Imagine, you've purchased a sprawling 19-century mansion on the New England coast at shockingly low price. Well, turns out that mansion was previously owned by a magician and practitioner of phantasmagoric theater. And just so happens that magician was possessed by a demon and he married and murdered a bunch of women. And just so happens that same demon escaped when you opened a shoebox you found on a demonic alter in your house. "Oops!" may be the understatement of the century.
Phantasmagoria was far from a critical darling. There actually seems to be a small cult of people who hate this game. It's not the greatest game ever made. It's overly long, objectives can be hard to grasp, and having one of seven discs almost solely dedicated to going into town to buy drain cleaner is unnecessary and hilarious.
The visuals have aged poorly. The acting and writing vacillates from underwhelming to ridiculous. Players complained about awkward character interactions and the gameplay left critics cold.
And yet I unironically love this game- faults and all.
I'm someone with a preference for the horror genre, a collection of over 3,000 b-movies and willingness to suffer through hours of astoundingly boring film- all of which combined make me the perfect Phantasmagoria enjoyer. I'm pretty much primed to enjoy Phantasmagoria for all it's bad effects and acting. I discovered this game as a 12 year-old with unmonitored internet access. I was instantly fascinated with this game. It was my gateway drug for horror films and FMV games. This game was some tasty, tasty FORMATIVE MEDIA for me.
The game's user interface will seem very familiar to fans of the HeR Interactive Nancy Drew games. UIs for adventure games aren't very diverse but there are times where Phantasmagoria looks like a biazarro version of The Curse of the Blackmoor Manor. I personally I believe that Phantasmagoria was a direct inspiration for HeR Interactive when developing the ND series.
Phantasmagoria (1995) is a point and click adventure game designed by mother of the genre Roberta Williams- for better or worse. The game features Full-Motion Video blue-screened over 3D rendered environments- surreal. The game caused significant controversy over it's violent and sexual content. Said sexual content amounts to a not even a minute long love scene with a little side boob.The violence on the other hand is a wonderful gore fest that ramps up in the mid-last part of the game.
Content Warning!
Most of the public outrage was directed
at the game's infamous rape scene. But the thing is, the rape
scene really isn't that bad. It's not explicit at all and is
fairly short. In my opinion it's the most tastefully done scene in the
whole game as it focuses more on the emotion of the scene rather than
the physical assault.
Things really kick up as Adrienne's husband Don is
replaced by the same demon that drove Carno the magician to
murder all his wives in comically ironic fashions.
The game's ending sequence consists of fast moving cut-scenes where the player must quickly click on the right part of the screen to progress (and keep Adrienne from meeting an unfortunate end). This section is probably the most difficult and annoying of the whole game so- save often.
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh
There was a sequel though it's
pretty much in name only.There's only one reference to Adrienne from
the first game to unite the two games.A Puzzle of Flesh is a
different beast- it has some heavy Hellraiser vibes and.. umm
aliens? It's not a very enlightened take on mental illness.But, it is
goofy and has a distinct 90s flavor that I love.
