I heard about a Chinese rpg that did something similar. The conversations were wide open, and instead of clicking through limited dialog choices, you had to type your responses. You get some guidance on what the purpose of the conversation is, but that’s it. Like: “cheer this person up!”

I think it’s a cute idea but ultimately too unpredictable using the current generation of LLMs.

IMO AI is better used as a game design tool than something running live in game. I remember running around so many open world games where it was obvious you had left the area you were meant to be in. Suddenly there’s few monsters, no quests or NPCs, and the least thought given to foliage and landscape decisions. BORING. I feel like that’s a great use of AI - create a non-critical landscape players can continue to explore, even if they won’t make any progress on the main quest/story lines.

A game studio isn’t going to pay designers to create rich experiences in unnecessary parts of the world, but they should be willing to pay designer to review a region like that and get it into the game.