The internet has been buzzing with excitement for the newly announced ones lately individual 5 spin off game, Phantom of the Night (P5X). Fans were intrigued by the new characters, but they were also excited to see their old favorites again. But when I looked at the screenshots, I noticed that one person was missing: Goro Akechi. What’s up Atlus? You can’t just do that Persona 5 RoyalThe main antagonist of wasn’t also the most compelling character in the series. He was a real member of the Phantom Thieves group, and his haters can get angry about that.
Goro Akechi is a high school student who acts as a rival for the main protagonist of individual 5. In the original game, he is known for betraying the party after posing as a friend. He also does this in the expanded royal Release, but this 2019 update of the game adds additional scenes for him. These social interactions make Akechi feel more like a deeply concerned friend than a shit cop who had a last-minute change of heart.
Like most RPG antagonists, Akechi has a tragic backstory. His mother died when he was young and he was raised as an orphan (which is generally associated with significant social stigma in Japan). Akechi wanted revenge on his neglectful and cruel father, so he cooperated with him to get close enough to murder him. Unfortunately, his father was also planning to murder his son all along. Akechi eventually realized that the protagonist is a person similar to himself and decided to sacrifice himself to ensure the heroic Phantom Thieves’ escape.
That also helped royal, players will have to spend more time with him in a whole new arc. The aftermath added a new semester in which reality has completely changed. In this transformed Tokyo, each character has undone their personal tragedy and each person lives a happy life. This is the only scenario where Akechi can be saved. However, he rejects the artificial world and the false happiness that comes with it. Since he was said to have died in the original storyline, defeating the owner of this world means he will cease to exist. He does not care. For him, dying is preferable to living under the thumb of a higher power.
But I wanted him to live! If you follow the ending where the artificial world is destroyed, royal teases the possibility that Akechi might have survived. And so I held my breath for the possibility of seeing Akechi again in the sequel game scramble. I never finished this Musou game despite completing so many others. Akechi wasn’t there and that was definitely one of the reasons. I wasn’t very invested in a P5 in which he did not exist.
I hoped it was a coincidence. Akechi is good and deserves to appear in other spinoff games. Now it seems so P5X might disappoint me too, and I’m starting to lose hope that Atlus will remember who he is. That’s homophobia and I won’t accept that. Atlus, give us my wild bird son or give me death.
