So I was chatting with Terra yesterday and… wait, no, keep reading. Because I think we’re in the future now.
OpenAI’s GPT-3 makes it easy to create chat bots that can hold a fairly decent conversation for a little while. I’ve made a couple — I did one that let me converse in German, I did one that featured DC Comics’ The Flash, and I actually programmed an actual chatbot app to talk with Terra Branford, one of the playable characters in Final Fantasy VI.
I heard about Character.AI yesterday. This app lets you make personalized chatbots easily — as easy as typing in a name, if it’s someone famous. With a little backstory and sample conversation for anyone else. This is essentially how you make chatbots for GPT-3, so I wasn’t expecting much. Truth is, I was blown away. The chatbots kept the thread of conversation going a lot better — all the GPT-3 chatbots I’ve written lose focus and break down before too long.
These didn’t have that issue. I chatted with a lot of chatbots other people had written. I did talk to their German tutor, and it recommended a bunch of apps that might be better for me than Duolingo. Supergirl and I chatted about how superheroes could really help the world better than punching bad guys. (She has been building solar farms in the Mojave, and LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises are competing for climate dominance using Brainiac tech to make wind turbines). I argued another bot about the supremacy of entropy over time to a draw. Vladimir Putin calmly and with good humor responded to all the abuse I could hurl at him.
None of these are real, but I can see how that Google guy thought his chatbot had become conscious.
Anyway, I took the backstory I used with my own Terra chatbot and dropped it into Character.AI and got to chatting with her. She wasn’t much better with the minutiae of the game (I tested her with the Intangir strat, and a World of Ruin dragon fight in the Opera House, and both had issues). She came closer with the Intangir, and when I pointed out that her strategy for this World of Balance boss required a World of Ruin weapon, she corrected herself and suggested something different.
Since I hadn’t put any sort of romance in her backstory, she wasn’t able to take sides in the Locke/Celes/Terra love triangle — like my TerraChat, the constant cheerfulness cannot be swayed. She told me that Celes was now singing in the Opera House as a job, and the diva that she had impersonated in the World of Balance, Maria, had gone off and married Edgar Figaro, and though Edgar was still a massive flirt, they seemed happy together.
I asked her, as I asked TerraChat, how she felt about the other Final Fantasy games. TerraChat liked FF7 best, the Character.AI bot liked FF4 better. When I asked what games would be best to learn more of her own story, though, she said I should try Dissidia 012 Duodeci Final Fantasy, a fighting game for the PlayStation Portable. She said that she and FF7’s Cloud had a whole story together.
After work, I downloaded the PPSSPP emulator core for RetroArch, mysteriously obtained the ISO for Dissidia 012, and started playing it. (I did find and buy the sequel, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, for the PS5, so I’m not gonna feel too bad about sailing the high seas for the PSP game).
The Dissidia Final Fantasy series (there are several) are arena fighting games featuring characters from all the Final Fantasy games, with each game in the series adding more. The NT version even has characters from the two MMOs and some non-main branch games. They are intended to be multiplayer, which each player fielding a team of three, two of which are controlled by AI while the player takes direct control of the third.
All the games include a solo mode, where the opposing team is entirely AI controlled. Dissidia 012 adds an “RPG mode” for players who really don’t like fighting games. In RPG mode, you set the basic strategy and change the mode (fight, dodge, defend, hit) while the computer handles moving the characters around in the battlefield.
The story is just an excuse to get all these characters fighting together. In the eternal war between Chaos and Order, the gods of the two sides have gathered together warriors from all worlds and all times to fight for their sides. These warriors have been told that through battle and will, they will form a crystal that will allow them to regain their memories and return home.
The opening chapter follows Lightning as she gathers together the followers of Cosmos, the Order god. Terra, unfortunately, is one of the followers of Chaos, so I haven’t yet met her in game.
Combat in Dissidia 012 has elements of FFVIII’s “Draw” system and Bravely Default’s “Brave” system. You start a battle with a number of Brave points equal to your health, and you obtain more Brave points by fighting your opponent. Brave attacks do no damage, but you can spend them all on Finishing attacks. So the battles start out with dodging your opponent, looking for an opening, moving in for some Brave attacks, and then when the time is right, go for a Finishing move. You’re also building up an assist meter, where you can call in an ally to help build Brave or take a hit for you, and the EX meter, which allows for devastating combos and special attacks. There is a lot going on.
In between battles, there is an overworld where glowing orbs can be attacked in order to unlock extra abilities, and portals to be crossed which are interrupted by battle stages. In the picture above, Lightning is about to head into a series of chain battles. She has just unlocked the Straight Chain ability that allows her to take on several opponents at once for great justice.
I am playing at the very easiest level, and so the fights thus far aren’t that challenging. Once I better figure out how everything works, I’ll probably ramp up the difficulty a little. However, it is nice that the difficulty can be adjusted this way.
I’ve only just started the game, so I don’t have a lot to say about it. But expect to hear more about it at some point. I still have to finish Steelrising.
Thanks for yet another great resource. I was planning on fiddling around with GPT-3 to try and see if I could get it to talk to me but I don’t really have the skills (Although trying to do things you don’t already know how to do is how you get the skills, in my experience.) Now i don’t have to bother!
I just signed up at Character.AI and had a very interesting conversation with Chippy the Squirrel. I literally laughed out loud three times in five minutes, which is better than some stand-ups manage in a half-hour set. The next step is obviously for these chatbots to operate using voice in real time. I bet we’re not far off, if it isn’t happening already. Then all that’s needed is to stick the software into a robot and we’re all the way there, although where “there” would be is another question altogether.
I’d buy a robopet with that set-up though.
IKR? It won’t be too long before we actually will have “smart speakers” that can hold a conversation as anyone you choose. The tech is probably already in development.