Hey, thank you so much for the compliment!!

I really think that the story would mostly be quite similar up until the point where Akechi’s palace becomes a divergence in the plot! (I mean, I… have a few personal grievances with the story itself and the way it handles Akechi, but that’s pretty here nor there.) I know that does throw a bit of a wrench in the writing of the story, however.

To be totally honest though, I don’t really put much stock in the claim made by Morgana that Persona users can’t have palaces, since not only is there evidence from datamining and other supplementary game commentary that Akechi was originally supposed to have a palace anyway (the datamining proves this was still supposed to be the case all the way up until programming the actual game, even)… Morgana didn’t even know that Tricksters existed until he met Ren, nor did he know that you don’t necessarily have to kill a palace owner’s shadow to defeat them. Basically, I don’t think it’s all that unreasonable to think that in a scenario where Akechi’s palace exists, the Phantom Thieves might assume Persona users can’t have palaces because of Morgana’s limited knowledge of the metaverse up until they realize it actually was possible all along… that would not only further throw into question what they thought they knew about the metaverse, but also make them wonder — if Akechi can have a palace, and can have distorted desires, maybe any of them could as well? What could that say about the validity of their justice?

As for your Loki/Robin Hood question, I… didn’t actually think of that immediately…. I wasn’t really sure at first how they would manifest, but after thinking about it and discussing it with vibesenpai_ on twitter, I actually think that his treasure would be his personas, manifesting as two toy action figures. They would be the metaverse manifestation of his real life treasure, which I imagine would be something sentimental that his mother made for him; something that represents the last time he felt like someone important to him really needed or cared about him… something like, say, a birthday card. 🙃

I know that doesn’t necessarily answer everything, or maybe this is way too long and full of information you didn’t really ask… I apologize if that’s the case, but regardless, I hope it helps people understand the concept I was going for a little better!