Death Proclaimed has always been strongly influenced by the Silent Hill franchise, and its position in the chronology makes it hard to avoid thinking that Valerie's Letter is directly derivative of Silent Hill 2 Restless Dreams. After all, VL is a prologue to the second game in the Death Proclaimed franchise, focusing on a character who becomes a mysterious companion to the second game's hero. Just like Restless Dreams.

But let's put aside that inevitable comparison, because VL has a lot of original concepts and scenarios and deserves to stand on its own!

We find that VL uses the Action Battle System that Fidchell has been gradually developing throughout Death Proclaimed, and it is finally in tip top shape in this installment, despite still being constrained by the usual problems with RPG Maker ABSes. The story, unfortunately, heavily leans on the previous games to make sense, and it seems to be assumed that the player would have some foreknowledge of the franchise.



Valerie's letter is an oddball in the Death Proclaimed series, not least because Valerie is an oddball character. You play as the little girl who Cory encounters in Death Proclaimed 2. Having been locked in her room for an unknown time, the lock is suddenly lifted by a mysterious helper named Leah.

Venturing out, Valerie discovers that she probably should have stayed right where she was, as the world is turning into a dreamlike mess. All she can do is push forward and try to fight off apparitions of the family members who want to keep her imprisoned.



The game features variable action difficulty (which makes enemies tougher) and puzzle difficulty (which actually replaces all the puzzles in the games with trickier variations).

Refreshingly, you are not stuck with an ineffectual melee weapon for the first leg of the game as in many titles. Your first weapon is a gun, which remains useful throughout most of the game. Equipping it from the menu is easy enough to figure out. For some reason, firing is mapped to the 1 key, which is a little awkward, but I understand that there are limited keys available in RM2K3. You can also pistol-whip at close range using SHIFT.

Of course, the combat is hampered by the usual quirks of an RPG Maker ABS: you can only shoot along cardinal directions and thus have to be lined up with the enemy to score; you also must take a step forward in order to face in a different direction. These quirks create a kind of action-puzzle-game where you have to align Valerie with enemies before shooting and use the terrain to force creatures to walk toward you in straight lines.

Combat is not emphasized very often though, with more emphasis placed on exploration and puzzles instead. In many areas the monsters are distant and passive. In others they are unkillable and must be avoided at all costs.



In this reviewer's opinion, the first part of the game is the weakest and may turn away many players so that they never see the far superior later areas. The game begins with an escape from Valerie's family mansion, and this segment is really extensive to the point of seeming too long. It's great to create lots of content for the game, but the initial mansion escape is so long that at one point I came to believe it comprised the entire game. Some of the material here might have been placed into later locations instead.

Furthermore, the setting breaks down into a confusing nightmare realm almost immediately, which prevents players from investing in the setting and circumstances. The Death Proclaimed series was of course inspired by Silent Hill, in which you start in a familiar setting that gradually changes into something monstrous and strange, but Valerie's Letter reveals the nightmare far too quickly. Random paths through black emptiness are not scary if we haven't had time to appreciate what the setting used to be.

Later locations are handled much more artfully in this respect, which is the reason for my concern. I hope most players get to reach the Bhamen village and Leah's house since they are much more subtle in their strangeness, and hence more scary!

Quite simply, everything is better in the second half of the game.



Is it scary?

Well, that's a highly subjective appraisal, but I definitely think so. Much of the fear comes from dreading a difficult monster encounter that will threaten your very limited resources, which becomes more heightened as monsters become ever-more proficient at the art of popping out of nowhere. However, the foibles of the ABS may make this experience degenerate into simple frustration.

For the most part, aggressive and non-melodic music from the pre-Tomm-Hulett Silent Hill franchise is chosen, giving the game a sense of relentless oppression. There are also ambient background sounds used in some places, and enemies emit growls when they are nearby. Although I found the track that plays over the first puzzle section is rather loud and distracting.

I have played through all of the other Death Proclaimed games, and I feel that I all ready know most of Fidchell's tricks. Still, though. At one point close to the end of the game I was stressed out from trying to fight the newest, extremely threatening monster type. I opened the menu, and then something happened that caused me to F12 the game in panic.

Yes, even the menu is out to get you in the game's final hours.



The standout section is a terrifying vent crawl late in the game. I betray the rest of the game to say this, since this section uses special rules that aren't part of normal gameplay, but it's worth it. Here, Fidchell has nailed the sense of vulnerability, mystery and tension that defines good survival horror.

And to think, Tomm Hulett isn't capable of being this scary even with teams of artists and the ATI Xenos graphics processor at his disposal. What an awful waste of resources. Big-budget horror games are over.



But I'll be frank: unless you've played Death Proclaimed 2, you will hate the ending. What you witness in this game is one thread of the Death Proclaimed mythos that junctions into Cory's story at the end; Valerie's own achievements over the course of the game seem to be suddenly minimized, and I got the impression that all my hard work hadn't amounted to much, since Cory was going to come along and fix it for real.

It is true that the ending is a little unsatisfying, but what we have here is the Death Proclaimed formula having reached technical perfection, even if it is not possible to appreciate the story and ending unless you are all ready familiar with the other games. We will see if there is any more to come from this series.



Best moment(s):
The vents.
Even the menu screen hates you.
The bodyguard's appearances.

The score(s):
4/5