Hi there,
The game needs to be of the Interactive Fiction genre, though we take the wide definition of the concept (needs to be interactive and focus on the text).
Because of the theme/restriction of the jam, dialogue/conversion has to be the game's focus. Though you can choose how text is displayed on the screen or how player can interact with the text (as long as the work can still be considered IF).
Formatting player's options for the conversation to feel like a "turn-based battle" could be interesting indeed.