For most girls in Persona 5 and for those playing Persona 5, the first thing you’ll notice is Goro Akechi is one handsome devil indeed. Despite only being 17 years old, Goro has an air to him of someone ten times older and more mature. Is it possibly his role as a detective or maybe the fame he’s garnered from it? We’re not entirely sure but we do know that Goro Akechi can deflate almost anyone with his killer looks. Then there’s Goro Akechi’s outfit when he enters the Palaces. With a look similar to a matador—which is a stark opposite to his suit and tie attire in the real world—Goro is still showing off his killer looks that make the girls swoon over him in the real world.

Unfortunately, Goro Akechi isn’t a teammate that you will have in your party for the whole game and that literally disheartens us slightly here at Honey’s Anime. Thankfully, as brief as Goro Akechi’s stay as a party member is, he brings with him a lot of nice abilities and skills. When Goro Akechi joins your party around the midway point of the game—this takes place during the casino Palace in Niijima’s heart—Goro is quite a beast as a team member. Using the Persona Robin Hood, Goro has stats that are strong in all fields. With high strength and magic, the skills like Megaton Raid and Megidola make Goro a beast. As we mentioned though, Goro is only a temporary member of the team. That means don’t level him up too much or try spending hours on maxing his items as you’ll be quite sad when Goro has to part ways. Plus, when a specific fight occurs causing the protagonist and Goro to battle one another you’ll feel annoyed you spent so much time trying to level up a traitor.

Fans of Persona 4 should be familiar with a young detective named Naoto Shirogane. Though she’s initially thought to be a guy because of her attire and personality, Naoto Shirogane is first and foremost a detective in training. That’s why many fans—and the various characters of Persona 5—consider Goro Akechi the second advent of the detective prince. Though how does Goro Akechi prove to be such a great detective in the world of Persona 5? Let us examine some of Goro’s history and his skills that make him worthy of this title.

Goro Akechi’s main skill—as described both the Persona 5 lore, official artbook and characters in game—is hos strong reasoning skills. That makes Goro Akechi a perfect detective as he can see something far easier than someone with regular reasoning skills. While Goro Akechi’s various cases that he solved aren’t delved into in the Persona 5 lore, we do learn that he has worked on numerous cases and gets along with most police officers/other detectives despite his young age. If you remember this is quite a contrast from Naoto as many felt Naoto was full of herself and just trying to prove her skills as a detective. That’s why it really is unfortunate that Goro falls so far from grace as he does, but we have the reasoning for his descent into darkness and that is our next character highlight.

Goro Akechi might be a villain in Persona 5 but if you’re a devoted fan of the so-called best boy to many fans, then you’ll understand Goro’s tragic backstory. Born as an illegitimate son to Masayoshi Shido—who you should know as the man who the protagonist tried to stop early on in Persona 5—Goro’s always had a rough life. To make matters worse, Goro’s mother killed herself and Goro always felt this was because Shido was cruel and abandoned him and his mother. Though this isn’t the end of hard times for Goro. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be the only trial and tribulation Goro Akechi would go through…

At one point when Shido learned of Goro’s powers a Persona User as well as a hidden power to manipulate Shadows, Shido immediately begins to abuse his son’s desire to be closer to him and be seen as an equal. Thus, Goro becomes Shido’s pawn and begins to spread a lot of dark thoughts and emotions to those in Persona 5 and this helps Shido realize his dreams slowly. Though behind the scenes, Goro Akechi remember the pains of his father’s actions and is trying to manipulate things behind the scene in the metaverse—a place that houses the Palaces and various other areas unknown to the public—leading Shido’s plans to eventually fall apart without him knowing his son was causing it. That’s why you can tell Goro is just a troubled and misunderstood person that seeks to be loved and recognized for his skills but from a real interaction and not just televised comments and videos. You have to wonder if the protagonist would have met Goro Akechi earlier if the incidents that happened in Persona 5 could have all been avoided.

As we mentioned earlier in our article about Goro Akechi, his power as a teammate was immense thanks to him and his persona Robin Hood. That’s why when Goro becomes an enemy to the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, he is far from a simple boss fight and can be quite tough. There are a ton of powers that Goro can unleash upon the protagonist and his team making him one of the hardest fights in Persona 5. Let us show some examples of his power in action.

Goro Akechi, as a boss, has a lot of his powers as a teammate but equally can use some new strengths. Goro’s Persona even shifts to the well-known Loki Persona inflicting fear for those who know of Loki’s powers in both lore and in the Persona universe. Not only does Goro have powers like Laevatein—a super power almighty attack—but he also has various boosting/debuffing skills like Desperation and Dekaja/Dekunda. Needless to say, players who haven’t been level grinding a bit will find Goro Akechi to be a bit daunting as a boss. However, it makes sense seeing as Goro is a rather late powerful boss fight.