Goro Akechi is a playable character from Persona 5. He is touted by his fans and the media as the second coming of the detective prince, and is investigating the mysterious Phantom Thieves of Hearts case sensationalizing Japan.
Akechi is the illegitimate child of Masayoshi Shido, the same man responsible for Akira's probation period. His mother was a sex worker who was shamed for having a child out of wedlock and committed suicide. According to him, before her suicide, she raised him alone, and whenever she brought men from the red light district into their home, she would tell him to go to the bath house. Akechi desired to make Shido apologize for his crime of making her illegally conceive a child, but was powerless to do anything because Shido was already a high-ranking official by then. He was then passed around child institutions as an orphan.
Two years before Persona 5, Akechi acquired the power of the Wild Card and gained access to the Metaverse, although he is never shown in, and is likely not permitted in the Velvet Room. He then offered his newfound abilities to Shido, who employed him as an assassin to achieve his goal of becoming Prime Minister. However, in truth, this was just a plan by Akechi to catch Shido off guard so he could presumably expose him to of the public right during his premiership, before presumably killing him.
Shido proceeded to teach Akechi about inducing mental shutdowns by abusing Mementos. One of the first people he killed is Wakaba Isshiki. After Akechi killed her, Shido seized her research and read a false suicide note to her daughter Futaba out loud, ruining her life in an unnecessary act of evil. During their collaboration, Akechi used Loki to fabricate scandals of Shido's opponents to discredit them, then proceeded to "solve" the case himself. This, along with his already standing charisma, earned him the title of "The Second Coming of the Detective Prince," along with celebrity status. If any of Shido's enemies proved particularly troublesome, Akechi would assassinate them personally by inducing a mental shutdown. Akechi's powers and pragmatic tendencies quickly made him a valuable tool for Shido to dispose of his opposition, and his connections often commission him to use Akechi to dispose anyone they don't like or deem incompetent in exchange for funds and connections. With a powerful tool to instill fear and silence all opposition in his hands, Shido becomes nigh-impossible to stop by normal jurisdictional means courtesy of the fear of experiencing a mental shutdown or a psychotic breakdown.
During an unknown period within the game in his celebrity career, Akechi was also interviewed by Shinichi Yoshizawa's talk show "Good Morning Japan" for one week in a row, allowing him to know Shinichi's daughters, Kasumi Yoshizawa and her younger sister, Sumire Yoshizawa personally.
Around a day after Akira is pulled into the rehabilitation game, Akechi causes a massive subway accident for the sole reason of framing the traffic department for incompetency.
Akechi is first brought up to the Phantom Thieves of Hearts by Shadow Madarame and Shadow Kaneshiro after their fall, as a nameless figure wearing a black mask, which alarms the group. Akechi first meets the group during a Shujin Academy school trip to a TV station in Akasaka Mitsuke, where he is scheduled to appear as a guest in "Good Morning Japan." He passes by and overhears Morgana talking with Akira, Ryuji Sakamoto, and Ann Takamaki backstage about the shape of the TV dome resembling pancakes, attracting his attention. During the show, he expresses a distaste for the Phantom Thieves, whom he accuses of taking the law into their own hands.
Akechi quickly takes an interest in Akira, approaching him after the show and telling him that he enjoyed their conversation, and hopes to speak again sometime. As the Thieves' heists continue, and Akechi continues to state his disapproval of them, his own popularity begins to dip.
Once the Phantom Thieves' popularity reaches its peak, the Conspiracy tricks them into making their next target Kunikazu Okumura, who is also one of Shido's enemies and an obstacle to his path. After their target's defeat, Akechi takes the chance to assassinate his Shadow Self before his Palace collapses, subsequently causing the real Okumura to suffer a mental shutdown and die. This leads to the public believing the Phantom Thieves to be behind his death. On the other hand, Akechi's support skyrockets due to his staunch disapproval of their methods, and Shido's conspiracy takes advantage of this to frame the Phantom Thieves for a crime that they did not commit.
Later, as Shujin Academy is voting for a guest celebrity to speak at their cultural festival, Akechi is chosen by a landslide majority, and he accepts Makoto Niijima's invitation. During his speech, he boasts of knowing the Phantom Thieves' identities on stage, knowing full well they were listening, and uses a fake call as an excuse to talk to them personally. Backstage, he blackmails the Thieves into a deal using photographic evidence of them leaving Okumura's Palace.
Akechi claims he entered the Metaverse a month before, and awakened to his Persona when he was attacked by the black masked man who killed Okumura. Akechi says that his overwhelming need to find the truth and share it with the world was what caused him to awaken to his Persona, Robin Hood. Akechi requests that he accompany the Thieves on their heist in Sae's Palace in order to catch the real culprit and clear their name. In exchange, he'll destroy the photo evidence. However, another caveat is that the Phantom Thieves must disband after this last heist. With no other choice, the group agrees.
In reality, Akechi was planning to have them arrested after they change Sae's heart so he could murder Akira under Shido's orders. However, the Phantom Thieves knew this from the beginning, due to him appearing to hear Morgana talk about the shape of the TV Station Dome despite his cover story dictating that he had never been in the Metaverse prior to early October, allowing them to deduce that he is a mole (since this implies that he spied on the Phantom Thieves all the way back when they were dealing with Madarame) and create a plan to prevent him from killing their leader. The Thieves plan on not stealing Sae's Treasure and instead take an empty briefcase, allowing her Palace to remain, while Futaba plants a bug onto Akira's phone to transfer Akechi to a part of Niijima's Palace that Sae has little control of. As Niijima's Palace contains a Cognitive Akechi, Makoto would then hide this fake out of the real Akechi's sight. Akira would then leave the Palace himself as a decoy, only to be arrested, and then convince Sae to show Akira's phone to Akechi so Futaba can remotely activate the Metaverse Navigator on Akira's side, preventing him from assassinating Akira as well as keeping the other Phantom Thieves and Confidants alongside Akira himself, alive.
When Shadow Sae impedes the party's progress by increasing the number of coins required to enter the Manager's Floor of the casino to the seemingly insurmountable number of one million, Akechi reveals that he had been secretly used a loan card that Futaba told him to get rid of to borrow as many coins from the casino as possible, performing the calculations right in front of everybody, which add up to over one million coins, allowing the party access to the Treasure. After Shadow Sae's defeat and the Treasure found, their victory is cut short with a police invasion outside Sae's Palace, heavily implied to be drawn in by Akechi via passive use of the Metaverse Navigator. Akira decides to act as a decoy so the rest of the Phantom Thieves can escape, and Akechi follows the others while Akira catches the police's attention and is ultimately caught.
Back in the present, Sae concludes the interrogation by requesting that he reveal the identities of all his comrades and allies, promising to help lighten his sentence if he cooperates with her. If he refuses, Akira's drugs will begin to wear off, and will remember that the group was aware of Akechi's true motives all along, and had been prepared. He then recalls the true extent of the plan he crafted with the rest of the Phantom Thieves, and performs the crucial last step of giving Sae his cell phone, requesting that she show it to Akechi if she happens to meet him.
With Akira captured, Akechi heads to the interrogation room, planning to assassinate him. On his way there, whilst crossing paths, Sae shows Akechi Akira's cellphone. After Sae leaves, Akechi asks the guard outside the room to join him, before killing him with his own gun. He then gloats for a moment before shooting Akira in the head, staging the scene as a suicide before leaving. When he reports to Shido of his success in assassinating Akira, he considers killing the remaining Phantom Thieves. Akechi tells him to wait until after the election to avoid rousing suspicion, and assures Shido that they won't seek revenge without their leader.
In reality, when Sae showed Akechi the phone, he was transported into Sae's Palace, and protagonist and guard he killed were mere cognitive replicas, which are present there because Sae had just seen them in reality. Akira also deliberately let himself get caught and interrogated so that his cognitive self would appear in the interrogation room, although he was only unable to recollect that he had a plan in the first place because he was drugged. Sae is shown evidence of Shido and Akechi being the culprits and rescue Akira, but to the rest of the world, Akira committed suicide while in custody. The conspiracy, overconfident, never checked for a corpse and immediately filed a false death certificate.
Alternatively, Akira can reveal all of the Phantom Thieves' identities to Sae. If so, Sae leaves and crosses paths with Akechi, not knowing he came to assassinate Akira. Due to Sae not showing him the cellphone, Akechi murders the real guard and protagonist as planned, and the residents of the Velvet Room lament his failure and sentence him to be imprisoned inside his cell for the rest of his life.
Akechi makes a public appearance where he addresses Akira's "suicide" on a talk show and intends to capture the remaining Phantom Thieves, even if they go after him, with full support from the public. However, in thought, he laments how the public does not know he was an undesired child, revealing he devoted himself to becoming an honor student, made his name as an ace detective and got rid of anyone who opposed him, courtesy of the MetaNav and his Persona.
At that moment, an audience member's phone rings, causing Akechi to recall how Sae showed him Akira's phone before he carried out the murder. Later, Shido abruptly demands that Akechi disposes of those involved with the conspiracy. When expressing doubts, Shido threatens him and asks Akechi if he knows what it means to disobey him. At this point, due to Shido's strange paranoia, which could potentially be explained as someone tampering with his Palace, Akechi realizes that there is a high chance Akira is still alive and leading the Phantom Thieves in an assault on Shido's Palace.
After the Phantom Thieves secure the letters of invitation required to enter Shido's Treasure Room, Akechi confronts the Phantom Thieves in the engine room of the great ship that is Shido's Palace. When accused of cooperating with Shido, Akechi scoffs at this and reveals his plan to expose both his status as Shido's illegitimate son and the crimes they committed after Shido wins the election, thereby shattering his father's career and credibility. Furious that the Thieves are in the way of his plans, Akechi then battles the group in his Prince outfit with Robin Hood as his Persona and summons two Shadows to kill them, demonstrating his powers by driving them berserk with a mysterious other Persona.
After his first defeat, the Phantom Thieves try to discourage him from continuing his revenge, but Akechi doesn't listen, having been blinded by his hatred, lust for revenge, and inferiority complex, all of which he directs towards Akira. He uses his own berserk ability on himself in a last ditch effort to defeat the Phantom Thieves, officially revealing Loki and using all of his power to attack them. The Phantom Thieves manage to defeat him after a vicious struggle, admitting that they were only able to do so by working together against him. Upon his second and final defeat, the severely wounded and heartbroken Akechi surrenders and laments about never being able to become someone special to anyone. However, to his surprise and confusion, the group talks about how they would accept him back if he so wishes, even Haru and Futaba, while they don't express forgiveness for his murder of both of their significant parental figures, they do express sympathy with his position, both of whom having dealt with similar hardships as him in their lives.
Before Akechi can respond one way or the other, Shido's cognition of Akechi appears, who explains how Shido planned to kill and pin everything upon Akechi. Initially, he criticizes the cognition on how he was used by Shido, saying that was something he would do and admitted he wondered how he could protect himself if Akechi used his power to tear through his Palace. The cognition blankly admits it is true, but mocks Akechi, declaring him as the true puppet from the very beginning; much to the Phantom Thieves' shock and anger.
Once given a chance to kill all of the Phantom Thieves, Akechi chooses to shoot his cognitive self instead before shooting the emergency switch on the wall, sealing himself off from the Phantom Thieves with a watertight bulkhead door, to their horror. Knowing that they would die if they tried to save him, he puts his trust in the group to stop Shido for him. As Akechi faces off against his equally wounded cognitive self, two gunshots sound, and Akechi's fate is left ambiguous. Futaba is unable to detect any living signatures beyond the wall, and after Akira returns from the Palace, Akechi was confirmed to have vanished, and his fate remains unknown.
After securing the infiltration route, the Phantom Thieves all express their sorrow for Akechi. Haru and Ann point out that he was a victim of Shido that couldn't be saved and Yusuke believes he himself would have become the same had he not met the party. Ryuji personally admits he cannot forgive Akechi, but openly states he cannot forgive Shido even more for warping his mind. Makoto agreed that what Shido did was truly reprehensible, and Morgana tells Akira they have successfully to take Shido down, no matter what.
When the party confronts Shadow Shido, he confirms his plan to kill Akechi, as his birth is a taint on his political power; and that he could not keep him alive, since he had intimate knowledge of his past. Shadow Shido gloats about how he used praise to manipulate Akechi, even brazenly declaring that it was thanks to him that Akechi could use his powers properly to begin with. The Phantom Thieves condemn Shido for corrupting Akechi only to discard him in the end, and for grooming a teenager into a murderer in exchange for acceptance and validation, arguing that he never would have been able to make it to where he was without Akechi's help.
Failing to complete any of the first six Palaces before their deadlines makes Sae leave, believing the overdose of drugs has affecting Akira's memories. Akechi then kills Akira as a mysterious figure, criticizing his righteousness as trivial. Failure to complete Shido's Palace before the Election Day leads to Akechi discovering that Akira is alive, and he arrests him for murdering a guard and deceiving the police after arriving at Leblanc regardless if he was fought previously or not.
After Shido's defeat, Akechi will never be heard from again for the rest of the game.
Lavenza revealed that Yaldabaoth gave Akechi access to the Metaverse to see whether or not Akechi's desire to destroy the world was stronger than Akira's desire for rebellion and societal reform. Akechi's supposed goal after discrediting Shido is the destruction and recreation of society, as opposed to Akira reforming society by removing its corruption. However, Yaldabaoth would blatantly rig the outcome in an attempt to prove that humanity indeed wants his "salvation" by controlling the people of Tokyo and stagnating their thoughts regardless of who won.
An extra event in Persona 5 Royal has Akechi bumping into Akira and Kasumi Yoshizawa near the Shibuya station, where Kasumi reveals that her father hosted the talk show he was on earlier. Akechi responds that he had met the host personally, but is surprised that Kasumi is his daughter. The three then have a chat in a café, discussing the Phantom Thieves, Kasumi excuses herself, not wanting to worry her father, and the group disbands.
In Royal, Akechi's Confidant is also optional instead of automatic, although all original events that originally progressed the Confidant in Persona 5 will still occur. Completing his Confidant will include visits to Penguin Sniper and Jazz Jin, and later ranks will allow Akira to randomly uncover enemy weaknesses and eventually randomly uncover all of an enemy's weaknesses. The deadline for the optional Confidant events is the 18th of November, where the last two events in the confidant will be automatic. After the 18th, Akira cannot interact with Akechi afterwards until the Third Semester.
In Akira's Rank 8 event with Akechi's Confidant, unlocked after he joins your party, Akechi will ask Akira to meet with him alone in Mementos. Morgana is a bit confused by the request, but he allows them to do so. In Mementos, Akechi finds a quiet location and then pulls a silenced pistol (similar to the one he used on Shadow Okumura and later Akira), saying that he wanted to follow up on his agreement that he will truly duel Akira. This will trigger a short battle where Akira is able to fight Akechi solo; winning this fight or surviving a number of turns is necessary in order to advance the Confidant. After the battle, he will then profess that he hates Akira. The localization has him go into detail about how Akira is able to expertly recover from the situation he was unwillingly thrust into, something Akechi himself was never able to do. In the Japanese release, his comparisons between himself and Akira are more highlighted, which are the cause of Akechi stating he "hated" him. He goes into detail of Akira's traits that he admires and puts himself down by comparison, making it sound like Akechi wishes he could have become such a well-adjusted person. He eventually throws his glove at Akira as a challenge for a rematch at a later date.
In Shido's Palace, if Akira reached Rank 8 in his confidant, then before the second half of his boss battle, Akechi will assume that Akira was also left unsatisfied with how their previous battle ended and declares that they will now finally attack until the bitter end. If Akira previously accepted his challenge to a rematch, then following the battle, when Akechi traps himself with Shido's cognitive version of himself, Akira will remind him of their promise, which surprises Akechi.
If Akira maxed the Councillor Arcana Confidant, Akechi reveals himself to be alive on Christmas Eve after Yaldabaoth's defeat, offering himself to take Akira's place for Sae to testify about his and Shido's crimes. He turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders he committed on Shido's behalf.
Akechi was released on January 1st for no apparent reason, and sensed the world had been altered. Seeing an alive and well Wakaba Isshiki, and a human Morgana in Leblanc confirmed his suspicions. He asks Akira, who is the only other person aware of the irregularity, to help him investigate. After receiving a call from Kasumi, they go to Odaiba where an unknown Palace appears. The trio gather in the unknown Palace, but notice that the Metaverse Navigator has returned with a different icon, this time in white and black.
Entering the Palace, Akechi proceeds to take on his Black Mask form, as he has no reason to lie about his true self anymore. Upon rejoining, he has Loki instead of Robin Hood, and consequently loses all Bless Skills in his arsenal. He also acts as the navigator during the trio's investigation. While infiltrating the Palace, Akechi begins to suspect that Kasumi is the Palace Ruler once she identifies her deceased sister as Sumire after seeing footage of her past.
This is proven false once Takuto Maruki reveals himself as the real Ruler and the one who created the 'ideal' reality that they currently live in using his amplified actualization powers. When Akechi and Akira reject Maruki's reality, the former counselor gives them a week for Akira to experience his reality for himself before returning for another confrontation. Akechi, on the other hand, gathers information about Maruki. He also calls Sumire's parents and learns that Maruki already made them believe she's at a training camp. In addition, he reveals to Akira that, in Maruki's reality, the two of them haven't committed crimes, despite the Phantom Thieves causing a stir in society for both realities. However, he stated that Shido alone was arrested for attempting to overthrow the government.
After a week passes, Akira and Akechi return to confront Maruki and reject his reality again. Kasumi, revealed to be her younger twin Sumire whose memory was altered by Maruki prior to the story, refuses to return. If Akira denies Maruki's offer, Akechi will be pleased, saying to Maruki that negotiations are now over. Choosing to accept Maruki's offer leads to an early bad ending, much to Akechi's shock.
Should Akira decide to accept Maruki's offer anyway, he will be happily hanging out with the other (former) members of the Thieves in Leblanc on the 3rd of February. Due to the fact that both Okumura and Wakaba are still alive, along with Akechi holding no malice towards any of the Phantom Thieves, as well as Shido being safely incarcerated, it can be assumed that in this ideal reality, Akechi never worked for Shido to begin with, allowing him to successfully turn his life around and form genuine bonds with friends who support him. During the 15th of March, he offers to take a group photo for Akira and his friends, only for Maruki to take the picture instead, allowing Akechi to be in the photo himself. He can be last seen in the credits playing chess with Akira, and like him, in the final end card, he gives the camera a knowing look as the rest of the former thieves hang out in Leblanc.
If Akira rejects Maruki's offer, Sumire, completely in denial of returning to who she once was, engages the two in battle, but Akechi excuses himself, knowing Akira wants her alive and he'd only end up killing her. After the fight, Maruki restrains Kasumi, which drives her Persona Cendrillon berserk, much to Akechi's disgust and anger as he rejoins the fight. They are close to defeat until the rest of the Phantom Thieves arrive. After defeating Cendrillon and leaving the Palace, Akechi offers his help to the rest of the party as they share the same goal, which they accept.
On the evening of February 2, if Akechi's promise was remembered, he also arrives at Leblanc when Maruki visits, although in hiding until Maruki calls him out. Maruki then tells Akira that Akechi's existence is a product of the new reality, though it may not be entirely because of Akira's own ideal reality. While Akira's true desire is heavily implied to simply be remaining in Tokyo with the friends and allies he made during his year-long probation (as shown during the instance where he does choose to stay in Maruki's reality), this most certainly includes Akechi considering his tight connections with Akira. As well, Maruki himself says that he was saddened to learn of Akira's untimely separation from Akechi, and he wanted to use his own power to give the two of them a fresh start together (this may be because Akechi and Akira remind him of his own heartbreak of his relationship with Rumi).
However, the unclear nature of this situation may mean that Maruki could potentially be being untrue with Akira to get him to accept his reality. Akechi does admit that he has a gap in his memory between encounter with the Phantom Thieves in the engine room and Christmas Eve, meaning that he had an inkling of his true fate the whole time. This makes it seem like Maruki was in fact telling the truth. Even so, despite knowing this, Akechi still refuses the reality Maruki created because he believes it would be no different from being enslaved. Akechi then speaks alone with Akira and makes it clear that he decides his own path, urging Akira to fight Maruki even if it means losing him, saying that the indecisiveness betrays his wishes and is irritated if Akira argues that the issue isn't trivial. Akira is then given the option to accept Maruki's reality by canceling the heist on his own. If he doesn't, Loki will evolve into Hereward, with Akechi vowing to "sow chaos as far as the eye can see," intensely relieved and grateful to Akira for keeping their promise.
If Akira chooses to stay in Maruki's reality and has confirmed to do so, Akechi will be disgusted by his choice and angrily storm out of Leblanc, only to later reappear in the ending, this time perfectly at ease in the new reality, because at this point, none of his struggles as an assassin or thief had a need to occur at all, and he remembers no different. The same ending that occurs when Akira directly accepts Maruki's offer during their second visit to his Palace will play afterwards.
After Maruki is defeated and the original reality is restored, Akechi remains missing in the real world. When the other Phantom Thieves are told this by Morgana, they express their dismay. Ryuji even points out that Akechi fought hard, knowing he would disappear all this time. In the Velvet Room, Lavenza says that this is because everything will be reverted back to how it was supposed to be, including Akechi's death and Akira being arrested.
When saying goodbyes to everyone, if Akira decides to visit the Jazz Club and has maxed Akechi's Confidant, the owner will ask Akira if he knows where Akechi is, which reminds him of the glove in his pocket and that their duel is "not over."
Should Akira max out Akechi's Confidant, in the epilogue of the true ending, a glimpse of a figure resembling Akechi is passing by the train of Akira accompanied by two men, with their faces obscured by the glare of the window. The figures walk past while Akira is distracted by a notification on his phone. This sighting leaves Akechi's ultimate fate uncertain.
In New Game Plus, Akechi can wear his Black Mask outfit during the Sixth Heist and his Crow outfit upon rejoining during the third semester. This only changes his aesthetics and does not change his other in-game properties such as his Persona or his All-Out Attack portraits.
As the game takes place during the Sixth Heist, Akechi is included as a party member as Crow. He is in the party's default team and is one of the brains of the cast, helping in solving the puzzles and riddles throughout the labyrinths. While he can be seen as distant, he is much easier to interact with and does not display obvious signs of his darkness, though the majority of Phantom Thieves still don't hold him in high regard.
When meeting the P4 cast, he is interested in Naoto Shirogane, who was the first Detective Prince before him. They get along fairly well, due to their sharp wit and shared careers as detectives. Akechi is also able to relate to Naoto in how she used to suppress her real self so people around her would acknowledge her. There is a side-quest in which both of them must work together to find the culprit who steals Theodore's handmade popcorn (later revealed to be Caroline & Justine disguised as Teddie). This experience grants Akechi and Naoto a unison attack which they can use together against an enemy.
Akechi's insecurity grows as he adventures in the labyrinths, watching the rest of the cast accepting each other for who they truly are. Akira notices the change in Akechi's behavior, though Akechi denies it.
There are two side-quests where this is further elaborate. Koromaru, sensing Akechi purposely distancing himself from the others, grows unusually close to him in an effort to get him to open up. Ken starts to think that Akechi is different from the rest of Phantom Thieves after seeing Koromaru's behavior towards Akechi, stating that Koromaru would notice when someone is putting up a wall. Akechi assures Ken that there's nothing wrong with him, but later quietly reveals his astonishment at Koromaru's sharp instinct. Shinjiro also notices Akechi’s isolation from his team and correctly surmises Akechi’s dark past. He comforts him to look ahead and stop letting his past bind him. Akechi turns down the suggestion, however, as he cannot understand the notion of getting over his actions.
At the end of the game, he stutters for a bit before returning back to reality alongside the Phantom Thieves. Unlike the other members of the group, he does not appear in the post-credits events, indicating that he is still the traitor. According to the official artbook, the experience has made Akechi aware of how unfavorable his personality actually is and he does not wish to leave, as he fears reverting back to his old self.
In the Legacy of Chris Thorndyke,
And he is reprised by Robbie Daymond in the English dub and Soichiro Hoshi in the Japanese dub.