regarding the deletion, nah I just moved on to different games and needed more space (lost judgment. Awesome to no-damage btw. Its got a pretty high but manageable skill ceiling. Its a fun learning progress.)
And regarding the lock on, it just appears to have to do with enemy AI. i did the fight in the clip for like 20 times. Some enemies just wouldnt approach me (probably due to game balancing since it´d be unfair if all enemies attack at the same time).
But by locking onto the enemy, that somehow manipulates their AI into thinking that I am fighting them or something. And when they think that I am fighting them, they will of course respond back by approaching me (which was the one thing I needed to set up that massive ring out)