I'm on the third chapter of Watson's route in London Detective Mysteria on Vita now, likely near the end of it. It seems like the overarching structure is mirroring Holmes's route. You've got the crime-solving "hero" love interests each pitted against one of the crime-committing "bad guy" love interests, until the latter are subdued and the real villain takes center stage. I remember reading someone commenting that one of the routes felt like advertising for another character. I believe it was that Holmes's route felt like advertising for Lupin, and I can definitely see that. The routes for Holmes and Watson both feel like they're designed to pique your interest in the initially locked routes. And true enough, it seems like Lupin and Jack are the most popular characters. I can't imagine the stories would be flipped in their routes, casting Holmes and Watson as villains, but I'll have to wait on that one. Given all this, it really feels like Akechi all the more was just awkwardly tacked on, as if they didn't want to leave it at just four romantic routes. I mean, him and Kobayashi aren't even introduced into well into the common route. I get the feeling that they were only thrown in to give the original targeted demographic (Japanese players) some characters they could relate to. So far, though, Akechi barely seems like he has his own identity. He's basically another Holmes, all serious business, except he's more polite, wears glasses, and is Japanese. Swap out the boxing for swordsmanship and one upbeat assistant for another. I'm sure a lot of that is intentional mirroring, but it just makes Akechi seem same-y to me. But of course, my impression could very much change once I'm actually doing Akechi's route.