Square Enix has announced plans to introduce a new companion called “Chatty Slimey” to the Japan-exclusive MMO Dragon Quest 10, which will respond to players with AI-generated text and voice chat.
As reported by the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, this new companion is operated by Gemini as part of a collaboration with Google, and will not only respond directly to players, but also analyze information on the screen, for example, if a rare item is collected or if an enemy is defeated.
Dragon Quest 10 isn't the first game to try this, as Fortnite introduced an AI-powered Darth Vader companion as part of its Star Wars season last year. It served as the perfect example of why AI characters don't work. Epic Games put several safeguards in place to prevent the late James Earl Jones from saying anything offensive, but players immediately found workarounds to manipulate the AI into repeating slurs and memes, prompting complaints from the actors' union SAG-AFTRA.
There will likely be similar restrictions in Dragon Quest 10, but how effective they will be remains to be seen, given how ineffective they have been in other titles.
Google AI is notoriously unreliable, so it's unclear how helpful Chatty Slimey will actually be
What sets Chatty Slimey apart from Darth Vader and other AI characters, such as the Where Winds Meet NPC that a player got the idea that she was pregnant, is that it will use Gemini to guide you, as an unethical and more annoying Navi.
It might sound promising on paper – a reactive NPC that can intuitively help you with puzzles and guide you through the world – but if you've used Gemini before, you'll know how unreliable it really is. Just three months ago, a Dark Souls player was sent on a “wild goose chase” in Sen's Fortress to find a trader that doesn't exist, and while they were rightfully ridiculed by the community for not using the many wikis, guides, and other materials on the game instead of a chatbot, that sums up exactly why an AI-powered companion like Chatty Slimey won.
That's not to mention the misguided priorities on display here from Square Enix. Longtime series fans have been clamoring for a Western port of Dragon Quest 10 ever since it launched in 2012, with conversations starting up again in 2022 after the offline version launched, and yet there's no mention of it, just a bizarre collaboration with Google – an American company based in California. But hey, at least players can ask a multicolored slime to hallucinate make-believe hints?
- Released
-
August 2, 2012
- Engine
-
Crystal Tools
- Multiplayer
-
Online Multiplayer
