So I was playing the second chapter of Dragon Fantasy (which is fairly brutal at the the outset, BTW), and I came across the first boss, the rat king. While fighting the boss, I accidentally hit the “run” command for one of my characters, and to my surprise, we were able to escape the battle!
This is not a new feature to RPGs, but it is an exceedingly rare one. In fact, the only other game that I know for sure lets you run from boss fights is Chrono Cross. I’m fairly sure Final Fantasy XIII and its sequel let you run too, but I’m not certain.
Dragon Fantasy even adds a wrinkle in here: if you run away from this boss, he up and leaves! I was shocked when I saw this, and a little disappointed that all that delicious XP just walked away. The big rat does the same thing if you best him in battle, but I thought it neat that if you don’t want to fight him you don’t have to.
I haven’t tested with other bosses yet, but it’s definitely something I’ll be keeping in mind as I progress. Is this an intended feature or a bug? If you can run from all bosses, do any other ones leave? What an exciting mystery!