>>14176397literally this, but in a game that tries to have a serious character driven narrative.
part of the issue is that you can't actually attack people directly, only siphon off their life force to bolster your own through a random grim reaper ass character. somehow the protagonist doesn't really say anything about it and other than you getting your timer extended it's not different in any way from the npc having their timer run out naturally.
i think the intention was supposed to be that the boss serves as a way to get a "perfect" ending since of COURSE nobody could beat the game without letting any of the NPCs dying that would be absurd so lets just make him a time boss and revert back to hour 1 before anyone dies when you fight him. the problem is that i took the game at a very leisurely pace and didn't make any effort to save a single NPC which resulted in like 5 of 20 dying. i have absolute certainty that i could beat the game without anyone dying if i put in just a itny bit of effort
'ate those people, won't have it
autistic delivery of reasonable advice as usual. no reason you should need a second person there to do something you want to do