OFFICIAL BLOG #3: Online Play

[AtlusAram]

THE OFFICIAL BLOG — Entry #3 — Online Play

Part 3 of Demon’s Souls: The Official Blog will focus primarily on the game’s groundbreaking online functionality, going into detail about what fans can look forward to when the game lands in North America on October 6th.

Seamless Interconnectivity
Unlike many games with some online features, Demon’s Souls does not branch multiplayer into a separate menu or mode, forcing the player to interrupt the single-player experience so as to connect with other players. Because the online in Demon’s Souls is intended to enhance and enrich the single-player experience, it is in fact seamlessly integrated into the main campaign.

When the game begins, players who are connected online and logged into their PSN accounts will immediately get the sense that they are not alone. Other players can be seen as shades, non-corporal entities fading in and out of your plane of existence. It is just one of the many constant reminders the game offers that you are part of an interconnected world.

And on that note, the concept of interconnectivity, of each player having their own sphere of existence that can interface with other players’ spheres of existence, is something the game’s Director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, touched on in a recent video interview filmed exclusively for our panel at this year’s Anime Expo. Early on, the game’s developers wanted to create a game that placed emphasis on the single-player experience, yet also sought to enhance that experience with online elements. Thus, each player is playing their own game, but at times can accept help or offer it, stepping out of their games for a moment and into someone else’s.

Messages
Messages are the game’s ingenious built-in strategy system, allowing for others to leave tips, hints, and warnings for other players, perhaps preventing them from making a rather poor decision or entering an area they are ill-prepared for (because the game most certainly won’t try and help you). Within a few moments of starting a game, players are sure to notice messages scattered across the ground.

The notion of “shared learning” is huge in Demon’s Souls. For one, the game doesn’t care to hold the player’s hand one bit, and there are plenty of threats that won’t be discovered until it is too late. Because of this, the ability for players to pass on their lessons from their game to players in other games is crucial. The community is able to know more about the game, to better master the game, through indirect cooperation.

Moreover, should players find a message particularly useful, they are able to upvote them, which will accomplish two things: a) other players will be able to see that a number of people found the message useful, and may be more likely to heed the wisdom within, and b) the player that generated the message will receive health points in their game, something most players of Demon’s Souls will always have need for.

Players cannot leave any text as a message. The game uses a contextual template system, giving you phrases to choose from. Some have blanks, and upon being selected will then prompt you to fill in the blank as well from a list of relevant choices. For example, you might want to say “you must be **** soul level to proceed,” and upon selecting this choice another menu will open giving you a selection of soul levels in multiples of 10. This flexible system minimizes spam and unproductive messages while still offering a lot of variety to what can be communicated.

With as many secrets, traps, surprises, and unpredictable challenges as there are in the Kingdom of Boletaria, most will find the ability to teach and learn from other players vital to progress and fun.

Bloodstains
Perhaps one of the most talked about and creative components of the online play in Demon’s Souls is what happens when a player dies in their game. Now, whether by means of input error, misjudgment, or sheer incompetence, every single person who plays Demon’s Souls should expect to die at one point or another. The game is designed for it, and in fact becomes more enjoyable in parts once you are in fact deceased (and to be clear, death ends nothing, and there is plenty of game to be enjoyed as a spirit… we’ll touch on this later).

When you die, a bloodstain appears on the ground in the location of your demise in the games of other players. When interacted with, the bloodstain will present these other gamers with a red ghost replay of your passing. Now, humor aside (and there is certainly no shortage of funny or embarrassing deaths to laugh at), these replays can be incredibly useful. In a game where enemies are often capable of dispatching you with a single blow, and where traps and hazards can overtake you before you have a chance to react, being able to watch such a sad fate befall someone else can be tremendously useful.

An example: you enter a small room with a steep staircase ascending along the wall opposite the entrance where you stand. At your feet is a bloodstain, with which you interact. A red apparition appears, charges up the stairs with courage, only to suddenly turn around with noticeable panic and then die at the base of the stairs in a most pitiable fashion. You interpret this, properly, as a hint that a threat may loom at the top of the staircase, and so you proceed with caution. As you take the first few steps up you suddenly notice an enemy atop the stairs is about to gleefully roll a giant cannonball toward you. However, because you were able to receive a preview of coming attractions, you are prepared and deftly roll dodge out of the way.

This kind of scenario plays out constantly in Demon’s Souls, and continuously highlights how much of a positive impact the game’s online elements can have on someone’s single-player experience.

Alive vs. Spirit Form
Before we address cooperative and competitive online play, it would be prudent to quickly touch on the difference between being alive and dead in Demon’s Souls.

On average, most players should expect to spend a majority of their time in spirit form in the realm of Boletaria. In spirit form (i.e. whilst dead), players will have their health cut in half, making fights that would otherwise be challenging into damn near impossible affairs. Now, players can acquire rare, powerful items that can mitigate the penalties of dying (e.g. a ring that reduces the percentage by which your health is cut, or one that helps your health slowly regenerate), but for the most part spirit form is not where most people will want to be.

That said, it is only as a spirit that players can offer their assistance to other players or break into another player’s game. It might at first seem strange for there to be such a restriction on the competitive and cooperative play in the game, but when the context becomes clear, it actually only serves to add to the tension. For example, player vs. player encounters are not supposed to be trivial, meaningless exchanges. Rather, and this is really where the game’s structure shines, the player breaking in is trying to steal the life of the other player, to revive themselves.

There are really only three ways for a player to restore their physical body: by defeating a boss, by using a rare item, or by means of online interaction with other players. The last of the three offers two options: players can enter another player’s game and assist them in slaying a boss, or they can force themselves into another player’s game and try to kill them and steal their life. Imagine then the suspense when you, as a living player, are suddenly notified by the game that someone has entered your world. Immediately, you know they are after only one thing: your soul, and they’ll likely stop at nothing to get it. Should you manage to defeat them, or advance to another region before they reach you, they’ll be sent back to their own game empty-handed.

As a living player, you are only able to summon assistance from spirit players who offer it, and of course, you are vulnerable to the break-in attempts of those in pursuit of your life force. It is a recipe for excitement and thrills, regardless of which side of things you’re on.

[AtlusAram]

Cooperative Play
Having established the relevance of spirit form to cooperative and competitive play, let’s take a look at the cooperative experiences you’ll have in Demon’s Souls.

As a living player, you will at times come across Soul Signs, glowing blue symbols on the ground that will at first resemble messages, but as you approach will also feature a transparent 3D projection of the player offering their help. You’re able to see the player’s name and how they have been ranked by others. Should they appear to be relatively competent, you can then summon them into your game. A moment later they will appear, and together you can then proceed.

They will be returned to their own game upon their death, your death, or the death of the area’s boss. Should you both (or the three of you, as the game does let you summon two other players at any one time) in fact survive the region’s boss, as the living player you can then rank your helpers. Soul points will be allocated based on how you rank their performance, so the better they did, the more points everyone receives, an incentive to bring your A-game when you’re helping someone else.

From the standpoint of the player offering help, all you need is to be in spirit form (which, as we’ve mentioned, isn’t all that hard considering how difficult the game is) and to use a special stone that you will receive after a little progress into the single-player game. With the stone, you can leave your Soul Sign, which is seen by other players, and then hopefully, a short while later, you’ll be fighting alongside another daring adventurer as you quest to deliver Boletaria from the Old One.

Competitive Play
The last aspect of online play we’ll touch on here is the game’s deliciously wicked player vs. player. Some fans have expressed a bit of anxiety at the prospect of being unable to stop others from violating their games. While it is easy to understand their trepidation, there is a simple means of keeping people out: stay dead.

This is, of course, not always possible, and this means that every now and then, living players who are connected to PSN will have some nasty folks try to break in and steal their lives. Yes, it is added stress, but also loads of fun, especially as you learn to master the game. You’ll never be penalized any more than losing all of the Soul points you’ve collected, meaning items or equipment can never be taken from you, so any progress lost, how many hours worth, is never irreplaceable.

Anyways, back to competitive play, it is initiated similarly to cooperative play. Spirit form players need simply to use a special stone they will have in their inventory after a little bit of play to break into another game. There are some requirements and levels have to be within a certain range, so as to make things fair and interesting, so it is possible that you won’t always be able to find a game to break into, but eventually you’ll be violating other games with the best of them.

As the living player, as soon as you’re notified that someone is up to no good in your game, it is advised that you either prepare for battle or try to speed along (particularly if you’re near the region’s end), as you can often kick the invader out simply by getting into a boss fight or passing into another region.

Invading players, be warned: the player you're invading can summon up to two Blue Phantoms to aid them against you, making the prospect of killing them and reviving your physical body nearly impossible.

###

In the next entry we’ll answer more of your questions and tackle one of the game’s more unique (and overlooked) features: the World Tendency system.

Until then,
AtlusARAM

[Silent_gig]

Exellent Blog, Aram
This should clear up anyones questions about onine play.

[cimerians]

Originally Posted by AtlusAram

Cooperative Play

......as you can often kick the invader out simply by getting into a boss fight or passing into another region.

Players being invaded, be warned: up to three other players can break into your game at any given time. Even at half health, three different human-controlled foes can pose all sorts of headaches. Try to be on your toes at all times.

Well its a nice explanation sort of.

Maybe the US version is different but in the Asian version I could NOT fight a boss when a black phantom (invader) appeared if this is what the admin is talking about.

The following site explains a lot.
http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/online

"PvP

In addition to the Blue Eye Stone, Demon's Souls has the "Black Eye Stone" and it has a slightly different function. It allows a player to force their way into another adventurer's game to take the place of that area's Boss Demon. The adventurer who uses the Black Eye Stone becomes the "Black Phantom" and must either be defeated by the defending adventurer or kill the adventurer to gain Souls!

If the invading player fails to kill the host, or somehow dies by the environment of the stage (falling, fireball in 1-x) but not by hosted or a blue phantom player, your Soul Level will decrease, deducting a level from your highest stat."

[ReaperX30]

I got killed once by a Black Phantom (the guy invading) but it was a close fight and very polite like bowing before and after the fight and starting when everyone was ready. Another time the guy (another Black Phantom)didn't fight me but instead asked me to follow him and he helped me clear the level and get the treasures. I had like 14000 souls so it helped a lot. Then he bowed and dissapeared. It is stressfull when you see the message that someone has broken into your game but I guess not everyone is out to get you.......or maybe I was just lucky. Can't wait to try the US version.

[recsouza]

Hi guys, first I would like to thank you for the best PS3 game I have ever played, that's Demon's Souls. BUT I have a question, I am really disapointed with the fact that I have been playing this game for over 200 hours, I beat it more than 8 times, I have all the weapons and everything BUT the PURE BLADESTONE. Is this a big bug in the game? Not droping this stone? Several foruns and discussion lists about this game are crowded of people with the same problem. May Atlus fix this? Or at least say how to have the Pure Bladestone "easily"? I don't wanna play more 200 hours just looking for this ore. Thank you in advance, Rodrigo.

[Pibbman]

you know I've been curious about something, for those of us who pick up the standard release, will we be able to pick up the strategy guide later on, or are we forced to get the deluxe version for it?

Personally if I decide to get this game, I most likely won't know if I want a strategy guide or not until I play the game.

[recsouza]

Originally Posted by Pibbman

you know I've been curious about something, for those of us who pick up the standard release, will we be able to pick up the strategy guide later on, or are we forced to get the deluxe version for it?

Personally if I decide to get this game, I most likely won't know if I want a strategy guide or not until I play the game.

I bet we are going to have a chance to buy just the guide. Have you got the asian version?

[Pibbman]

nope.

[ReaperX30]

Having played the game I can tell you that the guide will be usefull for multiple reasons. Forging weapons, Boss Strategies and more.

[AtlusAram]

There are currently no plans for the strategy guide to be sold independent of the deluxe edition. This may change, but it is unlikely.

[Enzeru]

Why Atlus? Why must this be a PS3 game? ;_;
I shall downvote your Soul Rating!

[Pibbman]

Pretty sure they'll have more PS3 games coming soon.

[pedrovay2003]

Ah, I was wondering why the Asian version of this game didn't have any voice chat, but looking at exactly how online works, I guess vocal communication is kind of unnecessary, huh?

[Senku]

Originally Posted by AtlusAram

Should you both (or the three of you, as the game does let you summon two other players at any one time) in fact survive the region’s boss, as the living player you can then rank your helpers. Soul points will be allocated based on how you rank their performance, so the better they did, the more points everyone receives, an incentive to bring your A-game when you’re helping someone else.

So, what if the player that I just helped decides to be a jerk and gives me a low rating? Will he be able to hoard all the souls for themselves?

Originally Posted by AtlusAram

Invading players, be warned: the player you're invading can summon up to two Blue Phantoms to aid them against you, making the prospect of killing them and reviving your physical body nearly impossible.

Good to know.

But man, talk about tension city; a race against time to see if you can summon helpers before the invader reaches you.

[Silent_gig]

Originally Posted by Senku

So, what if the player that I just helped decides to be a jerk and gives me a low rating? Will he be able to hoard all the souls for themselves?

That doesnt happen, people are actually thoughtful in thier scores when rating others. They call for YOUR help and if you do your part youll get a good score. No one will mess you about, rest assured.

[SpiritThief]

This is just stupid. Its not even a pvp system. Its more like a lame cheap pk system. I was really looking forward to this. Thinking its going to be the next great dungeon crawler. But I don't think that will happen now.

If I wanted forced pk, I would go play one of the 1000s of cheap f2p mmos. And the only means of keeping YOUR game to YOUR self is to stay dead. Which you've already admitted means you pretty much can't do anything. Oh wait there's the not log in part too

I was all on board with everything until I heard about this stupid pk system that you call pvp. PVP is when both parties WANT to fight.

Give us a real single player option. Or a carebear option, all the good stuff without the a..holes.

[Enzeru]

Originally Posted by SpiritThief

Give us a real single player option.

Don't connect to the internet lol?

[Umbasa]

Black phantoms aren't that big of a deal. You've already got the advantage over them by having a full health bar and being able to summon two other players to help you.

It's all part of the shared world component. You can't have all the things that make the game easier without accepting the dangers.

If they ever do make a way to stop players from invading, like for a sequel, it would have to be a punishing item like pair of rings that require both slots or a shield that must be equipped but has 0/0/0 blocking power and requires a demon's soul to make.

[jonmarek]

They should do something for people who imported it before they knew it was coming to NA. Like a trade in deal where you get a discount on the NA Version.

That way they make money that they otherwise wouldn't, because I'm sure a lot of importers aren't going to spend another 60 bucks on what is essentially the same game. Its just a thought.

Also Because the game isn't region locked how hard would it be to patch the game to allow people from the NA with an import copy to play on the US servers? Even if they charged money for the patch they would still be making money right? Anyway just some thoughts.

[Onion of Mystery]

Atlus USA only has the rights to the North American distribution of the game. Making changes to the other versions is beyond our scope and probably illegal, too.

As to a "buyback" program... What the heck would we do with a huge pile of JP and Asian Demon's Souls?

[mlisette23]

Originally Posted by Onion of Mystery

As to a "buyback" program... What the heck would we do with a huge pile of JP and Asian Demon's Souls?

Throw them at people...j/k

[Mooglepies]

Very interesting, thanks. Signed up here to read and comment on these sorts of things, greetings everyone! I'm resident in the UK, currently playing through the Asian version but have, ironically, placed a preorder for the "stop importing it" edition. I did laugh. Thanks for picking this game up by the way, it deserves a fair chance.

I've been playing for 40+ Hours and I've never seen more than one black phantom player at the same time; certainly more than one in the same level (farming them is rewarding, unpredictable and fun) but never at the same time. Did you mean at the same time or something else? I'd also like to clarify whether you can move onto bosses while a black phantom is in, as I think that might be new as well.

On topic, You're unlikely to be able to get hold of blue phantoms once a black phantom is in. You only get told about the break in once he's already in and running around, and given that they spawn at the start of the level, which is where around 90% of summon marks are found, it's pretty hard. Occasionally a black phantom runs ahead of you, avoiding combat until he has standard AI enemy backup; these are the dangerous ones where you will want backup. They're also more entertaining.

When you start playing black phantom players seem an incredibly bad thing, but as you progress it turns into a real thrill, and you begin to relish the idea of some competition.

Co-op play is really, really fun, and I think one of the only ways to gain positive character tendency. Sometimes it really annoys me when a wellmeaning player revives me after summoning as I only want to play a game for a while, but it's all good.

[beastxjason]

Tower of latria hrs spent getting to the end of it bam black phantom player! " Why you little #$@%" I say. Smoked him, woohoo got lucky. I agree very thrilling but those kind of players that wait at the end of the lvl are just plain cheeseballs. I mean thats dirty pool man lol

[Mooglepies]

I was in 3-2 and a black phantom invaded me. He had a Flamberge (large 2 handed sword) and we were on narrow bridges. He knocked me clean off the edge by about 10-20 feet. Amusing, but harsh.

[Darkenmal]

this game looks insane!

[NeoReaper]

Can a level 124 black phantom invade a level 17 players game & own him or is there a cap if so anybody know what it is? Thanks!

[mccrackey]

Originally Posted by NeoReaper

Can a level 124 black phantom invade a level 17 players game & own him or is there a cap if so anybody know what it is? Thanks!

I've been wondering this, too. I know I've joined a game or two as a blue phantom that were way above my level... Rare, but it's happened.

[Mooglepies]

You can only interact directly with players +/- 10 levels above/below you.

[mccrackey]

Ah. I'm level 70 and still on my first playthrough. Maybe I got dumped into a level 80's new game + or something. I'm trying to level up fairly evenly so I can use certain weapons, so I feel rather weak...