>>715463771It was really cool for what it was, since it's a neat ltitle scenario and shows what Maria was up to before she met James. It's really ambiguous on its own, but foreshadows and lays out the plot of the rest of the game really well, and shows that Maria can exist indepenetly of James and she isn't literally just a magical delusion. She's a silent Hill monster at the end of the day, shaped by james' wish for his wife to be reborn, so she's able to interact with Baldwin and the forces of the town.
She's really tragic, in that she didn't want to be born, but is, and has programming she can't ignore. If you play the game, she becomes more insane and needy over time, showing herself mentally slipping.
And she can't die, since she just gets reborn again by the town.