Wizardry 8 (2001) probably had the last remnant of a type-in interface for the communication with NPCs - you could type your lines directly and they reacted to keywords. You could ask for things you've heard somewhere and learn something new.

The idea isn't dead though - since GPT-2 appeared, people have been trying to use chatbots for role-playing games again. With GPT-4 it's almost possible as it can mostly keep track of the inventory and more or less stick to the rules.