The kidnapping of her best friend Yukiko Amagi leads Chie to join the Investigation Team in working in a murder case where the victims are sent to the TV World to be killed by creatures known as Shadows.

Since Inaba is a rural town, Chie's design originally incorporated elements fitting for such setting such as having a jersey jacket which she often uses for jogging.

However, since such jersey did not look well in the game, it was revised and instead her design carried something "utterly lame" which served as a major foundation for the rest of the characters.

[3] When it comes to the concept of her design, Chie came across as teenager who pay average attention to her fashion while her hair color was made to be believable in real life.

[8] Mariya Ise was originally cast as Chie in the stage play adaptation of Persona 4 Arena, but she was replaced by Makoto Koichi following health problems and her pregnancy.

[10] Chie first appears in the 2008 browser game Onsen Nozokimi Daisakusen, where the player spies on her in an onsen bath;[11] her first major appearance is in the 2008 role-playing video game Persona 4, where she and her friends, the player character Yu Narukami and the classmate Yosuke Hanamura, discover a world within televisions containing Shadows — monsters from repressed parts of people's psyches.

[citation needed] Chie serves as the player's Social Link to The Chariot;[12] this is symbolized in the animated series by Yu's usage of the Persona Ara Mitama (アラミタマ).

[17] Throughout Yu's interactions with Chie (which can also be intimate), she discovers that she genuinely wanted to protect Yukiko without any underlying selfish motivations.

After this, Tomoe evolves into Suzuka Gongen (スズカゴンゲン), whose yellow jumpsuit turns black and is decked in silver samurai armor.

[25] On October 20, 2017, it was confirmed by Arc System Works that Chie would appear in the upcoming fighting game BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle.

"[30] Robert Boyd, creator of Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, ranked Chie as the second best "JRPG warrior heroine."

[35] The character's fighting style involving kung fu also received praise by Futaman as it highlights her bright personality comparable to Princess Arena from Dragon Quest IV: The Guided Ones.

While reviewing Persona 4, IGN's Jeff Haynes felt that Tracey Rooney's delivery as Chie sounded at times like a 30-year-old woman instead of a teenager.

[38] While Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton was initially reluctant about Erin Fitzgerald while reviewing Persona 4 Golden, he eventually grew to like her.