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Phantasmagoria: Retrospective Views?

Started by Sir Perceval of Daventry, August 30, 2011, 01:01:26 AM

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Sir Perceval of Daventry

Taking a break from KQ reviews a bit, but what did you guys think of Phantasmagoria? What do you think of it now?

Baggins

I was just a teenager when it first came out. I convinced my dad to buy it or I borrowed it (I don't really remember which), and I had to secretly play it... My mom can be a bit over protective. While I'd say she's mostly socialy liberal, she's somewhat religiously conservative on violence and 'supernatural' things...

I played over a week. I never saw the best/extra scary ending back then.

Anyways, I was never more disgusted or horrifed by any other game at the time.... Totally shocked by the game... It wasn't what I was expecting. Sure Robert warned it was not going to be KQ! But it was a Roberta game, I wanted to play it.

I thought the story was pretty interesting, although I found the ending overally depressing (the short ending). I wanted to save and redeeom her husband. Though deep down I knew he was probably a goner after he killed Spaz (if I remember the name right?) the cat.

I didn't particurarly like the interface, single cursor is too limiting... and felt the puzzles were way too easy. Little did I know that there was alternative puzzle to lead into the long ending... I discovered that years later from the internet.

In anycase, I felt let down by the game I suppose, since it had a kind of anticlimactic ending, no closure, and depressing. I liked happy endings in games back then. It just wasn't as good as Gabriel Knight the previous Sierra Horror game that I played.

I'm more forgiving on it now, as I've matured. But its still not my favorite adventure game. I think I'm more shocked by the long ending!

I've been meaning to play it again sometime. Probably need to get it on gog, as I don't want to deal with disk swapping anymore.


Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Cez

There are different endings to Phantasmagoria???


Cesar Bittar
CEO
Phoenix Online
cesar.bittar@postudios.com

Baggins

There are two, both lead to the same outcome.

The longer ending is more depressing than the primary one. Basically you find Don's body count is much larger than previously thought!

The difference between the two endings is essentially a matter of how long you can stay out of Don's clutches before he finally catches you, and puts you on the Chair.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Cez

oh, ok, yes. You can do a bunch of different stuff to proceed further in before the chair moment or just enough to pass it. I thought you were talking about the post demon ending.

In any case, I first saw a Phantasmagoria ad in a magazine in 1993 or 1994. From that moment, I WANTED the game very badly. When I finally got it, I played through it in one day for 15 hours. It became my fav game ever at that moment. I had never experienced a game that had me on the edge of my seat as much as chapter 7 did. It was just freakin' awesome.

I showed it to every friend I had lol I used to bring them all to my room, sit them, and play through the whole thing. Then I just recorded the whole thing on a video cam. My edited version was about 4 hours long :)

I still love it today as a game that pushed the adventure genre into new grounds. This was Roberta at her best, most definitely.


Cesar Bittar
CEO
Phoenix Online
cesar.bittar@postudios.com