I don't remember the exact line, but fairly far in the game half minute hero, there was a stage where there was a ghost you could befriend and later you encounter it in battle and avoid killing it by tapping the escape button to move back and forth to not hit it until it came to it's senses or whatever. The asshole dev move though was to give you the "duel greaves" shortly before this encounter which provide great stats while disabling running away.

Being called a liar after being forced to kill the ghost has been my lifelong emotional trauma.