I always felt like you just had to put aside qualms about low level battles. Like at the beginning of FF3/6 you go into a town and get attacked by a stray dog. Kinda freaked me out as a kid.

Now I'm imagining a more humanitarian/realistic DnD setting where killing things just makes everything worse. Like if you kill a nest of orc babies you get PTSD. If you slay the griffin guarding the mountain pass suddenly other monsters can cross through. The villagers actively try to discourage/misdirect/harm anyone trying to loot the barrows because they'll have to deal with the curses/hauntings/retribution after the PCs take the grave goods.