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Post by Discoalucard on Dec 12, 2009 1:32:32 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/phantasmagoria/phantasmagoria.htmThis was Sierra's main FMV adventure game series, outside of the second Gabriel Knight game. The first one has some really, really awful acting and scripting, while the second is ambitious but still ultimately laughable. Neither has very much "gameplay" though. The second one was spoofed on The Spoony Experiment awhile back, which I heavily recommend watching - it's very funny, even though it's like five hours long.
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Post by bioniccommando83 on Dec 12, 2009 7:40:42 GMT -5
Interesting article. I've been curious about the games for ages, and while I've heard the acting in the first was rather mediocre at best, it's sad (but not unexpected) to read they bungled the pacing and gameplay elements as well. One small typo I noticed, KQ: VII is the Princeless Bride. Other than that, solid, well written article.
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Post by Ryu the Grappler on Dec 12, 2009 8:48:39 GMT -5
The second one was spoofed on The Spoony Experiment awhile back, which I heavily recommend watching - it's very funny, even though it's like five hours long. I HEARD THAT CURTIS!
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Post by roushimsx on Dec 12, 2009 12:39:57 GMT -5
Ahh yes, yet another bad Sierra adventure game. They sure made plenty of those (though I think as far as Roberta Williams games go, it's a good few steps up from King's Quest IV and VII) Shame about the Japanese Saturn port. I was really hoping that it'd keep the voice acting and just get subtitled, so I was understandably bummed when I got it and it was all in moonspeak. Oh well, looks neat on a shelf.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2009 13:38:59 GMT -5
Ugh. Why did we ever own Phantasmagoria? I think it was part of a Roberta Williams anthology that my brother obtained, but we didn't know what the hell we were ever doing in the game. Good article, though. Also, Kurt, I didn't know you viewed The Spoony Experiment!
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Post by Discoalucard on Dec 12, 2009 14:33:09 GMT -5
I wasn't TOO familiar with The Spoony Experiment before this. I had seen him join The Nostalgia Critic for some review (I think it was the Alone in the Dark movie) but I saw it linked somewhere and thought it was incredible funny. I'll definitely have to watch more of it.
I remember kinda liking Kings Quest IV, but I was also about 13. I haven't played it since. KQVII was pretty bad though, despite looking so gorgeous.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2009 14:58:44 GMT -5
I wasn't TOO familiar with The Spoony Experiment before this. I had seen him join The Nostalgia Critic for some review (I think it was the Alone in the Dark movie) but I saw it linked somewhere and thought it was incredible funny. I'll definitely have to watch more of it. Yup, Spoony (and Linkara) helped the Nostalgia Critic look at Alone in the Dark, which is pretty much the cinematic equivalent of diabetes. I need to watch more of TSE myself, I've only really looked at his early NES game reviews. His look at Samurai Zombie Nation still cracks me up to this day. XD
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Post by TheChosen on Dec 12, 2009 14:58:46 GMT -5
Good to see more Spoony fans.
I got a boxed copy of Phantasmagoria 2. Owned it for many years now and I still dont know why. I saw reviews and knew this was bad, yet I still wasted 5€, played it and got depressed.
EDIT: BTW, its Trevor, not Travis.
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Post by roushimsx on Dec 12, 2009 15:54:46 GMT -5
I remember kinda liking Kings Quest IV, but I was also about 13. I haven't played it since. KQVII was pretty bad though, despite looking so gorgeous. It was far and away my favorite King's Quest until I tried to replay it for the first time in like ~15 years. Standards in adventure game design were much, much lower back then. It's not difficult so much as it's fucking cheap as hell. I got a boxed copy of Phantasmagoria 2. Owned it for many years now and I still dont know why. I saw reviews and knew this was bad, yet I still wasted 5€, played it and got depressed. But hey, at least it had bewbz and gore. If you wanted to see Victoria Morsell nude you had to watch something else.
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Post by KeeperBvK on Jan 5, 2010 6:51:15 GMT -5
Why is the article among the individual games instead of game series?
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Jan 9, 2010 5:09:18 GMT -5
Is Phantasmagoria II considered "the last Sierra FMV game" limited to internally developed titles? Because the true last FMV game published by Sierra, as far as I recall, was Urban Runner, which was developed by Coktel (unsurpsingly, it has an American main character but takes place in Paris).
I remember some enthusiasm surrounding Phantasmagoria way back in 1995, and even some good reviews, the game was really hyped. I got to see it at a friend's house, the introduction was enough to give me nightmares, all looked promising... But as the game went on, all its problems and limits started to be evident, and I was more and more puzzled at others' enthusiasm over it. Sad that Roberta Williams is so fond of it. But Gabriel Knight 2 was released, it seemed it was really better despite the limitations of the genre, so it seemed a step on the right direction.
Over time, however, more than someone must have realized how bad Phantasmagoria really was, and FMV games were dying by 1996; so when the not-sequel came out, it was severely slammed (along with the aforementioned Urban Runner).
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Post by Discoalucard on Jan 9, 2010 10:58:18 GMT -5
I totally forgot about Urban Runner, but now that you mention, I vaguely recall reading about it in PC Gamer a long awhile back. I'll have to go check it out.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2010 12:50:30 GMT -5
Heh, Urban Runner. I still own that game in its original jewel case (lost the cardboard box ages ago) I've tried to sell the game for some time now, but no one seems to want to buy it. If you don't have it Discoalucard and want it, I can ship it to you -- for free.
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Post by Sac (a.k.a Icaras) on Jan 14, 2010 19:28:53 GMT -5
I think this is oen of the few Sierra online games I have yet to play. If I could locate a boxed copy)of either) I would love to try it, but otherwise I don't think I'd bother.
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