC motion data. I don't recall ever seeing any. If there is, let's analyze to see if it involves anyone other than OSY. Otherwise, I'm not going to sit here and say I'll bet dollars to donuts that nothing else could possibly be there. But I'm also not going to keep myself up at night searching either. I'm at peace enough that the biggest part of the mystery has been solved.
I don't know, a cut game mechanic would probably justify the existence of a rather large and rural area... anything could, it is a game afterall.
Again, I think you're misinterpreting what I'm saying here. I'm simply saying that this doesn't solve
everything about Miao Village, despite it being a very big step in truly unsolving it or a definitive "case closed".