A new gameplay video of Dmeon's Souls, set to release on February 5th in Japan, has surfaced on youtube:
It doesn't look quite as bad as the other videos from TGS.
Also, the official Demon's Souls page on the Japanese PlayStation.com has been updated, with a new section dedicated to networking features.
Some posts by RpgN on NeoGAF on the networking features:
About death, when you become a soul, there will be blood left to the place that you died. I'm not sure what happens with the blood, but it seems to make you stronger if you find your blood. There's also many blood scattered that have no use, so it's not going to be an easy job. I didn't see anything mentioned about being revived again.
*Take this reply with a grain of salt, because I'm really not sure*
Ps. and it's Soul sign and not network, sorry about that.
it's a new sort of co-op called "Soul sign" When you die in the game (offline), you became a soul and can sign online. As a soul, you are summoned to aid other players on their adventure. The other one being still alive.
About death, when you become a soul, there will be blood left to the place that you died.
It seems the other player can find your blood, and you will be revived again that way. Together the players will be stronger and defeat harder enemies. There's also many blood scattered that have no use, so it's not going to be an easy job.
The game will be released on 5 February next year in Japan.
And a bit from Famitsu (translation thanks to Rykomatsu on gaf):
In network play, multiple players can enjoy adventures in the same world. The theme tying all this in is "mutually helping each other". During network play, if you due, you go into a condition called "Soul Body". In this condition, if you release a "soul sign", a player who is still alive can summon you, allowing you to still participate in the game. The system is designed so the living and those deceased and existing as soul bodies can cooperate and progress through adventures together.
One player can "summon" up to 2 "soul bodies"
Players can leave messages on the map for other players as well (could be used to indicate where treasure chests might lie, where enemies might be hidden, etc).
Based on the video above and word of these interesting networking features, I'm become somewhat optimistic about the title. Cautiously optimistic, of course. At TGS I had written the game off as a Lair-caliber flop (as in how bad it would be, not how bad it would be compared to expectations - at this point there are no expectations, lol), but maybe a spiritual successor to King's Field produced by Sony could turn out well. All I know is I hope for the best.
Btw, this game's sudden release (February '09! I thought it had at least another 8 months left in development) has lead me to two realizations:
1. Lately SCEJ has been announcing titles at the very last minute. First was Siren: Blood Curse last year, which was announced in April alongside the debut of a playable demo on the JP PSN store, followed by a release in July, and now there's this. Demon's Souls was only announced at TGS, and it's coming out a mere four months later! They're acting like Nintendo in this regard, and it makes me wonder what else SCEJ has up their sleeves. Many people, including myself, have knocked them for their dearth of announcements and releases this gen, but maybe they're just keeping extra quiet?
2. The ps3 is really on the upswing in Japan! These past few weeks have shown us that a steady stream of releases will keep the ps3's sales relatively high in Japan (in comparison to past sales), and the line up will remain strong until Q2 next year. First we had GTA and LBP a few weeks ago, then the Way of the Samurai 3, PES is this week, and coming up we have White Knight Chronicles (the biggie) in December, Demon's Souls and SFIV in February, and RE5 and the FFXIII demo in March.
