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It's the final nightmare...

Hello!
And here we are with the third and last episode of this trilogy of RpgMaker2003 horror games created by Fidchell, Death Proclaimed. Ok, this Death Proclaimed II: Valerie's Letter is a spin-off based on the second game (that was set 10 years after the events of the first game), still it's rather long and could be technically be considered a "Death Proclaimed III" even if it's a prequel. Did you miss the previous episodes? Well go and play them, or at least read my reviews since I did that for you!

Death Proclaimed I
Death Proclaimed II

Anyway, in Death Proclaimed II we played as Cory, a boy searching for his aunt that met a peculiar girl, called... Valerie. Unsurprisingly this side-adventure is instead focused on this girl and how she met Cory, and what happened before the events of the previous game. It's important that you play at least the second game of the series, because we've the return of some important characters, by the way, concerning the plor of the game it's really evident the influences of the Silent Hill series (once again!). The game starts with Valerie locked inside her room for an unknown time, then suddenly the door is unlocked by a mysterious helper named Leah... and so it begins.


Well do not be afraid! We'll surely need this if we want survive!

Death Proclaimed II was an improved version of the first Death Proclaimed: I liked the enviroments, maps and battles much more, the story was also quite interesting. And Death Proclaimed II: Valerie's Letter? In my opinion is another improvement (and a final one) of the series, that starts immediately with letting us choose how much we have to struggle with the action battles and puzzles. Do you want it easy or hard? A simple but welcomed option, really!

Combat is more or less unchanged but the behaviour of the enemies is improved (even if we talk about monsters, so do not expect clever strategies, even if the boss battles may surprise you) and there is the addition of firearms (only melee weapons in the first game, and just the boomerang in the second as a ranged weapon), but being this a survival horror do not expect to have plenty of ammunitions! Of course not! But you can always rely on melee attacks, and that's pretty cool because even if you get the gun in the beginning, you do not even need to switch weapon, but you can use an alternate attack to pistol whip the enemy (it's a bit odd that Valerie is so strong and cool while in Death Proclaimed II she is a pushover, but I guess that the horror she saw took their toll!).


That weird looking man on the left has two guns and he's not afraid to use them (well, thanks a lot,he has infinite bullets!).

As mentioned before the game includes puzzles too: I choose to play the easy version because otherwise things can become frustrating (try Puzzle Difficulty 4!), but this is my opinion, of course, anyway you can change the difficulty, but if you like puzzles this is a very interesting game for you (I especially liked the "bloody finger" puzzle more than the "elevator" and "switch" puzzles, but ok)!

The visuals are really improved compared to the previous entries: despite the use of the same charsets and assets, there is surely a better mapping, more detailed locations (Scarborough Mansion is pretty cool) and a better selection of the sprites and edits, despite a little of style "dissonance" (but due to the horror/surreal atmosphere of the game this can be overlooked, I guess! There are some "errors" that are made purpousely). It's a really scary and dark world even if there is no abuse of darkness/myst or other visual effects. There are some custom screens, but I found odd the lack of facesets, even if there is one for Valerie, used also in the custom menu (that's really survival horror-styled! I liked that).
Being a horror game, expect some jumpscares, flashes of different colors (that anticipate the arrival of some monsters) and a little (pixelated) gore, the screeching effects, the items that breaks, and the dramatic music really enforce a feeling of suspense that will keep the player on the edge (those vents, especially... well, play and see!).


What a nice garden! With monsters! Well I hope those hairy guys won't bother me...

Final Verdict
Death Proclaimed II: Valerie's Letter offers the ultimate and best version of the action battle system introduced in the first game, unfortunately to understand the story and have fun you also have to play the previous episodes, of course! Good combat, but also good story and good scares, and good puzzles too. And also a great atmosphere, I was really surprised by this and how this series has reached a really good quality (just look at the maps in the pictures I posted: they're much better than the previous ones, and also better than the locations of many other horror rpgmaker games) that makes me give a better rating than the previous episodes. Really well done!