In the following sentence (from the Legend of Zelda guidebook I am
translating) this sentence appears when talking about fighting enemies. My
question is about the purpose of ダメ at the end.

> 全ての敵を倒す必要はないが、逃げてばかりではダメ。

From this SO question [dame written as
katakana](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1930/why-dame-is-
written-as-katakana-%E3%83%80%E3%83%A1-in-manga) I think that ダメ is simply
adding emphasis. Otherwise, it makes no sense to me:

> It is not necessary to beat all enemies, escape is no good (?)

How do you all translate the sentence?
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katakana
Katakana ダメ to end a sentence - emphasis?
Think of it as being in the same boat as ～ては（いけない・ならない） which I'm sure you've
probably come across as the default phrases for prohibiting an action. It's
the same thing with ダメ. Using ダメ instead of いけない or ならない makes it sound a
little harsher or colloquial, I think.

"You don't have to beat every enemy, but you can't run away all the time."
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There are a few reasons for the usage of Katakana, but the main one here is as
you suspect, to provide emphasis.

Katakana is not only used for loan words, but also words with unusual Kanji
(especially technical terms) and for onomatopoeia. They are also used to
provide a break in a train of Hiragana to limit risk of confusion.

ダメoriginally comes from a term in the game Igo, where it refers to useless
points on the board. This might be one of the reasons why Kanji usage is less
common. Also, writing it in Katakana has a harder feeling to it than writing
it in Hiragana would have, which is usually more appropriate considering the
meaning of the word.
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