Square Enix has announced plans to introduce a new companion called ‘Chatty Slimey’ to the Japan-exclusive MMO Dragon Quest 10, who will respond to players with AI-generated text and voice chat.
As reported by Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, this new companion is powered by Gemini as part of a collaboration with Google, and will not only respond directly to players, but also analyze on-screen information, such as if a rare item is collected or 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 as to why AI characters do not work. Epic Games put several guardrails 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, sparking labor complaints from the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA.
There will presumably be similar restrictions in Dragon Quest 10, though how effective they will be remains to be seen, considering how ineffective they have been in other titles.
Google AI Is Infamously Unreliable, So It’s Unclear How Helpful Chatty Slimey Will Actually Be
What sets Chatty Slimey apart from Darth Vader and other AI characters, like the Where Winds Meet NPC who one player gaslit into thinking she was pregnant, is that it will use Gemini to guide you, like an unethical and more annoying Navi.
That might sound promising on paper — a reactive NPC who can intuitively help you with puzzles and walk you through the world — but if you’ve used Gemini before, you’ll know how unreliable it really is. Just three months ago, one Dark Souls player was sent on a “wild goose chase” in Sen’s Fortress to find a merchant who does not exist, and while they were rightfully ridiculed by the community for not using the many wikis, guides, and other material on the game instead of a chatbot, it sums up exactly why an AI-powered companion like Chatty Slimey won’t work.
That’s not to mention the misguided priorities on display here from Square Enix. Long-time series fans have been requesting a Western port of Dragon Quest 10 ever since it launched in 2012, with conversations sparking back up again in 2022 after the offline version launched, and yet there’s zero mention of it, only a bizarre partnership with Google — an American company based in California. But hey, at least players can ask a multicolored slime to hallucinate made-up tips?
- Released
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August 2, 2012
- Engine
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Crystal Tools
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
