Before Everything:
The beach area was meant to be a full game thing in the original demo, only being accessible after a certain moment in the story, but with the new direction the game is taking, there is no need to limiting player exploration and letting them miss out on potential good loot that may come from the local docks of Nationia.
While also not looking the part, the area in the original game didn't really convey that it was going to be a beach, so i've decided to make things a little bit clearer.
Can you even tell that there would've been a beach below with as little information as a few tiles of sand in the borders of the river?
You don't need to really answer, it's a rethorical question.
To be fair I wasn't really happy with the end results in the old demo so for the newer one i've decided to update things a little bit more.
The old one was too cluttered and it really didn't make much sense of what was happening. Why is there a lone house below? Why are the docks so far away from civilization, and most importantly, why was it here in specific?
All of these were fixed below by simplifying the design of things.
Now:
Now the area is far more clearer and vibrant on what it's meant to be, you can see the river leading up to the ocean, palm trees, the port and a nice beach village.
Not only is this area important later on, it's also a good early source of high tier items. After all, the docks tend to contain quite a good ammount of loot if you're willing to put in the effort to borrow some of the items.
Not only that, but the area, named endahaf, now has a direct connection to the capital's port, making more sense in game for why it's actually there to begin with.