#and u can keep the twist and just have akechi tweaking bc he wants to expose u as a phantom thief

[1eos]

Yeah!! Yosuke sucks in an interesting way so it feels almost like he was meant to have an arc where he learns how to not suck so bad even though that's not true (because atlus very obviously agrees with him and his bigotry lol). It's easy to read into him, he's a pretty multifaceted character. Meanwhile akechi is barely around for most of p5 and his confidant is automatic so you don't get to know him organically and has no relationships to be interesting in outside of akira who he is fake to 100% until the last 15 minutes he's on screen but the game is constantly trying to tell you how you're both sooo alike and you're two sides of the same coin rivals when like. I don't know that kid. He just trauma dumped on me about his dead mom while I was at work one time. The fact you don't know adachi like that is the point because his age is a distancing factor to clue the player into the fact souji could have GROWN UP to be like him as a potential end game so the lack of consistent interaction works. It doesn't work if they're the same age unless there's some other external factor keeping them from connecting and there kinda isn't? And he was the character so popular we centered the rerelease around fixing him and ignoring the rest of the phantom thieves??? Make it make sense

ALL OF THISSSSS SPEAK YOUR TRUTH! and the insistence that 'you're both the same' is what really annoyed me flkkfafkff. cuz beyond your fools' power you're not? yeah akechi and the protag have had tough upbringings bc of adults but idk it doesnt really read the same. ironically akechi and ryuji have the more similar backstories what with a fucked up father making their lives miserable. and i loveeeee the two side of the same coin trope and usually persona does it really well. like hellooooooo all of the shadow self/reflection selves in persona 2 was saur fucking good. and they even had villians mirror the protags but they dropped hints! the motifs were similar! it just didnt work w akechi like it worked in persona 4 bc their entrance into the persona power wasn't similar at all. personally i think they shouldve ditched the 'youre the same' to focus on akechi just having an intense irrational jealousy of the protag that you actually get to see building. im talking cut scenes of akechi fucking going rabid alone bc he HATES that you have the same power but everyone is being drawn to the protag despite being a 'criminal' and only just now getting powers etc etc. like you can't not show us a character but also expect us to give a fuck which is a big problem of persona 5. npcs will get barely any time but we're supposed to like. be throwing up and screaming over them girl i don't know that mf!