SweetieGames

As many of you know, I’m a huge Dragon Quest fan. This franchise got me hooked on RPGs and started my love for turn-based combat which continues to this day. The game’s characters have always been charming and well designed, whether that be player characters, party members or enemies, and I know I’m not the only one eagerly awaiting news of the next mainline instalment in the franchise.

Something else I’ve made clear on this blog is my dislike of generative AI being used in creative industries like video game development and creation. I see video games as an art form, and they can be worked on by one person or hundreds of people who devote so much time, effort and creativity into the final product.

We’re already unfortunately seeing AI artwork and writing in video games of all genres, from indie visual novels to Game of the Year winners. However, something I wasn’t expecting to see in one of my favourite franchises is an AI chatbot. This is something that is genuinely coming to Dragon Quest‘s MMORPG instalment, Dragon Quest X.

Originally launching in 2012 and never coming across officially to the west, Dragon Quest X was played by 300,000 people during its peak and is still enjoyed 14 years later by dedicated fans. There’s even been fan translations as the game never left Asia. The latest addition to the game came as a bit of a surprise to fans; a collaboration with Google to integrate their Gemini AI into a companion for players. The new monster companion, called Chatty Slimey, takes on the appearance of the iconic Dragon Quest slime and provides information as well as reacting to player character outfit changes, items and victories in battle. The character will also have spoken dialogue with an AI generated voice. Dragon Quest‘s creator Yuji Horii commented that he wants the AI character to feel like a real friend to the player, and that the generative AI will allow players to discuss a variety of topics outside of the game itself. As expected, the announcement was met with backlash.

We’ve already seen AI companions be manipulated into using hate speech and slurs in 2025 in Fortnite and it’s basically a guarantee that people will try and manipulate a cute little slime to say the same things. Even if we could guarantee that the AI couldn’t be manipulated into hate speech, it’s common knowledge that generative AI causes huge issues for the environment and also the mental health of its users who become dependent on it, making Chatty Slimey a huge waste of the earth’s resources and also worsening people’s reliance on AI bots for companionship. Why would the game’s creator encourage people to treat the AI like a real life friend and discuss topics outside of the game? It’s pretty well known that AI can give some truly awful life advice.

Some people have a more optimistic approach, thinking that the use of AI will make the NPCs in a game feel more real and able to have proper back-and-forth conversations. We’ve all dreamed of being able to ask a range of questions to a game character rather than just the set dialogue or a simple Yes or No, but I don’t think AI tech is advanced enough yet to be able to handle the huge range of questions a player could throw at it; it’s in human nature to try and break these kinds of things as soon as they become available, and it’s also still too taxing on the environment to be appealing to a huge amount of people, myself included. I’m not so invested in “realistic” NPCs that I’m willing to waste tonnes of water and electricity.

Chatty Slimey has finished beta testing but it’s unknown when he will be implemented into DQX, like a more annoying Clippy. It’s looking like there’s no avoiding him but I can only hope that outcry from fans will demonstrate that AI shouldn’t be implemented in this way into our favourite games. They’re fine as is!