Yuji Horii, the creator of the Dragon Quest series, shared his vision for using artificial intelligence to create more lifelike companions in games. Speaking at a recent conference, he highlighted ongoing work on an AI chatbot for Dragon Quest X.
Horii addressed attendees at the Google Cloud Next 2026 conference, where he discussed advances in AI technology. He said AI could serve as more than a tool, describing it as a friend to each individual player. Horii recalled his early goals for Dragon Quest, noting that AI now allows townspeople to respond dynamically while cautioning against simply replacing them with chatbots.
