If you’re still recovering from last week’s DLSS 5 nightmare and Crimson Desert’s gen-AI fiasco, we’re sorry to re-open old wounds by telling you that Square Enix has announced it’s teaming up with Google to put Gemini AI into Dragon Quest X.
The tenth mainline Dragon Quest is a Japan-exclusive MMORPG released in 2012 that never escaped the country despite its 2022 offline conversion, which probably explains why Square Enix will be conducting this experiment there and not inside a heavyweight champion like Final Fantasy 14.
VGC shared the news on 23rd March, reporting on a press event which took place this past weekend. Japanese publication Sankei was able to speak to head of development Takashi Anzai, who pitched the “Chatty Slimey” companion as a way to make new players feel “less lonely” as they begin their journey, which is a baffling thing to say about an MMO that is populated with real-life players that, usually, are very keen to welcome new players into the fold.
“When a player talks to Slimey using the chat function, it automatically generates voices and engages in conversation. The AI also analyses information from the game screen, and Slimey may even initiate conversations when a powerful enemy is defeated or a rare item is obtained,” Sankei’s report added. How Square Enix and the minds behind Gemini plan to limit and “guide” what the AI can and cannot say remains uncertain, and specific details regarding exactly how this will all work have yet to be shared.
As pointed out by VGC, Dragon Quest X won’t be the first online game trying to make use of AI chat bots. Last year, Where Winds Meet released with a world full of AI chatbot NPCs, so you can imagine how things went after some players abused them. Similarly, Darth Vader went wild on Fortnite last year before Epic Games had to patch the AI-powered NPC into something less IP-threatening.
