Atlus says North American Demon's Souls servers not live until Oct. 6
by Ben Gilbert 
{ Oct 4th 2009 at 1:00PM } 
Specifically, Atlus says, "What this means is that users that might manage to pick the game up early and start it up will get an immediate PSN error and have to start playing offline." Sure, you could shed a few tears and swear off the publisher forever, but look at it this way -- now you'll have two secret days of soul collecting to rub in your friends faces when the servers go live this Tuesday. Hooray!
Gallery: Demon's Souls
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1251 @ Oct 4th 2009 1:04PM
How is this not expected?
eat my face [ wiizer is a party pooper ] @ Oct 4th 2009 1:05PM
some people are lame
Mr Khan @ Oct 4th 2009 1:25PM
Servers often go live before release. Not as a rule, but often enough that it can be questioned.
Filthy Assistant @ Oct 5th 2009 5:38PM
Well I probably wouldn't mind the invasions so much but PSN is usually laggy for me for some reason, so the retarded griefers would have an advantage.
So great, guess I gotta keep my PS3 unplugged. Nice choice, From Software.
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 4th 2009 1:05PM
Seeing as I'm going to play this offline when I do get it, due to people randomly jumping in and screwing with my game, I consider this a good thing.
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Oct 4th 2009 1:11PM
you cant just disable that?
Jtenma @ Oct 4th 2009 1:26PM
Logic tells me 2 things:
1. Atlus (I hope) is not THAT stupid to make it mandatory.
2. You could always disable/unplug the internet from your 3.
Solace @ Oct 4th 2009 1:26PM
your such a baby, "due to people randomly jumping in and screwing with my game" I mean really? Give it try before you start whining, they made the game online for a reason.
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 4th 2009 1:27PM
Apparently not from what I've been told from people who've played it. It'd be nice if we could actually get previews though.
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 4th 2009 1:29PM
They made it online to arbitrarily make it harder than it needed to be. Once you get to a certain level people can jump in anytime they want and kill you, then take your souls (money). That's what I've been told from people who have played it, and I want no part of that, therefore I play it with the internet off.
Simple as that really.
Solace @ Oct 4th 2009 1:31PM
I think that's pretty damn fun to just kill people and mess with them. I'm getting this game but not anytime soon and I'm going to take advantage of the online it'll be good challenge.
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 4th 2009 1:33PM
"I think that's pretty damn fun to just kill people and mess with them"
That's precisely why I'm staying away from that part. From what I hear, the game's hard enough on its own. I don't need assholes coming in and ruining what little progress I'll make.
Sly (Now equipped with DS!) @ Oct 4th 2009 1:34PM
i agree with solace. i think it would be pretty fun screwing people over.
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 4th 2009 1:38PM
"i think it would be pretty fun screwing people over"
I'm having a hard time understanding how ruining people's hard work is fun, and I thought I was the asshole here.
Solace @ Oct 4th 2009 1:40PM
meh i guess i wont be able to mess up your progress but I'm sure I'll find other unsuspecting players to mess with
Sly (Now equipped with DS!) @ Oct 4th 2009 1:46PM
it's not fun for them, but it's sure as hell fun for me.
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Oct 4th 2009 1:56PM
wait....
so you can just Jump in someones game..kill them...take their souls...leave and have that all for yourself!??!
ROFLMAO!!
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 4th 2009 2:01PM
Well, I think if they kill you when you invade they can steal your shit too so it's a double edged sword. I also think there's a warning message that someone has invaded, but you can't see each other on the map (if there even is one). If the player can make it to the entrance or some other safe zone in the dungeon that takes away your stealth advantage and you'd have to at least fight him fairly, 1 on 1.
dotzeno @ Oct 4th 2009 2:03PM
god damn black phantoms...
btw, the game will eventually give you an item that will kick black phantoms (invaders) out of your game.
burandon @ Oct 4th 2009 2:17PM
The online isn't just about invading / getting invaded. You can also call blue phantoms (friendly players) into your game to help you with a stage you're having a hard time with.
And then there are the hints other players have left, often warning you of traps or hidden enemies, in addition to seeing where other players have died (and how they died) so that you have sufficient warning for what's up ahead.
How is that "arbitrarily [making] it harder than it needed to be"?
dotzeno @ Oct 4th 2009 2:43PM
You're right.
But what if those people who got the game early, shifted the world tendencies to pure black (I think it's very likely that a lot of people will be dying over and over again...). People who get the game later will hate that - which at the moment, I assume, are most people.
mahouneko @ Oct 4th 2009 3:59PM
@tmac:
As someone who has an autographed copy of Demon's Souls from Anime Expo 2009 (and have been playing it for the past 4-5 months), you don't have to worry too much about people invading your game. The thing is this, when people invade your game as Black Phantoms, the World Tendency for that area immediately turns Black and there's usually a telltale sign that someone has invaded your game from the World Map. The Black Phantom mechanism is introduced as an alternative to respawning the bosses that you've slain.
The thing is that I've never had a situation where the stage I'm currently playing is suddenly invaded by someone else. I've also never been invaded while in soul form but that could just be me.
Kevin949 @ Oct 4th 2009 4:00PM
So you're a griefer, solace. Just say it.
mahouneko @ Oct 4th 2009 6:11PM
Actually, you get an equipment that allows you to invade other people's games and that basically allows you to invade as many times as you want without any limit. The problem is, getting your carcass back is where a lot of the difficulty is at because the pills that allow you to regain your body is very limited and it's just a lot easier to invade someone else's game to adjust your world tendency and to get more profit from it.
There are 3 types of World Tendencies: Positive, Neutral, and Negative. Positive obviously gives the area this white/holy aura, makes the enemies in the area weaker, and makes loot/spoils a lot rarer. Neutral is basically that dull bland look you see on your World Map when you first start the game. Negative is dark/black/unholy and spawns more enemies as well as more loot and souls.
As mentioned in the Atlus video, there are two ways to enter someone else's game. The first way is to be summoned. Obviously, both players will need to be in the same world and in the same area in order for co-op to be possible with the exception that the one being summoned is in Soul form. The other method is to invade another player's game as a Phantom. Thing is, your first invasion doesn't automatically make you a Black Phantom; there are things that you still need to do before you qualify as a "Black Phantom" such as killing the host who summoned you for co-op play.
Sly (Now equipped with DS!) @ Oct 4th 2009 6:51PM
well tmac, you troll for the lulz, so why's it so bad that i wanna grief for the lulz? i'm probably not even going to get the game, i'm just saying that if i did, i would have fun doing that.
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 4th 2009 8:29PM
I don't troll anymore, I educate. Like today, you learned you're not much of a gamer since all you play is online multiplayer.
Levi @ Oct 4th 2009 10:13PM
my friend just beat the game without saying anything about an online component. He doesn't play games online. Pretty sure he would have piped up about this stuff if it were the case.
Sly (Now equipped with DS!) @ Oct 4th 2009 10:14PM
gamer = person who plays games. you can't be more or less of a gamer than someone else. saying i'm "less of a gamer" makes me think that you're the kind of gamer who doesn't leave his house on friday nights...
Filthy Assistant @ Oct 5th 2009 5:38AM
Is there a way to turn off the invasions then? I don't want any of that crap but I also would like to be signed into to PSN.
mahouneko @ Oct 5th 2009 6:08AM
@filthy:
There's no way to prevent people from invading your system. I'd recommend that when your game gets invaded that you run to another World. Either that or stay in Soul form. I cannot guarantee that you won't be invaded while in Soul form because I've never run into that problem and I play almost exclusively in Soul form, too.
Duke @ Oct 5th 2009 1:06PM
Look at how the griefers identities just came out. No shame?
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Oct 4th 2009 1:07PM
people complain about the dumbest shit...
like the dumb fuck a few weeks back that went on the Arkham Asylum forums complaining about the PC version of the game more than 2-3 weeks before it even came out
Sly (Now equipped with DS!) @ Oct 4th 2009 1:32PM
or tmac who says that multiplayer gamers aren't gamers...
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 4th 2009 1:35PM
"or tmac who says that multiplayer ONLY gamers aren't gamers"
Fixed that for you, cause that part's true. I don't care if people who play both want to play multi all the time after they finish the single player...cause that's what it's there for: To artificially extend the length of the game.
8bitgeorge @ Oct 4th 2009 2:53PM
Wait.. are you saying people who like to play WoW (or any other MMO, for that matter), and don't play single players gamers aren't gamers?
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Oct 4th 2009 3:11PM
wait....there are people that ONLY play MMOs?? if you mean the guys that have like 10 monitors goin with JUST WoW on it then they are gamers to the fullest....
ColossalHat @ Oct 4th 2009 3:21PM
"I don't care if people who play both want to play multi all the time after they finish the single player...cause that's what it's there for: To artificially extend the length of the game."
Good sir, I submit to you a list of multiplayer only games. Team Fortress (classic and tf2), counter-strike, Day of Defeat, as well as WoW and other MMOs.
If you claim that playing any of these games makes you any less of a gamer, you, sir, do not understand what a gamer is.
Sly (Now equipped with DS!) @ Oct 4th 2009 3:53PM
@8bit
and that people who only play games like COD or battlefield online aren't gamers. the dude has ass-backwards logic.
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 4th 2009 8:31PM
You can play a significant portion of WoW by yourself, trust me I've done it. And you're all missing the point anyway. I said people who only play multiplayer aren't gamers, not people who do both. You can play TF2 and still play Batman or a Ratchet game.
But frat boys who spend all day every day "pwning noobs" online are, like I said earlier, as much of a gamer as a soccer mom who spends 30 minutes a day on Wii Fit.
sicsided @ Oct 4th 2009 1:14PM
Can't wait to play this :D
Hopefully this can bring me out of my sci-fi loving and into medieval again.
Galrith @ Oct 4th 2009 2:02PM
Well considering the only way someone can jump into your game is if your in body form (100% HP) and they are in soul form (50-75% HP) they are really at a disadvantage.
Also if you kill the invader you get a large Soul Boost so it's kinda worth it. If they kill you your souls go into your blood stain just like any other death is treated and you become a soul so you go back and get your body.
Also of note is they can invade at any time but they will always be within 10 levels of you so you'll never get that level 700 invader on a your level 5 character.
But as far as the topic of the servers not being up can't blame atlus. It's like saying an MMO should have it's servers ready and have players logging in for live before the release (Note: Early start should not be considered in this example as there was no early start announced and this is nothing more then retailers releasing before street date)... just shouldn't be expected.
James @ Oct 4th 2009 1:55PM
Where did they get it early?
CrashSpyro123 @ Oct 4th 2009 2:08PM
A retailer of some kind, I'm guessing.
Cheesus Crust @ Oct 4th 2009 2:26PM
Import maybe?
James @ Oct 4th 2009 2:30PM
Yeah what retailer is dat
allen @ Oct 4th 2009 2:15PM
@tmacairjordan87:
Just fyi, if you want to avoid black phantom invasions just stay in soul form the whole game, its completely beatable as a soul and you get a nice boost to your melee and magic damage as a soul. Also if a BP invades your game and kills you he does not take your souls. Instead he gets his body back and if you kill him you get a crap load of souls (higher level BP = more souls). So if a BP jumps in and kills you all you lose is a progress, you just have to work your way back to your body. At least thats how it is in the JP version and if Atlus isn't lying about not changing anything regarding game mechanics (and that damn locked save) then we can be sure that everything I described will apply to the NA version.
Blkant @ Oct 4th 2009 2:32PM
Man Ive been waiting forever for this damn game, I HATE WAITING. Though, at least this will be the perfect way to keep my mind off of Uncharted 2s release, that would be brutal without this to keep me sane before hand. Plus what better way to get myself more hyped for Halloween than to play a spooky (themed) game like this at the start of October :)
JUST HURRY IT UP ALREADY THOUGH O_O
Willow @ Oct 4th 2009 2:53PM
Picked up the HongKong version today, bit sad its separate from the US servers but it rocks. And yes, its very hard, with niggly controls and camera not helping.
mahouneko @ Oct 4th 2009 7:38PM
http://www.siliconera.com/2009/07/05/atlus-announces-stop-importing-it-edition-of-demons-souls/
That is all I have to say. I was in Hong Kong when it came out but not supporting Atlus's efforts in localizing this for the North American retail is simply inexcusable.
Lunastra78 (PSN: lunastra78) @ Oct 4th 2009 3:13PM
So if I get the NA version, I will only be able to play NA servers? Any idea when this will be out in Europe?