Thanks for playing + the detailed feedback! We had the same rhetorical journey with the RNG sheep movement throughout development lol. One change I had planned but didn't get to was that hitting them with the Katana would significantly speed up their movement logic, so that they would almost certainly get out of a corner while still retaining that tension you described with the boss, plus it gives the Katana another use case to juggle. We might go back and implement that post-jam when we're fixing the Up bug!
Haha the kiting of NPCs is also something I do, and it DEFINITELY works... buuut only in the same way turning my controller IRL veers my car harder in racing games ;) Thanks again! <3