"Even after leaving the game, players might come to consider them as friends." Image credit: Square Enix The creator of the Dragon Quest series, Yuji Horii, hopes to use advances in AI to boost the camaraderie between players and their in-game companions. As reported by Toyo Keizai , and spotted by Automaton , Horii spoke about the tech at the Google Cloud Next 2026 conference, calling AI "not just a convenient tool, but a friend to each individual player". Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined - Official 'Adventure Log: Part 2' Trailer. Watch on YouTube "When I first created Dragon Quest, I wanted the townspeople's dialogue to sound as much like real human speech as possible," Horii said. "Now, AI can actually respond, so I think we can make them feel even more human.…