One of the biggest news in persona 4: golden was the inclusion of two new social links, Adachi and Marie. While most seemed happy with the new interactions with everyones favorite scumbag detective, the feelings on Marie and her story seemed mixed. I know it's pretty late now, but I'm still interested in what people think and also I'll get to express my feelings on the matter.

To start with her social link, I like it, but not for the reasons I expected. I liked it alot more because it showed of the other characters more and often brang them together. She was alright, but I never felt that she got bigger than being a somewhat funny tsundere. Well, she got brighter in the ending, so she definately changed, but on the way there I didn't feel very engrossed in her character. The fact that her social link commented and joked about Chies and Yukikos subconscious obsession with green and red were alot of fun, and her exposed poems showed of a more playful side of Margaret. So in that way I like that she's there, but it could have been more.

As for her storyline, I felt that she reminded me about Aigis in that it's a story that I've heard ALOT before. The whole sacrificing herself for the greater good while the investigation team chases after anyway and convinces her that there's another way is something that I've seen alot in animé and it just feels old and clichéd. I also think that it makes the game strike the truth cord a little much. The original game made it's message of truth and introspection pretty good I think. It made it clear what it wanted to say, but I didn't feel that it hit me over the head with it. With Maries chapter in it too, I felt it became a little too much. The foreshadowing of Izanami is in my eyes both good and bad. In the original it was pretty sudden with Izanamis part, but I think that it made it more interesting that the game played your expectations of it's mechanics against you, telling you that you should go home and such, and being used to that being the usual schtick, it didn't come of as being very suspicious. With Maries part in it, we knew that something still was up and were naturally more suspicious on the last day.

Then again, you can ignore Marie and her story if you want too, though that makes things kinda disturbing in the last part of the game because that means she actually killed herself so that the fog couldn't spread again...

Her dungeon were pretty interesting though, but I couldn't make alot of sense of the poems it told throughout it. I guess they should have some meaning because they're there, but they were very abstract. The music was perfect, it really reflected loneliness and gives me shivers to this day, and Maries sad but beautiful theme itself felt like it had some symbolism in it of her resolve to die with the cocking gun being heard in some parts of it.

So... For me, it's a mixed bag. I didn't really mind her, but my fondness for her social link comes more from bringing all the other characters together, wich is always means a good time, than her character and story itself. She had her fun moments, like on valentines day, but it with the bar the game set for the characters in it, I feel that she sadly falls short.

So, what do you think?