Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii admits he’s a fan of AI and of how much it’s evolved over the years, saying it “hardly ever makes things up” anymore. He made these comments after being asked about the Gemini-powered chatbot that was recently added to the series’ MMO.
The Dragon Quest series is credited with having one of gaming’s first AI systems: in 1990’s Dragon Quest 4, the player could give party members general instructions, and the AI then selected actions for each one. However, the series’ latest implementation of AI has been far less popular.
Dragon Quest 10, the series Japanese-exclusive MMO, recently launched its seventh and final expansion, Lost Children of Time and Space, with a divisive addition. The expansion included a companion called Oshaberi Slimey – literally talkative Slimey – one of Dragon Quest’s iconic blue slimes in a jester’s hat. However, fans were disappointed to hear that Slimey works by using a Google Gemini-powered chatbot.
In an interview with Famitsu that’s been translated by GamesRadar+, Horii explains his choice to implement Slimey and his opinions on AI in general. “Because nowadays AI is really smart, it’s fun,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what I ask it, it hardly ever makes things up [anymore].”
AI often has issues with factual accuracy, as it often gives users an answer even if it doesn’t have the necessary information. The game designer who is most commonly associated with Square Enix has had a similar experience. “Quite some time ago I asked AI about myself and it said I was ‘a Nintendo employee,'” he says with a laugh.
He goes on to defend AI by saying, “It’s evolving, and lately there are a lot of things you can do with it. Slimey is a conversational partner, so I think it lowers the barrier of entry to interacting with AI.”