Goro Akechi

**Goro Akechi** is a playable character from *Persona 5*. He is revered as the second coming of the detective prince (the first appeared in *Persona 4*), and is investigating the mysterious Phantom Thieves of Hearts case sensationalizing Japan.

## Design

Akechi has shaggy chin-length brown hair with bangs and reddish-brown eyes. He wears a tan peacoat with black buttons, striped black and white tie, black trousers, and black gloves.

As Crow, Akechi wears a princely pure white royal outfit with red accents and a red, long-nosed mask. The artbook states his mask motif resembles that of a medieval western plague doctor, but in keeping with Akechi being as proud as a tengu, it's also got a long nose. His image is a combination of a noble's attire and a uniform worn by cavalry or guards of honor. As with his Robin Hood Persona, it's meant to give the feeling of putting on the air of a champion of justice, with nothing to do with being a Phantom Thief, robber or burglar of any sort, invoking the image of being at the front of a stage to contrast the protagonist's image of being more of a backstage actor.

Once he reveals his true intentions, Akechi swaps his princely garb for a body-covering, black and purple striped outfit. In this form, he has several black belts strapped around his legs and arms. He also wears a dark enclosed knight helmet, similar to plate armor, with a deep crimson mask resembling a sharp beak. Much like with Loki's design, it alludes to a lack of agency, is meant to give a chaotic feeling and invoke the question "what's the real you?"

## Personality

Akechi is a high school student who conducts a detective business. His abilities as a detective have been widely acclaimed, since he not only has solved numerous cases, but is also able to deal with people from the investigation agency smoothly. His handsome features draw him public attention, and people comment on him as “The Second Advent of the Detective Prince.”

Behind his popularity, he is quite lonely and yearns to be loved. He was abandoned by his father, subsequently lost his mother to suicide, and never had close friends. He was passed around the foster care system as an orphan and has developed a far more jaded worldview than he initially lets on, even calling himself an unwanted child. He has a desperate desire to be acknowledged, which he is forthright about being the primary drive for his actions as a detective. He also has a narcissistic element to his personality, wishing for others to see him as a hero and those who oppose him as the villains. Akechi claims that he has carefully crafted his public image in the hopes that it would make people accept him. He has the public's support only if he upholds the pretense of being a charismatic idol detective, and his fans are quick to turn on him if he makes mistakes, such as when the Phantom Thieves triumphed over Kaneshiro and Medjed.

In reality, he is actually a subordinate of Shido and his illegitimate son who carries the killings for him. He also blames his killings on the Phantom Thieves to taint their reputation, and his wish to be acknowledged by Shido pushes him to do both.

Shido both praises and threatens Akechi to manipulate him, and their conversations are always mission-based with no signs of affection. However, despite being a very effective hitman and subordinate for Shido, Akechi secretly resents the corrupt politican for abandoning him and causing his mother to commit suicide. He has sworn revenge on Shido, and his role as Shido's hitman and right-hand man are nothing but a pursuit to fulfill his goal to ruin him when he is at the apex of his power.

After meeting and joining the party, he experiences how it feels to be happy together with friends for the first time in his life, particularly the protagonist. Akechi both admires and envies him, since no matter his social standing and how others see him, the protagonist does not let anything stop him from making his own path. Near the final act of the game, his obsession to get revenge on his father and desire to be the hero of his own story overshadows his true feelings for the protagonist and the party. Before fighting the Phantom Thieves, Akechi reveals his plans for revenge and dismisses the concept of friends and true justice, claiming they are both meaningless and sickening. However, after learning the truth of how Shido sees him from his cognitive version of Akechi, his goals change to align with the party's, and he sacrifices himself to protect the protagonist.

*Persona 5 Maniax* states that Akechi is endowed with the same wild card power as the protagonist, and is the other "chosen one." Despite being overwhelmed with jealousy and contempt for Joker who was surrounded by friends, Akechi says he would have wanted to meet Joker earlier, and doesn't deny what Mona said about him taking a liking to Joker. In the end, he seems to hold complicated feelings toward Joker.

The official *Persona 5 Artbook* reveals that Akechi lives alone in a city apartment. His main skill is reasoning, and he has a habit of getting lost in thought during conversations. His hobbies include cycling (specifically, with a hybrid bicycle for easy turning in Tokyo), bouldering, and playing fashionable games like darts. His guidebook profile also states that Akechi always makes sure to try out the latest popular dishes in order to use food as a conversation piece. Waiting in long lines for this doesn't bother him. He uses his cycling hobby to ride around town, gathering stories to utilize in conversation with adults. Since he spends a lot of time with adults, he has a reputation among Tokyo’s famous hidden stores and high class restaurants, although in truth he has little interest in the food’s flavor.

## Gameplay

#### Confidant

"I can't believe you evaded the police's network until today... The only logical explanation is that someone in the police has ties to the Phantom Thieves... Explain yourself!"

—Sae Niijima talking about Goro Akechi, *Persona 5*

Akechi's Confidant is automatically established on June 10th. This Confidant progresses along with the story, and can only progress past Rank 7 if the player answers Sae's questions correctly during the interrogation in November. Because Akechi's stay in the party is only temporary, his battle abilities are all activated when he joins the party. This Confidant will automatically reach Max rank during the main storyline. Maxing this Confidant unlocks the fusion of Metatron. Akechi's Confidant is one of two that does not have a farewell gift to the protagonist.

## Strategy

In the first phase, Akechi is shielded by Guard Dog of Hades and Spear-wielding General. He will cause them to use Desperation which greatly raises their offense at the cost of defense. As these two heavily favor physical attacks, throwing up Physical Ointments or Tetrakarn will speed up this part of the fight.

Once his two minions are down, Akechi enters the fight himself, attacking the protagonist exclusively in this order: Kougaon, Eigaon, Megaton Raid. This makes Akechi easily exploitable by putting up Tetrakarn and Makarakarn on the protagonist in the right order. This pattern will repeat until Akechi's health is halved, in which he will use his next turn to cast Megidolaon. If the battle continues past that turn, Akechi will use his next two turns to Charge then Megaton Raid towards the protagonist.

In the second phase, Akechi focus on Physical elements. He will use Tetrakarn to repel Physical attacks and use Brave Blade afterward. Occasionally, he may use Negative Pile which is dangerous if the target is the protagonist and if he is afflicted with Despair. It's best for the protagonist to use a Persona which nullifies the damage of Physical attacks.

After a portion of his HP is down, he'll begin focusing on Magic-based skills. Similarly like the previous phase he'll use Makarakarn to repel Magic attacks and use a Magic skill. It is recommended not to have Yusuke in the party since Akechi can easily gain One More if Maragion lands on him. The protagonist should be wary of using Personas that are vulnerable to Fire or Curse skills unless they have skills that increases resistance of Fire or Curse.

When his HP is reduced to at least a third, Akechi will begin to routinely switch patterns, but he doesn't use a Physical skill along with a Magic skill in his turns. Occasionally, and on the first turn of this phase, Akechi will use Laevatein, an powerful Almighty skill to the protagonist which cannot be deflected. It is wise to have the protagonist guard to reduce the damage, and have his allies recover his HP or also reduce Akechi's offensive damage and increase the protagonist's defense.

Whenever Akechi successfully downs an enemy, he'll use the follow-up to apply Desperation on himself. Otherwise, he'll perform a different action, mainly Dekaja if the protagonist's party has buffs, or Heat Riser to apply buffs to himself, if Desperation is already active.

## Battle Quotes

Quotes video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehMX8YJrj8k

### Ally

* *"Robin Hood!"* (Using Persona Skill)
* *"Now, Robin!"* (Using Persona Skill)
* *"Loki!"* (Using Persona Skill - Unused)
* *"Arise, Loki!"* (Using Persona Skill - Unused)
* *"My skills exceed yours!"* (Selecting Persona Skill)
* *"Taste my wrath!"* (Selecting Persona Skill)
* *"Manifest!"* (Selecting Persona Skill)
* *"Persona!"* (Selecting Persona Skill)
* *"It doesn't die!"* (Akechi's attack or Skill doesn't defeat the enemy)
* *"I was merciful."* (Akechi's attack or Skill doesn't defeat the enemy)
* *"Very clever..."* (Akechi misses or Skill fails to inflict damage)
* *"Someone cover me!"* (Akechi misses)
* *"Saw that."* (Akechi dodges)
* *"Too slow!"* (Akechi dodges)
* *"One down, now it's two!"* (Akechi reduces the enemies to two)
* *"It's the last one!"* (Akechi reduces the enemies to one)
* *"You need my help?"* (Initiating Follow-Up)
* *"Understood. Moving in!"* (Follow-Up Attack)
* *"We're still fighting!"* (Using Harisen Recovery on an ally)
* *"How inconvenient."* (Using Harisen Recovery on an ally)
* *"I'll use this!"* (Using an Item)
* *"There."* (Giving Baton Pass)
* *"I'll do my best!"* (Receiving Baton Pass)
* *"Roger."* (Receiving Baton Pass)
* *"Allow me."*(Receiving Baton Pass)
* *"This can't be..."* (Incapacitated)
* *"Lucky hit..."* (Incapacitated)
* *"Ugh, electrified!"* (Inflicted with Shock)
* *"That takes care of that. Let's move!"* (Battle results)
* *"Lets keep up this pace!"*(Battle results)
* *"Checkmate."* (Initiating Hold-Up)
* *"Freeze!"* (Initiating Hold-Up)
* *"It'll be a massacre!"* (Initiating All-out Attack)
* *"This is what I was waiting for!"* (Initiating All-out Attack)
* *'Let's scatter!"* (Initiating All-out Attack)
* *"Learned your lesson?"* (All-out Attack finishing touch)
* *"Stay out of our way."* (All-out Attack finishing touch)
* *"That is the taste of defeat!"* (All-out Attack finishing touch)
* *"Just watch me."* (Tactics changed to Act Freely)
* *"Very well, there will be no survivors."* (Tactics changed to Full Assault)
* *"Roger. No Persona Skills."* (Tactics changed to Conserve SP)
* *"Safety first."* (Tactics changed to Heal/Support)
* *"I expect concise commands."* (Tactics changed to Direct Command)
* *"Time to go, withdraw!"* (Escaping from battle)

### Boss Battle 1

* *"I won't let you stop me."*
* *"Kill them...Persona!"*
* *"Take them down...Robin Hood!"* (Using Megaton Raid)
* *"Perrrsonaaa!"* (Using Charge)
* *"Damn you..."* (Taking damage)
* *"Whoa!"* (Dodges attack)
* *"Serves you right!"*(Protagonist dies)
* *"Who...is...next?"* (Unused - Possibly after killing a party member)
* *"Let's do this."* (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)
* *"You'll pay for that!"* (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)
* *"I...!"* (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)
* *"How dare you!"* (Unused)

### Boss Battle 2

* *"You are the trash of society. I will kill you! Destroy you! Crush you...! Teammates are nothing but trash!"*
* *"You're just... pieces of shit... who lick each other's wounds...! Anything goes... if you say you're teammates...!"* (At medium health)
* *"Why are you... looking at me like that...!? I've... I've succeeded until now... all by myself...! I don't need... teammates... I don't..."* (At low health)
* *"Persona!"* (Unused)
* *"Loki!"* (Unused)
* *"Descend, Loki!"*
* *"I'm not letting you off!"*
* *"Take them down Loki!"* (Using Deathbound)
* *"Eat this!"* (Using Brave Blade)
* *"Die."* (Using Eigaon)
* *"Incinerate!"* (Using Maragion)
* *"Go to Hell!"* (Using Megidolaon)
* *"Freeze, you fools!"* (Unused)
* *"Tremble in fear!"* (Unused)
* *"What!?"* (Akechi's Skill misses)
* *"Grr..."* (Akechi's Skill misses)
* *"The hell was that?"* (Taking damage)
* *"Too slow!"* (Dodges attack)
* *"Bastard!"* (Knocked down - Unused)
* *"I’ll kill you."* (Getting up from knockdown - Unused)
* *"Stay down."* (Downs an enemy/Attacking Downed enemy)
* *"You’ll die."* (Reduces a party member to low health)
* *"Serves you right."* (Kills a party member)
* *"Uaaaaaggggghh!"* (Defeated)
* *"Hahahaha...AHHAHAHAHA!!"* (Protagonist dies)
* *"You pieces of shit!"* (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)
* *"Whaaat?"* (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)
* *"I...will KILL you!"* (Randomly at the start of someone's turn)
* *"You piss me off!"* (Unused)

## TMNT X Pokemon

Being a detective, he's skilled at getting information that would be helpful to the Turtles. During missions, he works with Kyoka and Naoto.

## Trivia

* Goro Akechi is a reference to the name Kogoro Akechi (明智 小五郎), a fictional private detective created by Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo (a pseudonym for Tarō Hirai) from the story "*The Case of the Murder on D. Hill*" in January 1925 and continued to appear in stories for a quarter of a century. Edogawa Rampo is considered the father of the Japanese detective story and was a great admirer of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Akechi is the first recurring detective character in Japanese fiction and is clearly inspired by Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. It also makes sense for Akechi to be the rival of the team as in the introduction to the translated version of 'The Early Cases of Kogoro Akechi' The Fiend with Twenty Faces (Akechi's main rival) is referred to as 'more of an Arsene Lupin than a Moriarty'
* Subsequently, his name could be referencing Detective Kogoro Mori from the Manga Meitantei Konan written by Gosho Aoyama.
* Ordinarly, Akechi’s name is written in kanji in the Japanese version. It’s used for all of his text boxes, as well as the boss title card for his first fight. However, during the fight against his black masked form, his name is displayed on his boss title card in katakana as ‘アケチ ゴロウ’. This is the only time Akechi’s name is written this way, as the kanji is still used for his dialogue boxes during this same fight.
* His name may also be a reference to Akechi Mitsuhide, a retainer of the notorious daimyo and conqueror Oda Nobunaga who rebelled against him for reasons that are often interpreted as disgust for Nobunaga's flaunting of *bushido*.
* Akechi's outfit when he uses Loki has a pattern blue and black in contrast to his outfit when he uses Robin hood which has a theme of red and white.
* While Akechi is a Wild Card just like the protagonist, unlike him, he can only use two Personas. The data mining of the Persona status reveals that his other Persona, Loki, belongs to the Justice Arcana like Robin Hood, Akechi's signature Arcana. That means there is no indication of him being able to possess Personas of other Arcana, another defining trait of the Wild Card Persona User.
* As a Wild Card Persona user, Akechi has an interesting ability of being able to change his outfit to better match the Persona he is using. He takes advantage of this to don the regal prince outfit used while he is a party member.
* Despite being a short term party member, Akechi won first place in *Sega Festival 2016* fans polling for favorite party member question.
* According to an episode of Persona Stalker Club, Akechi's attaché case contains a laptop and documents about cases. The A mark means Akechi and is his own craftsmanship, because he likes to show off. And apparently, the period after the A indicates an abbreviation for "Answer."
* Within the Metaverse, Akechi's stance mirrors Joker's, but lacks the natural sway that Joker has, instead standing completely still.
* Many of Akechi's DLC outfits hint at his status as the traitor: he is dressed as a major antagonist for three sets (Boss from *Catherine*, Ideo Hazama from *Shin Megami Tensei: if...* and General Munakata from *Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army*) and as a major enemy-turned-ally for the *Persona 2* set, as he's the only one wearing the Kasugayama uniform - the same worn by Jun Kurosu and Eikichi Mishina, though the latter being a party member since the start.
* Just like with Makoto Niijima before, the official twitter account for the Persona series posted a "Happy Birthday" message for Akechi on June 2, 2017 JST.
* Goro Akechi is left-handed.
* According to Akechi's Maniax profile, his ideal type of lover is someone who keeps a reasonable amount of distance. Also, if he won 700 million yen, he would travel and see the world after his entrance exams.
* In Maniax, Akechi's message for someone in the PT reads:  To the leader: "You don’t seem to excel particularly in areas of looks, intelligence, or athletics. Yet I wonder why people tend to gather around you... it makes me very curious."
* Akechi's confidant was originally planned to be optional. Because he became an enemy later on, it was difficult to incorporate into the plot, so his confidant became automatic.
* No other persona was considered for Akechi apart from Loki. Other than the protagonist, Loki was most suitable for him. Loki is a character well known within Norse Mythology and had a special place in earlier SMT games, and reflects on Akechi’s own place in the game.
* He's the only member of Phantom Thieves of Hearts who doesn't receive his own dance outfit in *Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight*.