I Used LLM-AI to Generate Riddles to Help Solve Puzzles in the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
It was not as helpful as it seems, here is why-pt.1
For a little bit now, I have been brainstorming how AI-technologies will come into play across different industries. As someone who enjoys video games, the broader implementation of AI excites me and worries me.
On the one hand, AI could open new levels of behind-the-scenes content in your favourite games (think Navi, across every Nintendo game), help new players with hints, and even create new dialogue for NPC’s.
On the other hand, AI threatens to break the joys of gaming. Disrupting the fun of games, and eliminating why they are played. In addition to concerns over privacy, creative plagarism, and other technological nonesense.
So, I ran some tests….
AI Hallucinations: Secret Finding with Google Gemini and Breath of the Wild.
Turns out there was nothing to fucking worry about. I spent an hour and a half trying to solve one AI generated riddle in the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. I was trying to get an orb —
Which is behind Impa, and I could not figure out for the life of me what I was supposed to do. But at the same time, I didn’t want there to be any unsavory cheating involved, which I admit has become more common as my time has grown shorter.
What if I told you that the AI riddles were dookie-dookie dog poopoo? Specifically, LLM’s struggle to solve environmental or contextual puzzles without being implemented, even with access to data revealing the location of such objects. As a result, they provide false riddles and hallucinations.
AI Used: Google Gemini
Game: Breath of the Wild
Test: 1
Here’s the context. When touching that shiny orb in Kakiriko Village, behind Impa, she states that only the prophesized hero can touch the sacred sphere. I had no prior knowledge of how to unlock it, this was my first playthrough of the game. And I decided to run an experiment.
Experiment: using Google Gemini, I asked the program to write a riddle to help me devise a solution to this puzzle. Solve the riddle, get the orb — keep the mystery of the game while getting some helpful hints. It’s a language system that is already in the game (the bird man Kass provides puzzles in the form of riddles).
First Prompt:
In breath of the wild, there is an orb behind Impa in Kakriko village to unlock a shrine — write a riddle on how to obtain the orb
Generated Response:
The Sheikah sage, a watchful eye, Holds a hidden prize, a reason to try. But locked it tight, a test for the brave, Not with steel, but a secret to crave.
A feathered friend, scattered and lost, Their return unlocks what hides at a cost. Follow the fireflies’ dance in the night, For within their glow, the path comes to light.
Do you possess the patience, the hero so bold, To reunite the flock, and claim the orb of old?
Huh, seems very birdlike. Reunite the flock, ok that’s the Cucco sidequest. Firefly dance at night, I know nothing about that. Initially, I could have pieced it together. This first riddle reveals two out of the three requirements for unlocking the sacred heirloom, missing only the Fairy Fountain quest.
However, as a new player I did not know the answer to this quest. I attempted to question the AI on the feathered friends line. It responded —
“The Korok seeds hidden throughout Kakariko Village. These seeds resemble little brown pinecones with a single leave. There are several Korok seeds hidden around Impa’s house, and collecting them all is the key to unlocking the orb behind her.”
Huh, looks like I have to get all the Korok seeds. Some of the answers I got as to the locations were: follow the fireflies at night, and check for piles of leaves on top of houses.
There are no such leaves programmed on top of houses anywhere in Hyrule. The AI provided the correct answers to the apple seed (it called the shrine “Impa’s Table”) and the seeds found at the entrances to the village.
As someone who did not solve all the Korok seeds in Kakiriko village, and had no idea how to unlock the shiny orb behind Impa, I followed. And for the next hour and a half, I filled with frustration, I could not find any leaves on roofs, and I put the game down.
Final Thoughts on This Test:
From a game perspective, this was a simple hallucination. But it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the games mechancis and programming, as well as what puzzles are available to be solved. In a business perspective, this hallucination would be extremely costly.
The leaves are in the game, and trying to solve the puzzle makes sense to someone with no prior knowledge of it. And that is the problem; the AI presented the explanation convincingly, as both the riddle giver and the riddle solver, that it made it hard for me as a player to distinguish what is right. Lawyers have made this mistake in trusting AI sources blindly already, its not just me playing a Zelda game.
Hell, in 2023, the AI couldn’t defend its answers, even when it was right. 22–70% of the time, ChatGPT was misled by the user, and folded immediately when faced with pushback.
I could have used my own brain, but I didn’t. And I wasted time. In the real world, wasted time due to an ineffective tool usually gets me and the tool axed.
Don’t jump on the AI bandwagon too soon, there are plenty more tests to showcase. This technology is not ready for implementation anywhere across the board in a meaningful way that will cost people time, money, and brain-power. It requires immense refinement, across the board, and serious reflection as to how we use these tools and why we use these tools.
