Phantasmagoria was, without a doubt, the scariest game of its time. Heck, it's scarier than most horror games today. This game did horror correctly. Unlike the horrow genre today which is all gore, Phantasmagoria was 95% creepy and foreboding, which made the 5% of gore closer to the end that much creepier. Since it was a tad avant garde for its time, avant garde and technology rarely mix so there were some issues (juggling 8 CDs in a 1.5x speed CD player through the whole game was never fun). But despite its flaws, the graphics, sound, music, atmosphere, and the few precious sick parts near the end made this a competely memorable game.
It's just too bad Phantasmagoria 2 went the route of sexed up and lame.