Phantasma

Survival is something tenuous in the dangerous world of Phantasma. The titular game offers a massive reward, a Devil’s Grant that allows the recipient to request anything they want, but it also comes with an enormous degree of risk and danger. Ophelia Grimm does not enter Phantasma to win the Devil’s Grant; she enters to find her sister Genevieve, who in turn entered to find their father and save their home, Grimm Manor, from demolition. Ophelia’s desire to survive stems from not only the innate human instinct to preserve her own life, but also from her urge to save her sister.

Because of this motivation, Ophelia is willing to make numerous sacrifices to survive Phantasma. Firstly, she agrees to a blood bargain with Blackwell, making a deal her mother Tessie consistently advised against. Ophelia thinks about the deal, “If he really could help her survive this Hell house and make sure she didn’t have to deal with any more demonic surprises coming out of her bathtub, she could hardly put a price on the value of that” (84). The blood bargain puts Ophelia at risk, as she stands to lose a decade of her life, but it also offers her a better chance to walk out of Phantasma with Genevieve alive.