zazrx said:
What is the point of being alive in this game?
As mentioned, the health boost, and ability to summon other players to help you out. (these will be blue messages left on the ground that you may summon into your world. Players can drop their blue invite anywhere in a level, but tend to do so near the beginning, close to the archstone.)
Also, when in body form, other players may invade your game, and try to kill you (when they do, they will resurrect in their own game.) The system is set up so that only characters of a lower level may invade you, so that it's not incredibly unfair, but in the end, it's all how good the Player is, not their character stats. The different "blue barriers" that you enter through in any given level are the barrier zones for multiplayer as well. So if you drop your sign at the archstone, it will disappear when you go through that barrier, and you may leave another in that area. This works the same with black phantoms as well, so a player trying to invade your world will have no success if you are a beyond that first barrier, and they are trying to invade near the archstone. Hope that makes sense...
A few other things about body/soul form. When you drop your blue stone in a level, and are summoned to another players game, you will be resurrected into body form again if you successfully help them navigate the level, and defeat the boss. This is a handy (but potentially time consuming) way to acquire your body again if you are stuck on bosses, or out of stone of ephemeral eyes.
All in all, the multiplayer aspect is elusive, and frustrating at times, but can be very fun as well. The sudden fear when a black phantom invades your game is terrifying, and also one of the best feelings when you defeat them....
One of the most intense moments in all of my playthroughs was in 1-4. I had pretty much forgot that I was in body form, and was trudging through the level. I got to the other side of the gate, and opened it up. On the other side, Ostravia was facing off against the horde of red eyed knights, and I went sprinting over to help him out, when on screen "black phantom ....... has invaded your game!" Fuck!.... So, I ran down the stairwell towards the beginning of the level, and met him near the fountain. It was a pretty even and cautious battle, but in the end, I defeated him, and could then go help out Ostravia with the knights. Pretty intense, and especially so since if I died, Ostravia would have died as well. One of the most heart pounding moments in the game, and these strange circumstances may only happen with invaders.
Been almost a year since i played Demon's Souls, so i couldnt quite remember.