Last month, Square Enix and Google announced that they’d partnered to develop Oshaberi Slimey (Chatty Slimey), a Gemini-powered AI chatbot set to be integrated into Dragon Quest X in the role of the player’s support character. Speaking at the annual Google Cloud Next 2026 conference recently held in Las Vegas, Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii shed some more light on his expectations of AI “companions” in games and why he’s so on board with them becoming a thing not only in Dragon Quest, but potentially other series too.
As reported by Toyo Keizai, Horii views AI as “not just a convenient tool, but a friend to each individual player,” capable of evolving the sense of adventure in RPGs.
When asked where the desire to implement Chatty Slimey into Dragon Quest X came from, he explains: “When I first created Dragon Quest, I wanted the townspeople dialogue to sound as much like real human speech as possible. Now, AI can actually respond, so I think we can make them feel even more human. However, simply replacing townspeople with AI wouldn’t be fun.”
Instead, Horii opted for an AI side-companion that players can consult about in-game topics as well as other things, like an everyday AI assistant, but within the more inviting setting of a game character. “With regular AI, people can feel embarrassed about treating it like a friend, but if it’s a game character, the barrier is lower, and people may find it easier to talk to about various topics.”
Expanding on this point, Horii goes on to say, “I think it’s wonderful that [Slimey] can also listen to people’s concerns with empathy and even talk about things unrelated to the game itself. I’d like to explore ways for AI characters to accompany players as supporting companions while they play, which could then expand into other series too. AI characters could become an entry point that teaches beginners how to play, and even after leaving the game, players might come to consider them as friends.”
In response to the player’s prompts, DQX’s upcoming Chatty Slimey will offer advice about things like what content to interact with next or what equipment to use based on analysis of game progression, in-game screenshots, inventory and other factors. It will also support real-time voice interaction through Gemini Live, and based on Horii’s remarks, will not limit prompts to strictly game-related topics. While a beta version was already tested, the official launch date is TBD.
BOOOOOOOOOOO noone wants this shit in games. If you need friends touch grass dont try to make bestie with something that doesn’t exist
Now this is actually something people want to see AI used for, making their game worlds feel alive through more flexibility in NPC dialogue. I like that they’re taking baby steps with it though, instead of jumping straight into the deep end, especially with how much of the industry adopted AI WAY too fast and began implementing it in ways it wasn’t ready to be used for without complications or being heavily inefficient below the surface (which is why data centers devour resources at an absurd rate, making it typically more harmful than beneficial to all parties involved, including those investing into it, in the long term, which is also why the AI bubble is close to bursting already.)
Maybe if they released in the west people would care
Sounds like DQX will be a hard pass
My biggest worry about all this, is becoming to attached to the characters. Imagine you just went through a whole adventure, with the ups and downs, and you make a real connection with the AIs. Suddenly you come face to face with the reality of, ether you have to turn the game off and leave your “friends” in stasis forever, or you feel obligated to play the game the rest of your life just to keep your “friends” alive.
I think it’s cool. This has potential to make things more immersive, life-like, and each playthrough original.
This is not what people keep calling ai slop,nthis is a practical use of it. People are just hopping on bandwagons, hating anything AI related.
This is the best use of ai in gaming. Go for it. I want to try it out!
This sounds like a supremely bad idea. Some games have already tried to integrate AI, and there are some significant concerns with that both from the perspectives of breaking immersion and security. It’s not hard for a player to break the AI out of its “intended role”. Not to mention it adds another always on internet component to the game meaning if square decides to stop supporting the AI, the game becomes unplayable.
There are places for generative AI in gaming, but dialogue is certainly not one of them.