I've restarted PoE about 4~5 times. What has happened before is that if the Watcher dies, my party continues combat until everyone is dead. In my most recent run, even while the 2 party members are still very much alive, as long as the Watcher is dead I get the load screen.
Also, isn't expert mode supposed to be a permanent choice during a NG? Yet I can click and mess around with the various options in the tutorial dungeon.
Can anyone clue me in on what's happening?