Phantasmagoria is an adventure game that places heavy emphasis on full motion video for exposition and cutscenes at various junctures to advance the storyline. Adrienne is represented as a digitized character roaming around pre-rendered settings in the house. She inspects various rooms, finds items, adds them to her inventory, finds places to use the items, and triggers advancements in the plot.

Puzzle-solving element is present, though reduced compared to most other adventure games made by Sierra. There are seven chapters in the game, as well as a status screen that tracks the player's progress within the chapter. If the player happens to get stuck in the game, a talking skull icon who identifies himself as the hintkeeper can supply the player with hints on request. It is possible to start playing the game from any chapter.