G'day all, it's my first time posting here (so my apologies if I do anything wrong), but there was something I wanted to discuss with everyone.

To start off, before I played Persona 4, I had little prior knowledge of the game itself. I was however spoiled on a few details, unfortunately one would be that Adachi was the 'true' villain of the game (at least from a protagonist vs. antagonist perspective). I also completed Persona 3, so relevant information across both games remain. With that said, after completing most of Persona 4: Golden (am at Marie's final(?) dungeon), however the whole escapade left me somewhat conflicted.

As a huge fan of 'mystery' series and have exposed myself to similar 'visual novel'-esque games with a heavy focus on story and detail, I often do a fine-comb of subtle hints and go out of my way to look for extra detail that might lead up to future reveals. As such, because of my prior knowledge to Persona 4's villain, I essentially looked in-depth to all of Adachi's dialogue during the story (not social link as there were hints such as his tutelage in the 'Joker' arcana) and honestly... I came out nothing. I couldn't even find the smallest hint throughout the story that he was the true culprit. Often during mystery-style games such as the 'Zero Escape' series, the 'Ace Attorney' series, Danganronpa and the like, there are often, statements or items that are seemingly irrelevant, only to turn out to be crucial points that help unravel the case. I never really saw any hints of dialogue, items of interest or anything like that throughout the story. I know it's not fair to compare as Persona 4 has a much larger focus outside the mystery whilst these series have only the mystery to focus on, so I think partially this is on my own bias and views, but I'm left just confused and would like some help from people here who are also really enjoyed Persona 4, particularly on:

• People who view the plot twist as obvious. I personally just don't understand how the twist was obvious, I suppose through a process-of-elimination, you could reach the conclusion it was Adachi over other candidates (I mean, in retrospect it's obviously not other characters like Dojima, Saki or any of your school mates), however I feel this isn't credible in a writing sense.
• People who were surprised about the twist and thought it was well thought out. I suppose I would just like to get further information on why this plot twist was good. Since I was spoiled prior, I couldn't have the a genuine reaction to the twist and thus am bias. The way I see it, plot twists like this need two factors. The first, is to be surprising and second, to have the proper build-up through minor suggestions, hints and the like to drive forward the twist as believable.

When the main characters suddenly started arguing a case against Adachi, it seemed incredibly circumstantial (eg. they made a point that Adachi kept turning up, despite the fact that it's his job as a police officer to be there) and even shaky. When reading peoples insight, someone explained Adachi's role as foil to the main character, which I really liked, although this was somewhat lowered when Adachi explained the motives for murder which I found difficult to justify.

Sorry if it comes across as overly critical, this is definitely something I need to work on. I'm not trying to project the idea that Adachi is a bad character or the story was bad, I'm mainly trying to get clarification and understanding about the whole situation. Overall, I've thoroughly enjoyed Persona 4 and am extremely excited to go into Persona 5.