u/CraditzBlitz

In P5, Yusuke, who is probably the closest character to Shun, has an amazing character arc in his introduction. Based on the game’s writing, though, I feared even on my first playthrough that his relevance to the story would be reduced after the second palace, and that fear came true. After that, Yusuke does not really play a major role despite joining the Phantom Thieves. He does not form a particularly close bond with anyone aside from Joker, not even Ryuji or Ann, whom he shares a Showtime with. Worse, the others in the group mostly treat him like background noise for the sake of humor, and that ends up being detrimental to his character.

In P5X, Shun, however, has had a consistently prominent role ever since his introduction in Palace 2. I would also partly attribute this to the cast not immediately becoming bloated, since only three members joined in Palace 1 rather than four in the original game, which was also an excellent writing decision. Even after his feud with Miyazawa ends, he still gets a major role in the following Palace 3 because of his close connection to Katayama. Even though Riko receives the most attention, Shun also plays a big part because of their shared connection. Now in Palace 4, he becomes close friends with Shoki, who he can relate to because of their similar family situations, even gaining his new >!Frontier form!< as a testament to that. Even beyond that, I appreciate the group’s close connection to Victory and Heritage Kitchen, which always ties back to Shun’s original arc. Even when they don’t go out, the ramen he makes always seems to bring the group together, which is honestly beautiful writing.