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All of the game's writers are huge nerds and it really shows as they slip in references to everything under the sun.

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Sabers

  • Saber Bathory's a massive bucket of them.
    • Her outfit is almost certainly one to Dragon Quest - she's dressed up in an outfit, complete with sword and rounded shield, that is highly reminiscent of a female Dragon Quest warrior from DQ3 onwards. She's even got the horns - just, instead of on a helmet, they're actually attached to her head.
    • Her outfit is also one to female protagonists from 80's and early 90's action-fantasy manga, anime and video games (not coincidentally the time period of DQ3's original release), which tended to be nubile young women/girls in Chainmail Bikinis wielding swords, such as Valis, Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, and Legend of Lemnear.
    • Her second-step Quick attack and Extra attack animations feature her running directly into and through the enemy with her sword sticking out in front of her to deal damage - a reference to a certain other red-headed swordsman and the games he stars in.
    • Her second-step arts involves a straight down-stab, another move that should look familiar to veterans of a certain NES adventure game.
    • Her Noble Phantasm is a direct one to Combattler V's "Choudenji Tatsumaki / Choudenji Spin", and to ram the point home in even further, her latest strengthening quest changes the NP rank from B to V.
    • She ascends using "Dragon Orbs", which could reference several things in Dragon Quest.
    • Speaking of orbs, her Valentine's chocolate is also an orb, and the description makes it clear that it's a much more direct reference to the Orb of Light from the Erdrick Trilogy of DQ. The description text even begins by going through the steps for a classic DQ item prompt.
  • Chevalier d'Eon's original icon for their Aspect of Beauty skill was a silhouette of a figure with a pink suit and blond hair that created a very blatant resemblance to Oscar Francois de Jarjayes from The Rose of Versailles. Presumably it was too blatant and tipped over the boundaries of Lawyer-Friendly Cameo as it was replaced in a patch with a silhouette lacking the blond hair and suit.
  • Some of Okita's character elements double as indirect references to one of the most well-known Anime about the Meiji Revolution, Rurouni Kenshin:
    • In the GUDAGUDA Order tie-in comic, after acknowledging that she would appear in the game, she boasts that she could take on Hitokiri Battousai himself. note 
    • One of her pre-battle quotes, curiously enough, echoes one of the more memorable lines of the cynical mentor of that series, Hiko Seijuro XIII:
      Okita: "In battle, there is no good or evil... only killing."
      Hiko: "A sword is a weapon. Kenjutsu is the art of killing. Whatever pretty words you use to speak of it, this is its true nature."
    • Her Buster attack is basically a right-handed version of Saitou Hajime's Gatotsu—itself a variation of the Shinsengumi's Hira-zuki as noted below.
    • Furthermore, her Shukuchi is something that was utilized by Rurouni Kenshin's own Okita Expy, Seta Sojiro.
  • Saber Gilles' first interlude involves zombies. Roman comments that "9 out of 10 times, this is the result of some kind of virus." Mash replies that she doesn't have time to deal with some kind of biohazard.
    • The demon that symbolizes his fall from grace in his final ascension art resembles the Black Dog from Berserk.
  • Saber Fran's NP is a mechanical BFS with a huge blade made of lightning and is either a shout out to Zengar Zonbolt, to Fate Testarossa, or both.
  • Musashi's My Room dialogue with Danzou is very reminiscent of how Kashiwakazki Sena fawns over Hasegawa Kobato.
    • Her Battle Continuation EX skill is, in so many words, the Joestar family secret technique.
    • Her battle with the three Tamamo Cats in her Trial Quest is a blatant reference to Getter Robo, what with them being named Eagle, Jaguar and Bear (the 3 jets that combine to form the titular mecha).
  • Sigurd has a load of references:
    • He mentioned that his version of Fafnir has "blue eyes with silver white scales" which is basically the description of Blue Eyes White Dragon. This serves as an Actor Allusion, as he's voiced by Kenjiro Tsuda, who also voiced Seto Kaiba.
    • His design evokes several characters from different series:
      • His first and second ascension art is a combo of Kaneki, Code Vein's vampire mask, and Raiden.
      • The third and final Ascension art looks a lot like Ignis Scientia, complete with his tendencies of Dual Wielding Gram like a pair of daggers, his Nerd Glasses, and his dorky manner. In addition, he also has that stereotypical student council president look common in high school anime.
  • Caesar and Cleopatra have a visual dynamic similar to Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime, respectively... which makes their quirky personalities stand out even when placed side-by-side with their Accel World counterparts.
  • Beni-Enma's attitudes toward cooking are clearly based on Gordon Ramsay, including her own version of Hell's Kitchen.
    • Her bond 5 Line has her declare she'll cause chaos on behalf of the player in the courtroom when the Player is judged in the afterlife. In Disgaea, various upgrades are acquired by putting them to a vote, and fighting it out is considered a valid strategy if things don't go your way. It's probably no coincidence that she's drawn by the main artist of Disgaea.
  • Jason getting tossed and turned into A Twinkle in the Sky by a bigger ally (Heracles) AND being voiced by Soichiro Hoshi may bring in mind a routine found in Sengoku Basara, in which Soichiro's character, Sanada Yukimura, tends to get that treatment via Megaton Punch by his bigger master Takeda Shingen. Including 'saying name too' (though in the latter case, saying the title, "OYAKATA-SAMAAAA!!!")
  • Saber Astolfo's profile calls his Whip Sword a Galient Sword.
  • Arthur is unnerved by Ruler Altria's bunny motif, telling her that "You are definitely misunderstanding what a rabbit is." He leaves without saying anything else and is implied to be terrified, referencing the Rabbit of Caerbannog.
  • Tomoe Gozen being a Saber who uses VR and dual-wields lightsabers is a joke about Beat Saber, a VR game that features a character dual-wielding lightsabers and for bonus points, even has 'Saber' in its title. Her Noble Phantasm even shows her playing it when it switches to her perspective.
  • Saber Diarmuid's first skill is called Mana Burst (Jump). Given his Lancer qualifications, this could be a shout out to the Dragoon class from Final Fantasy.
  • While many fans expected Saitou to be a walking reference to his Rurouni Kenshin counterpart (to the point that Okita made him appear on ''KOHA-ACE'' in exactly that form as a full shout-out), his true appearance, however, has more similarities to his Gintama counterpart, mainly in his sword skills and tendencies to use Dual Wielding. And yet, his personality is a complete opposite to Shimaru, given that FGO Saitou is a sociable person with a little Casanova streak. The only consistent Kenshin reference this Saitou has is his fondness of soba.
  • Ibuki-Douji, particularly her First Ascension's child-lamia form, bears a noticeable resemblance to Alipheese "Alice" Fateburn XVI from the hentai RPG Monster Girl Quest, especially Alice's own child-lamia form.
  • Fairy Knight Gawain's third ascension form as the Black Dog Barghest heavily resembles the first Dynamic General Guardian unit, specifically the shoulder pauldrons, color scheme, and huge sword.
  • During the NA version of Lakshmibai's interlude, Lakshmibai is attempting to "relax and have fun". One of the people she goes to for help is Jinako; who demonstrates her "One-Hundred Percent Maximum Chill" method, which is the opposite of Rin's catchphrase from Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] Abridged
  • Yamato Takeru's Second Ascension puts them in a high schooler's uniform and with a cap and glasses out of nowhere. This outfit makes Takeru look like a Palette Swap of Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4, who wields Yamato Takeru as her Ultimate Persona. Takeru even calls it "detective style" while looking over themselves, referencing Naoto's profession as a Teen Genius detective.

Archers

  • Gilgamesh's has golden plate armor because, in Nasu's own words. he was "repeatedly challenging a certain 60 story tower at the time…"
  • Nobunaga's Gun Kata fighting style is practically lifted from Mami Tomoe's, something that the original gag manga pointed out.
  • Archer Altria's NP animations are similar to a Gundam (particularly the maneuvers of Dynames and Cherudim). She even shoots a laser that pierces the atmosphere and shouts "Lock on!!" when attacking.
  • Ishtar's NP is a clear reference to the 00 Qan[T]: specifically, the way it teleports using the Quantum Burst system.
  • EMIYA Alter's design is very similar to Pucci from Stone Ocean; for his final ascension he even looks like he's doing a Jojo pose!
  • Archer of Shinjuku's Noble Phantasm name (The Dynamics Of an Asteroid: Ultimate Crime) is named after both an in-universe astronomy book written by Moriarty, and a short story by Isaac Asimov, "The Ultimate Crime", where people speculated he was planning to blow up the world based on said book.
    • In addition, his Silver Fox appearance, his unusual firearm preference, and the Waistcoat of Style he carries in his upper body, also invokes the image of the older Revolver Ocelot. For bonus points, his Memory Gambit of sending himself as a pseudo-ally while working for another mastermind (i.e. his Big Bad persona) actually harkens to Ocelot's role as Big Boss's mole to Venom Snake in Metal Gear Solid V.
    • Finally, his general aesthetic, and his Evil Plan involving self-imposed amnesia, all the while trying to cause Apocalypse How, seems to take a lot from the Derek Jacobi portrayal of The Master, one of the most iconic Arch-Enemies from Doctor Who.
    • Not only his aesthethics. His weapon is a massive shout out not only to Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun, but also to the spaghetti western Django. As well as Beyond the Grave from Gungrave.
    • It turns out the Holodeck Malfunction in Holmes' Trial Quest was caused by Moriarty messing with the programming. This is not the first time that Moriarty and holodecks were a bad mix.
  • Archer Helena has a Specium Ray animation for her extra attack. Heck, even her second costume is like Ultraman, and her Extra attack is a Specium Ray blast! Also her NP animation heavily resembles a Synchro Summon.
  • In his Interlude, Tristan tells a story regarding a certain killer bunny...
    "After all, speaking of rabbits, everyone knows of the Vorpal Bunny. The strength of that fearsome bite! Even the next 11th seat, Bors, was felled in one bite!"
  • The profile for the swimsuit version of Jeanne has a non-sequitur in the third section, asking how to get rid of someone. This is a reference to the Japanese equivalent of the infamous Microsoft Word assistant, Clippy, which is a dolphin. How to get rid of them was a frequent search topic in Japan.
  • William Tell's military gear (and eyepatch come 3rd Ascension) renders him a near-spitting image of Solidus Snake (albeit with Venom Snake's 3-string eyepatch). The cloak also looks like something The End would wear.
  • Paris's companion sheep (actually Apollo in disguise) seems to be a curious mix of a Haro, Snoo/the Reddit mascot, and EVE. Otherwise, it looks like a near dead-ringer for a Cottonee.
  • Summer Osakabe-hime's line if you have Kiyohime (any version) in your roster is a direct reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind where she says "You can tell I'm lying even without licking my sweat?" for lying about her draft for their doujin.
    • "This is the taste of a liar, Osakabe-hime!"
  • Billy the Kid's Interlude is a fairly straightforward reference to The Magnificent Seven or its original Seven Samurai; its title is even "Seven Knights of the Wasteland" and the basic premise is that there are seven total Servants (including Billy) being summoned to protect a town. While most of the villager/farm/townsfolk-based subplot is stripped out and there's instead a subplot about evacuating the town, many of the Servants pull off Heroic Sacrifices and Taking You with Me moves, happy to fight and die for a good cause. In the end, there are even only three survivors like in the films: Billy, Hassan of the Hundred Personas, and Hektor, though they're all pretty satisfied with the result instead of melancholy.
  • Santa Nightingale's design and gimmick are inspired by Mary Poppins which includes her signature umbrella and her magic carpetbag.
    • Her NP is a variant of the Last Shooting from Mobile Suit Gundam (specifically the variant the Nu Gundam uses in its Fin Funnel attack in Super Robot Wars Z).
  • Chiron himself is a reference to Saint Seiya, specifically to Seiya himself, who owned the Sagittarius cloth, the constellation that Chiron himself becomes. Even his Noble Phantasm is a visual reference to Seiya's own Cosmic Star Arrow.
  • Minamoto-no-Tametomo's NP is basically the Satellite Cannon from After War Gundam X, or Rose C'est La Vie of the Moon's J-Kaiser (from Hades Project Zeorymer).

Lancers

  • Leonidas' design is based on the film 300, down to the gouge on the left-eye opening of his helmet. He even yells "This is SPARTA!" when using his Noble Phantasm. At the same time, his tattoos and body build also bring to mind Kratos, another fellow Spartan.
    • In the Arcade version, Leonidas will actually use the "This is SPARTA!" kick from the film as part of his moves.
    • In the Babylonia anime, he throws a spear at Gorgon as Tiamat, the same way he did in 300 and proving the same thing. That gods can bleed. And shortly before activating his Noble Phantasm, he bellows out "Molon labe!", when translated from Greek language, it means "Come and get them!", another line that was made popular from the movie too (when beckoning against the Persian army storming at Thermopylae)
  • Lancer Vlad's Noble Demon characterization, flamboyant presence and more sinister, spikier outfit is pretty much a send-up to another iteration of him: Alucard of Hellsing—particularly his Level 0 Release form (which was his original, historical armored form as Vlad Tepes).
  • Lancer Raikou's stage 2 outfit and use of a yo-yo brings Sukeban Deka to mind. Raikou even comments that she got the look from a television show she watched.
  • In her interlude, Bathory refers to her concert tour as a Rondo of Blood.
  • The design of the Valkyries resemble one of Takeuchi's old doujin projects Planet: Valkyrie. In fact, the other Valkyries who appear in their Noble Phantasm are confirmed to basically be cameo appearances of the Valkyries from that work.
    • Furthermore, this is not the first time a video game uses the concept of Odin creating three Valkyries sharing one body. (though in all fairness, the FGO version makes it so that the three sisters think alike, while the VP version made each of the Valkyries their unique personality).
    • One way to translate their Noble Phantasm's title is Final Fantasy: Advent Maidens, which villains fit thematically with the Valkyries' nature of being degraded clones of a space invader.
  • Romulus' fighting stance is the "PRAISE THE SUN" pose from Dark Souls.
    • His 5* version, Romulus=Quirinus, also retains this, with extras of his own:
      • His armor, amazing strength and speed, power to battle even the gods of the Atlantic Lostbelt, his haircut, and even his voice actor all allude to Saint Seiya, more specifically, Gemini Saga.
      • Meanwhile, his Extra attack dims the screen before he strikes his opponents several times in rapid succession before the lights come back on, a blatant reference to Akuma's Raging Demon attack.
      • His other Extra attack, when in his first and second stage ascension, is a dead ringer to the Kamehameha.
  • While it is not obvious on her very first physical appearance in the third summer event thanks to her helmet and lacking a weapon on her portrait that time, Gareth shares traits with Prince "Chung" Seiker. Dark spots on dog-ears shaped hair? Check. Being a fully armored knight? Check. Using a powered-weapon with cannonballs as ammo? Check.
    • Her choice of gigantic lance with built-in pyrotechnics with small shield and combat style involving ramming the lance into a target and exploding it calls to mind Gunlance-users.
  • Pārvatī's trial quest starts with the party attacking Hassan of the Cursed Arm and his gang of reformed thugs. One of them mentions that they're going to start work at a company called Gold Mansomething(Goldman Sachs).
  • Jaguar Warrior:
    • When she finally makes her glorious entrance in the Babylonia anime, she marks the occasion by quoting Daitarn 3.
      (points at her hood) "If you don't fear these fangs, then COME AT ME!"
    • Her cameo appearance in Caster of Midrash's Interlude has her preparing to ambush the protagonist in a desert, only to be hit by a errant sandstorm and start complaining about sand and how "it's rough and coarse and getting everywhere!"
    • In Osakabehime's interlude, Jaguar Warrior is enjoying the kotatsu and tangerines in Osakabehime's room. Then she drops this line (made even more hilarious by who her vessel is):
      "Between the tangerines and the kotatsu, I thought I was turning Japanese! I really thought so!"
  • Caenis continues the Greek Servants referencing Saint Seiya, this time by having her Noble Phantasm be similar to Phoenix Ikki's Hōyoku Tenshō (or Akashic Buster). She even gets a set of golden armor like the Gold Saints on her Third Ascension.note 
  • Quirinus is clearly inspired by Saint Seiya: God Cloth for Gold Saints, poses of Aldebaran, an EX attack akin to Lightning Plasma among others. He even shares the same voice actor of Gemini Saga.
  • Fairy Knight Lancelot wields her two Arondights like the Gundam Amazing Exia's Amazing GN Sword, and her Noble Phantasm brings to mind the Exia Repair 2's final attack in the climax of Gundam 00 Season 2. On the other hand, her ascended form looks like the Moe Anthropomorphism of the titular Ikaruga fighter, and her Noble Phantasm while ascended also has her transforming via Synchro Summon; which is also a reference to Code Geass, as the final upgrade to Suzaku's Knightmare Frame is known as the Lancelot Albion.
  • It is quite possible that Mary Anning's portrayal here as a flat-out lesbian (despite vigorous historical debate on the matter) is coming from the most recent fictional potrayal of her, Ammonite.

Riders

  • When questioned on why she's wearing a miniskirt in the middle of winter, Santa Alter responds that the cold never bothered her anyway.
  • This isn't the first time Quetzalcoatl is a woman...
  • In Agartha, Rider of the Resistance sings a twisted version of "We Are!"
  • Ozymandias' backstory with Nefertari and Moses appears to be a combination of two of the most famous adaptations of the Book of ExodusThe Ten Commandments (In which Nefertari is a notable person in Ramesses and Moses' livesnote ) and The Prince of Egypt (in which Ramesses and Moses viewed each other as brothers note ).
    • He's really fond of quoting the famous Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair phrase from the poem "Ozymandias". Unlike the poem, though, he's using it completely unironically. In his Interlude, he outright says that his poetic retelling of his backstory will "surpass even the great poet Percy Shelley".
    • Aside from his voice actor and demeanor, his first outfit has a black tank top, reminiscent of DIO's attire in the final battle against Jotaro. And in the middle of Camelot, he becomes a Demon Pillar and fans quickly joked that he became a Pillar Man. Then for her debut Halloween event, Cleopatra explains that it wasn't her that dropped a pyramid on top of Csejte Castle. It would be...
      Ozymandias: IT WAS ME!
    • Also one of his quotes is a play to one of Dio's more memetic quotes, "Dajaku, dajaku!" instead of "Hinjaku, hinjaku!" (both translate to "Weak, weak!")
  • Rider Kintoki's got several references in his belt.
    • To Kamen Rider. Outside of his Cool Bike, his Buster attack is the franchise's trademark flying side kick. His profile states that as a result of an ambiguous interpretation of the term "rider", he is equipped with an original design of Rider Belt (that he toys around with when using his skills). Incidentally, one Rider gained a prominent Kintarou-themed form (though, in that same series, Kintoki's seiyuu voiced a different main character).
      • Coincidentally, the other servant Kintoki's seiyuu voices, Karna, is a Lancer, which would likely be the class of Urataros should Urataros become a Servant explanation .
    • Another shout out to Kamen Rider happens in the final singularity when Berserker Kintoki transforms into his Rider form while screaming this.
      "Gorgeous golden rider... HENSHIN!!"
    • His outfit is also reminiscent of Ghost Rider, but swap out the fire with electricity, and the doom-and-gloom speech with Gratuitous English.
    • His general design is reminiscent of the bōsōzoku ("speed tribe") subculture, as well as the band Guitar Wolf, who brandish the aesthetic (as well as the gratuitous "ROCK 'N ROLL" catchphrase) in Wild Zero.
  • Medb's insistence to prefix her name with "Queen" comes from Romeo and Juliet, where Mercutio goes into a tirade about Queen Mab, a fairy queen generally associated with either Medb or Titania. Several of her features like riding a chariot and wielding a whip also come from this speech.
  • The way Saint Martha's Tarasque is used in her Noble Phantasm, spinning around in his shell covered in flames, is very similar to how Gamera does it.
    • Another Gamera reference is included in Martha's interlude in which Tarasque battles a swarm of wyverns. The scene is a allusion to Gamera battling the Gyaos whose appearance are very wyvern-like.
  • In the Okeanos Chapter, Francis Drake mentions that a pirate uses Wisdom, Courage, and Power.
  • Also in said chapter, Blackbeard comments that if Hektor of Troy were to join his crew, their Power Level would be over 9000.
  • Blackbeard himself is a Fountain of Memes, so expect him to make countless ImageBoard comments, themselves references.
  • If Archer Altria's NP animation is a homage to Gundam, Altria Alter Rider's is a shout out to the Huckebein's Black Hole Cannon. The creators of this game must love Super Robot Wars.
  • Ivan the Terrible's backstory is essentially one to the various Kings of Dark Souls, particularly of Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight. In a desperate attempt to preserve his people and age, he turns to powerful sorcery and methods that prolongs their existence, but warps them into something other than human and puts his world on life-support, while he himself can only look on and lose sight of his own humanity even as he fights the heroes to preserve his world just a little longer.
  • Ryoma Sakamoto is a thorough JoJo homage. He's a Badass in a Nice Suit whose dapperness wouldn't look out of place amongst the Zeppelis, and his dragon mount normally takes the form of a Guardian Entity that fights by punching things (with a Star Platinum-type attack rush for her Buster attack, to boot).
    • Sometimes during their Noble Phantasm, Oryuu photobombs their Super Move Portrait Attack with a pair of peace signs while saying "Yeah, peace peace!" in Gratuitous English. This is a reference to Ononoki from the Monogatari series and her tendency to do the same.
    • Additionally, his Noble Phantasm is "Amakakeru Ryū ga Gotoku" (Like a Soaring Dragon), which is very similar to the Japanese title of the Yakuza games, "Ryū ga Gotoku" (Like a Dragon) . Cementing this was the Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin! (Restoration!) game where the cast portrayed different members of The Shinsengumi and the main character was Ryoma himself (in an Alternate History where Ryoma joined the Shinsengumi).
  • Rider Carmilla’s First Ascension and newfound calling as a Phantom Thief bring to mind Carmen Sandiego.
  • Riyo's April Fools depiction of Sima Yi (Reines) replaces Trimmau with a Liquid Metal Slime from Dragon Quest.
  • Europa's Noble Phantasm has her summoning Talos, a Humongous Mecha which looks like an odd combination between The Big O (Similar looking arms and punch), Giant Robo (Similar looking face), and Achilles (Overall general gladiator design).
  • Achilles is visually a reference to Saint Seiya but is also based on D-Frag! protagonist Kazama Kenji.
    • His Valentine's CE, the horse Xanthus, has a design similar to My Little Pony.
  • Odysseus' Noble Phantasm animation, which involves the Trojan Horse being launched out of a hangar before transforming on the battlefield, is a blatant send-up to mecha anime like Gundam. And the Troia Ippos itself is basically a white-colored Getter Beam.
    • His armor design is blatantly based on Kamen Rider and he even has the Rider Kick in one of his attack animations, along with elements of Iron Man in the mix.
  • Nemo's Noble Phantasm being a single-target attack with bonus damage on giant enemies may be a reference to the Disney film, where the crew of the Nautilus fought a single, massive giant squid. In the original novel they instead fought a group of them that, while still giant squids, were not quite as large as the film's famous fight scene.
  • One of Andromeda's attack quotes is "ANDROMEDA CHAIN!!" in English. It serves as a reference to the Saint after her constellation, whose signature attack is an English-phrased "NEBULA CHAIN!!"

Casters

  • Edison's NP features him standing on top of a large statue of the words "EDISON 19th Century Fox".
  • Shakespeare's Bond CE profile is about him admiring a typewriter and one of the features he praises is being able to write three times faster with it than by hand.
  • Babbage's mech suit brings Cherno Alpha's design to mind. It was also noted to have aesthetics similar to The Five Star Stories, though with different proportions.
    • Babbage's design and appearance seems to be a direct reference to the Steam King Charles Babbage from Sakurai Hikaru's Steampunk VN series.
  • Da Vinci's Extra Attack animation is The Big O's main finisher.
  • Swimsuit Nero is a gigantic ball of mostly mecha references:
    • Her entire NP is one long, loving shout out to Noriko and the Gunbuster. You'll half expect the Gunbuster March to start playing as she rises out of the stage, instead of her new Leitmotif.
    • Her normal attacks contain a fair few super robot shout-outs as well; she's got funnels, for starters, and one of her attacks is a lesser version of the same Gunbuster Homing Lasers used in her NP, and the might double as a Macross Missile Massacre reference, too.
    • The cannons floating behind her from her second ascension onward seem to be a clear reference to the battleships of KanColle.
    • Her Extra attack may well also be a reference to Benimaru's Phantom Hurricane move. The animation being somewhat different in details makes it difficult to say it absolutely, but the resemblance is definitely there.
  • Tamamo's updated Extra Attack animation in her Third Ascension look like she's weaponizing the Moe-Moe Kyun!.
    • And using two Arts cards in a row in her first and second animation has her going "ATATATATA!" while kicking her opponent, just like Kenshiro.
  • Sieg's NP has him turn into the grey dragon Fafnir and breathe blue flames. This looks a lot like Bahamut unleashing Mega Flare.
  • Certain elements of Oniland Shuten-Douji's outfit resembles parts of DIO's Stardust Crusaders-era outfit.
  • One of Chen Gong's Noble Phantasm card select quote is "Enemy officer defeated!" ("Tekishou, uchitottari!") which is the default Japanese quote of defeating an enemy officer in Dynasty Warriors.
    • His main weapon is a bamboo scroll which is the same weapon that his Dynasty Warriors counterpart had.
  • Geronimo's Interlude concerns the party's quest to squash a rogue mage and his ghostly minions to stop them from sacrificing children. Geronimo starts the fight against the ghosts by suggesting that they participate in a bit of "ghost-busting."
  • Avicebron is visually based on the ultimate Personas of Tatsuya Suou and his brother Katsuya, Apollo and Hyperion, from Persona 2.
  • It's not on his usual appearance, but ~Chaldea Thriller Night~ has an Age Lift version of Hans Christian Andersen wearing a striped shirt with a small green heart with a face on it. This is likely a reference to a picture book that he had made for a little girl; the green heart with a face represented her stern but loving nanny.
  • During the Queen of Sheba's second interlude, it turns out that Circe placed an order for a model kit. As in, very specifically, a High Grade model of the Penelope. Circe cuts her before Sheba can say the full name, and when she complains that it's not a robot but a MS the game insists that MS stands for "Model Silhouette" and not "Mobile Suit", but still, that's brazen.
  • It's a Freeze-Frame Bonus, but yes, Aesc the Savior does wield the Moonlight Greatsword.

Assassins

  • Cursed-Arm Hassan's Interlude is located at Septem, in Florentia. A few centuries later, it would be named Florence. note 
  • Assassin Emiya's Noble Phantasm subtitle is "Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May" from the poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick.
    • Kiritsugu's Counter Guardian outfit, considering the general aesthetic, wouldn't look out of place in an Assassin's Creed installment—which becomes way more appropriate considering his class.
  • King Hassan's armor design (apart from being the Skull Knight's Expy) is also reminiscent of the Makai Knights of GARO, in that they look like they should fall under Horrifying Hero.
    • And he has a shield for his third ascension, making him heavily resemble Artorias the Abysswalker.
    • King Hassan's Stage 3 shield features a skull emblem seemingly-wearing an eyepatch at the right eye socket—invoking the image of Big Boss and his Outer Heaven militia. It thematically plays, considering a) the Hashashin he led served as a military threat to the world powers of his time, as well as b) factoring in King Hassan's Inadequate Inheritor view of his "inferior" clones/successors—the very same relationship Big Boss had with Solid Snake in the original 8-bit MSX games.
  • The Phantom's claws from his Stage 2 artwork look oddly similar to Freddy Krueger's, specifically the ones from Wes Craven's New Nightmare. The Phantom was portrayed by Robert Englund, of Freddy fame, in The Phantom of the Opera (1989), providing a possible inspiration for the claws.
  • Assassin of Shinjuku/Yan Qing's Noble Phantasm seems near-identical to how Danny Rand uses the powers of the Iron Fist. The last part, on the other hand, is him using the SHINING FINGER!!!!!!
  • Osakabe-hime's room has various references from streaming Niconico on her multi-screen computer to the multiple figurines and posters of Servants to her Wacom drawing tablet which she brings with her everywhere even into combat.
  • Assassin Paraiso/Mochizuki Chiyome has her Kuchiyose technique invoked the same way as the ninjas in Naruto; biting her thumb until she draws blood and slamming her bleeding hand to the ground, where the summoned animal will appear from the ensuing Instant Runes.
  • Okada Izo's design (particularly his Stage 2 ascension) is clearly derived from the Hitokiri Battousai and Kurogasa/Udo Jin-e of Rurouni Kenshin — which may also count as Recursive Adaptation, considering their fictional deeds were inspired by his (and his fellow hitokiris') own actions. The violent attack patterns and more supernatural/demonic styling, however, seems more inspired by Takashi Miike's own take on him, the 2004 film IZO.
    • It is also probably not a coincidence that much of Izo's Stage 1 design looks very very similar to Takeru Satoh's portrayal of him in the historical series Ryōmaden (龍馬伝) — which would in turn be stylistically-followed by the Rurouni Kenshin live-action films.
  • Gray's Mystic Code Add is a Morph Weapon which takes non-intuitive forms—much like the Madougu Kougan Anki from Flame of Recca.
  • Henry Jekyll's Dangerous Game Noble Phantasm is a reference to one of the Jekyll & Hyde theatre adaptation's songs.
  • Assassin Nitocris Noble Phantasm is visually a reference to one of Nasu's favorite anime of all time, Saint Seiya. Specifically it's the room Poseidon uses to try to imprison Athena.
  • The book that Consort Yu is always "reading" as Akuta Hinako is titled "The Silent Woof." It's a derivation of The Silent Miaow: A Manual for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats.
  • Koyanskaya has a lot of references to the Metal Gear Solid franchise:
    • Her Extra Attack looks a lot like her riding EVA's motorcycle;
    • Her NP is a "METAL GEAR?!";
    • She's wearing a Sneaking Suit in her first ascension; and
    • As mentioned elsewhere here, her role in the Part 2 Prologue is basically that of Skull Face in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.
  • NPC Tanaka Shinbei's appearance in "GUDAGUDA Close Call 2021" is incredibly muscly and defined even compared to other Servants. It can remind viewers in the know of a specific portrayal of him—that being the 1969 film Hitokiri, where he is portrayed by writer, Real Life body-builder and notorious Seppuku case Yukio Mishima.

Berserkers

  • Beowulf's Noble Phantasm has him mash an enemy with Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs while yelling "ORA ORA ORA", just like Star Platinum. In his final ascension art, it seems like he has a Stand, too (it's actually Grendel's mangled corpse). His design is inspired by Brad Pitt's role as Tyler Durden from Fight Club.
    From Yuuichiro Higashide's tweet on Beowulf's release: "1st RULE: You do not talk about the HOLY GRAIL WAR. 2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about the HOLY GRAIL WAR."
  • Chacha's katana's jagged blade eerily looks like a more stylized Mugenjin, the flaming, shark-teethed sword of Shishio Makoto in Rurouni Kenshin.
    • Her third Buster attack has her firing a blast of fire while mimicking Ultraman's Specium Ray stance. This is actually a double gag, considering her historical father, Azai Nagamasa, was portrayed previously in Sengoku Basara with an Ultraman color motif.
  • In the same fashion as Leonidas in this game, Darius seems to have taken cues from the portrayal of his ancestor Xerxes I in the film 300.
  • Raikou's entire design is basically a perfected version from one of the main heroines of Raita Honjou's own hentai manga series, Zettai Junpaku Mahou Shoujo, namely Suzuhara Misae. The readers of this manga can even argue that this version of Raikou's base personality is basically Misae's, down to the motherly aspect.
    • In addition to that, Shuten-douji's base design also came from the same series but with a different character, Puniyanika, except that Puni is brown-skinned while Shuten is light-skinned (the former due to being half-Indian).
  • Ibaraki-douji's NP is basically the Sekiha Tenkyo God Finger.
  • Mysterious Heroine X Alter's third ascension is very reminiscent of Sith from various parts of Star Wars, particularly Darth Vader, with the red-rimmed yellow eyes and black armor and even a red lightsaber version of Excalibur. Her fighting style itself can be described as Darth Maul's if he also used Force Lightning.
    • She has a My Room conversation if you have any other Alter Servants wherein she directly references Yoda's line about the dark side dominating one's destiny once the path has started.
      "And once you start down the Alter path, forever will it dominate your destiny."
    • She also has an Infinity Chocolate which was made using six primordial energies - desire (soul), sugar content (power), point of sale (space), cost price (reality), manufacturing (time) and demand (mind) and it supposedly bestows infinite power to its owner. She doesn’t really get any of this stuff.
    • Her Bond 10 Craft Essence is basically R2-D2 fused with The Black Knight.
    • During one conversation in her Trial Quest, she asks a certain pair of questions.
    • Her Foreigner incarnation makes her look startlingly similar to Moca Aoba, complete with guitar and laid-back voice.
  • Berserker of El Dorado's Noble Phantasm is very similar to Iori Yagami's trademark desperation move.
  • Swimsuit Nobunaga launches a Kamehame Hadoken during her Extra Attack — which plays into both the original Dragon Ball and Sakata Gintoki's obsession with it in Gintama (where Nobu's VA is also there as Kagura).
  • Hijikata Toshizou's NP's visual of him charging in with glowing red eyes could be a reference to the Thrudgelmir, the Gundam Barbatos, or both. Or perhaps the other Nasuverse crossover in form of a fangame Battle Moon Wars where fellow (OG) Berserker, Heracles, did the same.
  • Asterio's White Day present is a map of the Labyrinth. Including stairs, treasure chests, and warp zones. But if you encounter a deer or mantis, you're in for a fight, because "even in FGO, FOE! FOE!"
  • Kiyohime's Interlude references the Persona series with an encounter with Kiyohime's shadow self, who behaves much like a Shadow from Persona 4.
  • Many of Berserker Jeanne Alter's attacks seem to include references to YuYu Hakusho, with her Finger Gun invoking a resemblance to Yusuke's "Spirit Gun" and her Noble Phantasm basically being Hiei's "Dragon of the Darkness Flame" technique.
  • After his animation update, Lu Bu's attacks involve switching out his Sky Piercer halberd with various weapons wielded by his fellow Dynasty Warriors characters such as Xiahou Dun's large scimitar, Sun Ce's dual-tonfa and Meng Huo's large gauntlet.
  • Nightingale's animation update gave her an Ullapool Caber and a Flash Kick.
  • Tamamo Cat's paws are based on gloves that Tamamo got from Santa Nero from the TYPE-MOON Ace Omake Theatre ― Tell Me!! Ms Blossom Christmas animation. One of her Extra Attack quotes (which was lost in translation, unfortunately) is a direct reference to the Japanese dub of Commando: the part where Arnie says "I Lied".
  • Rikyu's hatred of matcha latte is a (pretty much Japan-only) meme based on the comedy manga Tokyo Osamurai Land. Her My Room line for Iyo almost directly quotes the original comic strip the joke came from.

Other Classes

  • Amakusa Shiro's Bond CE actually includes the real-life flag of the Shimabara Rebellion.
  • Ruler Martha's NP is essentially Dio Brando's infamous combo, with Tarrasque as the ROAD ROLLA DA. Observe.
  • The Count of Monte Cristo's other moniker, the King of the Cavern, is the first Japanese translation for the original novel's title. It was used as a description of the "demon" that pushed Dantès over his limit into surviving his terrible fate because it "lurks in the hollow darkness of (his) heart". The title isn't used very often now, and most people's knowledge of this epithet is from Gankutsuou, which Nasu took many cues from.
    • Dantes' Noble Phantasm subtitle, Tyger! Tyger! Burning Bright!, is not a direct quote from the novel, but instead the first line of William Blake's poem "The Tyger". Which is in turn is a reference to The Stars My Destination, called Tiger! Tiger! in the UK, which essentially is a sci-fi adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. He references this more directly in Solomon, when he boasts "like a tiger burning bright, I came racing through time and space!"
    • Edmond Dantes' design is incredibly similar to Nagito Komaeda from Danganronpa, which isn't too surprising since his character art is by Rui Komatsuzaki, the main artist for that franchise. Nasu mentions this on his blog when discussing the character.
  • Grand Order's iteration of Sherlock Holmes is noticeably younger than the original, and very much a Bishōnen, such that he's almost a dead-ringer for Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of him in Sherlock (minus the wavy hair), particularly in "The Abominable Bride." Much of his outfit (apart from the lens-wielding corset) is virtually lifted off that particular episode.note 
    • His final Ascension art seems to have been inspired by Jeremy Brett's earlier, more iconic interpretation of Holmes. Compare.
    • In his Interlude, Holmes narrates about The Adventure of the Speckled Band which is actually magic-based than what Watson wrotenote . In the narration, Goredolf plays as Watson who is initially confused about it but he accepts it because he thinks it likes taking the role of Edward Hardwicke, the actor who played Watson in the Granada version.
  • While Mecha Eli-Chan's overall design is heavily drawing from Mecha-Godzilla, the fact that there are multiple copies of the grey, more-mechanized Unit II version of her also brings to mind Ultron.
    • Her unused NP (the "Magus 100-Shot Volley") brings to mind the "Hundred Rocket Punch" from Shin Mazinger. Her actual NP ("Breast Zero Erzsebet") meanwhile is the Absolute Zero Cannon from Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (or the Final Breast Nova of Mazinger ZERO).
    • Her attacks seem to be a shoutout to various Go Nagai mecha. She has a rocket punch much like Mazinger/Gaiking/Jeeg, eyebeams like all 3, twin drills which could be Gaiking's Miracle Drill or Jeegs Mach Drill, a fire breath weapon much like Gaiking, missiles around the waist/skirt like Mazinger/Great Mazinger/Mazinkaiserand she throws her wings like boomerangs much like Grear Mazinger's Great Boomerang, Maazinkaiser's Scrander Boomerang or Gurren Lagann's Double Boomerang Spiral.
  • That the in-game Servant "Katsushika Hokusai" technically serves as The Dividual (of old man Hokusai himself and his daughter Oi — the latter serving as the main Servant body) actually plays into contemporary interpretation of their dynamic by biographers (i.e. they're equally eccentric and near-identical in personality), such as the manga and animated film Miss Hokusai.
  • According to PFALZ himself, if Mozart took a few cues from Amadeus, Salieri was instead mostly inspired by characterization and costumes from Mozart L'Opera Rock.
    • According to his materials, he can play a Brown Note that will cause humans with no magic defense to commit suicide. Given that historically he taught Beethoven, this may be a Read or Die reference.
  • In her 3rd Anniversary CE, Abigail Williams has an X-Shaped bandage on her forehead where her third eye would appear when her Other personality emerges. A similar bandaid was used by the lead of the titular The Three-Eyed One on his forehead to prevent his evil personality with a third eye from emerging.
  • Abigail's summer form has quite the load of references. Most notable is her Voice Lines—while almost all of them are just traditional hymnals, she also sings the "Makin' Bacon Pancakes" song from Adventure Time (with "bacon" swapped out for "kuroneko"—aka, black cat).
  • Mysterious Heroine X's swimsuit version's NP and overall look in her first ascension are very explicit homages to Ado Edem, the strongest of the Ether Liner knights in Nasu's first work, Angel Notes. In particular, her first ascension's armor mirrors his clothing, and her sword looks similar to Edem's Knight Arm Slash Emperor. Yes, it's also just as tall.
  • BB's final Bond line is a subverted Declaration of Protection that explicitly includes a In the Name of the Moon shout out to Sailor Moon.
    "In the name of the Moon Cancer, I shall make you into the very best Master of Chaldea!"
  • Summer BB's animations in her first two sprites are mostly lifted from Fatal Fury/The King of Fighters. Meanwhile, her third sprite's attacks are based on Shin Getter Robo.
    • The Three Eyes that appear on Summer BB's NP are not just a Nyarlathotep reference, it seems to be specifically from Demonbane. Observe. This also ties to Nyarlathotep's Authority of rewinding time, as the entire plot of Demonbane is ultimately about Nyarly creating time loops until they can reach the desired outcome.
    • Her plan to do this involves perpetually suspending her Master and their friends in an idyllic setting where they can be happy and avoid the pain that awaits them as the Human Order's guardian, which parallels Madoka: Rebellion and how Homura does just that to Madoka and her friends at the very end.
  • Mysterious Heroine XX is another truckload of these.
    • Noble Phantasm animation has her charge up an enormous twin-bladed energy weapon that is made to look extremely similar to the iconic illustration of Ado Edem's Slash Emperor from Angel Notes, one of Nasu's earliest pieces of fiction.
    • In general, she is a parody of Space Sheriff Gavan:
      • Like the Space Sheriffs, she works for the Space Police and uses Powered Armor to fight evil.
      • Her first skill is originally named "Jochaku", a reference to Gavan's catchphrase when suiting up.
      • The Kanji for "Detective" (刑事, "keiji") in her second skill, "Detective's Instinct", is the same used in "Sheriff", which is literally translated as "Police Detective".
      • Her Noble Phantasm has two (fake) names: "Twinmyniad Disaster", and "Double X Dynamic". The latter takes its name from Gavan's finishing move, "Gavan Dynamic".
      • Her power armour suit Aavalon is capable of materialising in -1 seconds, going back in time so that she's wearing it even before she gets hurt. It's a parody of the description of Gavan's transformation, which is specifically said to take 0.05 seconds.
    • Like a Gundam, her helmet packs either twin vulcans that fire blue plasma bolts, or automatic plasma guns that sound like vulcans. Her third ascension reveals that it is actually her ahoge firing these bolts. Altrium truly is a wonderful material.
  • Qin Shi Huang Di is practically Lelouch vi Britannia, due to having the same voice actor, similar character design, both of them ruled the world, and succeed in creating world peace; unlike Lelouch, however, Qin didn't have to sacrifice himself to do the latter.
  • Kingprotea's second ascension, her "Kaiju" form, has a patch of skin on her hip not covered by moss that is in the shape of a heart. Godzilla has a second heart in roughly the same area.
  • Ruler Altria:
    • Her Phantasm from 2nd ascension onward is very reminiscent of Tsunami's Lighthawk Wings.
    • Her profile has a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference as the narrator freaks out at the bunny ears and believes it to be a certain Killer Rabbit's ancient curse on the King.
  • When Space Ishtar's in her third ascension and beyond, she sometimes starts battles by saying "gogogogogogo..." which is the "menacing" sound effect popularized by Jojos Bizarre Adventure.
  • The idea that Voyager I became sentient beyond the edge of Human Space was a plot point in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Voyager himself has a design that invokes The Little Prince.
    • Get Voyager to Ascension 3 and one of his Quick attack lines is him humming to "I was strolling on the moon one day", a little ditty to the tune of Strolling Through The Park'' by Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt while walking on the moon during the final Apollo lunar landing mission. He also says "Beam me up!" when his one of his Arts cards is used.
  • One of Himiko's Arts attack is throwing her body forward and drilling with her hands while surrounded with light. Not too different with a certain Psycho Crusher.
  • This is not the first time Taira no Kagekiyo has been a "spirit of vengeance" against the Genji.
  • Mysterious Ranmaru X wields a giant sword bigger than their size, much alike to their Samurai Warriors counterpart.
    • Her being able to fire off multiple tantou blades and using the Ranmaru Blade to Sky Surf is reminiscent to the Daicon IV opening animation made by Studio Gainax.
  • Ruler James Moriarty's Final Ascension art is a reference to his BBC counterpart who steals the Crown Jewels. It's also a reference to The Great Mouse Detective where Ratigan, the movie's version of Moriarty, plots to take over the British monarchy.
  • Oberon's Bond CE shares its name with Maurice Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess/Pavane pour une infante défunte. Sadly appropriately, this CE features a dead Blanca.
    • His "Refreshing Summer Prince" art heavily references Midsommar, complete with a maypole and flower crown.
  • Summer Mélusine's (Ruler) has her taking off the Nautilus as a Jet Plane with a Nemo Marine wearing sunglasses and waving her clearance.
    • Additionally one of her missiles in her Noble Phantasm has a distinct octopus clinging on. This combined with pictures her artist CHOCO has made on their twitter account makes it apparent this is a Parodius reference.
    • The plane behind her first ascension is the SR-41 Aurora

    Story Elements 
  • A tiny white rabbit-like creature that appears adorable but is described by a magician as a “beast”. Are we talking about resident Team Pet Fou, or the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog? Given that the series mascot is King Arthur (her)self, it's a given that this is the first of many many Holy Grail references. Also a rather clever bit of foreshadowing, as the Killer Rabbit was himself based on... the legendary Cath Palug.
  • The game's teaser 4-koma manga foreshadowed Scathach's identity by having her floating in the comics imitating the Shin Megami Tensei version.
  • The Chaldea Combat Uniform, particularly the female version, can easily be compared to the plugsuits from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • One particular NPC who appears in America greatly resembles Morgan Freeman.
  • Chapter 7 of America, where Billy the Kid is first encountered, not only takes place in Lubbock but is outright called Young Guns.
  • The name of chapter 22 in America ("Shielder, Master, Soldier, Nurse") is a reference to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
  • Parts of Camelot were written as a reference to a song by Maaya Sakamoto, "Replica", that Nasu had liked. The final chapter of the Order's even named after the song.
  • The "All-Purpose Vehicular Ornithopter Sphinx" da Vinci builds in Camelot greatly resembles Chitty in design.
  • The basics of the Lion King's plan for humanity's survival (i.e. saving them by storing their souls as a "testament" to humanity's existence) is eerily similar to Yui Ikari's monologue (and for that matter, eventual fate) about how the Assimilation Plot and the Evangelions will ensure humanity's immortality after Instrumentality from The End of Evangelion.
  • In Babylonia Section 4 Part 5 (a story-only portion), Dr. Roman says that the protagonists living in what is basically a dorm with other Servants can basically be called Keeping Up with the Chaldeans.
  • In two of Ereshkigal's nighttime conversations during Babylonia with the protagonist, she initially disguises herself as Ishtar, but her appearance changes to her own when she sneezes, much like the way Launch changes in appearance and personality every time she sneezes.
  • At the start of Babylonia Section 14 Part 5, Dr. Roman complains that the constant gate-quizzing on who the better goddess is between Ishtar and Ereshkigal has become Whose Goddess Is It Anyway. Gilgamesh then retells a story of Ishtar's driving mastery, saying that onlookers would call her legacy as the Drunk and the Divine: Underworld Drift.
  • It was mentioned in an interview that the battle against Beast II is a direct homage to Kaiju film, in particular, Shin Godzilla, which Nasu had been watching prior to writing the script.
  • For that matter, the second half of Babylonia shares some elements with the The End of Evangelion with Tiamat's being similar in concept to Lilith, even her concept of Regression ties with SEELE's goal with Instrumentality.
    Kiel: The Beginning and the End are both in the same place, just as things should be.
  • The final battle against Tiamat in Babylonia is called Childhood's End.
  • The entirety of Dr. Roman's character arc was written with another Maaya Sakamoto song in mind, "Scrap".
  • The icon for Shinjuku is an inverted version of its actual icon from the Shinjuku flag.
  • The shadow detectives summoned by Shakespeare and Hans at the climax of Shinjuku are based off actual characters, although their names are not mentioned in the story:
  • In Agartha, four factions from different corners of the "world map" seek to destroy/conquer the other factions in order to prove that their philosophy is superior. Hmmm...
  • While the series itself was inspired by Makai Tensho from the very beginning, the third Epic of Remnant chapter is basically a Whole-Plot Reference to it, mainly due to how four of the most consistent characters (Musashi, Amakusa, Yagyu Munenori and Inshun Hozoin) appear in the chapter and how the main bad guy is trying to control everyone.
  • Heretical Salem has elements of the Cthulhu Mythos all over the place, the chapter being Salem Is Witch Country and Lovecraft Country at the same time.
    • Lavinia Whateley is from "The Dunwich Horror" and the spell she uses to force Raum to reveal his true form, the Powder of Ibn-Ghazi, is what was used to remove the Dunwich Horror's invisibility. Abigail Williams is a Foreigner Servant with Yog-Sototh who was also the Man Behind the Man in "The Dunwich Horror".
    • Randolph Carter is the Author Avatar of several of Lovecraft's stories, in particular The Silver Key. To make it especially obvious, his appearance in FGO is a dead ringer for Lovecraft himself. His possession by Raum is similar to his Fusion Dance with the alien mage Zkauba in Through the Gates of the Silver Key. The name that the true Gentleman starts to give at the end of the event, Chandraputra, is his pseudonym. When Randolph Carter…er…”the Gentleman” returns to his body, he states he went on a deep sleep for a mission with the most relevant words being “ocean” and “cephalopod” obviously referring to Cthulhu himself. (Confirmed in Hokusai's trial quest)
    • Ghouls are a common enemy in Salem, and Carter references a novel by Comte d'Erlette describing them. Which itself is a Fictional Document called the "Cultes des Goules" in the Mythos. Later in the chapter the party fights an "Elder Ghoul", which is actually a Lovecraft monster called a Gug (from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath) And even later, Shantaks are an enemy, another Lovecraft monster from Dream-Quest.
    • Lavinia's Tome of Eldritch Lore "The Book of Eibon" in another common Fictional Document that shows up in multiple stories.
    • Absalom Whateley had a helper named Mason who vanished from Salem. She is confirmed in the manga to be Keziah Mason, who in The Dreams in the Witch-House was a Salem villager who left the dimension to serve Nyarlathotep. He also sends Lavinia to Captain Marsh, the owner of the wharf. Captain Obed Marsh from The Shadow of Innsmouth. He isn't fought, but Nezha comments he smells like a monster. Which is true as he's a fishman.
      • We see both of them in much more detail in the manga as it slightly deviates from the game plot.
    • Lavinia references her father, Noah Whateley. This was her grandfather's name in the Call of Cthulhu boardgame (other references name him as Absalom, as does FGO).
  • Near the end of Salem when the protagonist (maybe) runs into Mephisto at night, he says "I think, therefore I'm Mephy".
  • In Salem's extra story (the play based on Journey to the West that occurs offscreen in the main story), Zhu Bajie (again portrayed by David) makes the comment that Bailong (again portrayed by Lu Bu in a flashback) gave them a thumbs-up as he sank into the river that they nearly drowned in.
  • On the line of Maaya Sakamoto references, Da Vinci gets Aerith'd with extreme prejudice.
  • The entire Prologue of Part 2 (which involves an enemy unit of special operatives attacking your base, killing your allies and reducing your crew to a handful of people — which now forces you to rebuild your forces (in-story at least) is pretty much the plot of Metal Gear Solid V. For her part, Koyanskaya plays the part of Skull Face. Mash, your main fielded Servant, even gets cybernetic upgrades a la Big Boss/Venom Snake.
    • One can also make comparisons to Neon Genesis Evangelion, with the base getting overrun by men with guns, main characters dying, and the world melting.
    • If the first Lostbelt Chapter is anything to go by, you're even being made to go through the harsh choices that Venom Snake went through, such as condemning some of your allies to death/erasure from existence.
  • In the Anastasia Lostbelt, it turns out Musashi took quite a while to catch up to the main characters because she ran into, of all things, a Russian branch of the Yagyuu clan.
  • While discussing strategies on how to defeat Anastasia during the first Lostbelt, Billy the Kid points out that "If it bleeds, you can kill it!"
  • What Sigurd remembers most about Fafnir is that he had blue eyes and white scales. Incidentally, his voice actor, Kenjiro Tsuda, also played Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh!, who is infamously obsessed with the Blue Eyes White Dragon.
  • The in-game version of the giant Surtr takes a clear page from how he'd recently been portrayed in Thor: Ragnarok.
  • The third Lostbelt has Spartacus flying to stop a comet at the cost of his own life, a clear parallel to The Iron Giant.
    • When Qin Shi Huang starts talking about how he has built the Great Wall around the planet, Goredolf says that him starting space development in 18th century is as preposterous as Gandhi dropping an atomic bomb. If only you knew, Gordy...
  • Peperocino Scandavinia's character design is based on Ken Morioka, the late member of the Japanese electronic group Soft Ballet. The titles of his master skills (Hologram Rose, Twist of Love and Exist) are taken from the song titles of the group.
  • The climax of the fourth Lostbelt has a supercharged Karna going up against the seemingly invincible Destroyer Deity that is Arjuna Alter in a manner that is very reminiscent of the fight between Super Saiyan God Goku vs Beerus. To emphasis it, Karna now has red hair and gained this power thanks to the sacrifice of Ashwatthama and Rama willingly bequeathing Brahmanstra to him to give him the powers of Shiva and Vishnu respectively (much like how Goku needed the aid of the other Saiyans to achieve the similarly-red-haired Super Saiyan God) and Arjuna Alter has a tail and horns that almost look like ears similar to Beerus. Before that point, Karna and Aśvatthāman train against each other in a Blank White Void where time moves way slower than it does outside of it, similar to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
  • In the Atlantic Lostbelt, Bartholomew Roberts describes the Theos Klironomia as "nanomachines". One of the protagonist's responses is a "Nanomachines, huh?"
  • After defeating the Olympus Lostbelt King, Zeus, the Protogenoi Chaos appears as an gigantic eye that looks suspiciously similar to Sauron from Lord of the Rings.
  • While inside the rebel base in Olympus, Mash gushes about watching live-action adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, particularly the Granada version. In fact, this is the same show she and Dr. Roman watched in Episode 0 of Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia.
  • Also in Olympus, Aphrodite starts talking about having seen things in outer space that humans would never know, like the location of the "Glittering Tannhäuser Mirror World Plane in the Outer Universe."
  • After hearing his grandiose plan, Goredolf indignantly calls Kirschtaria as a "not-so-sweet summer child."
  • The enemy NPC Han Xin in Lostbelt 3 is basically a Chinese version of the Major from Hellsing: a bespectacled Fat Bastard who absolutely adores war. The similarity was not lost on some folks, and very appropriate images have been made.
  • The entirety of Part 1's story, which involves adventurers working to prevent an Ancient Evil from wreaking havoc on humanity across different time periods and with all the heroes from different eras in history banding together at the end of time to defeat said evil once and for all, is one huge shout-out to Live A Live, right down to the characters having different visual designers for each individual.
  • When the protagonist briefly loses their memories at the beginning of the sixth Lostbelt due to getting lost in the Nameless Forest, they'll get a new name: either Lysander or Hermia, depending on gender. Fittingly enough, they only recover after meeting Oberon himself.
  • Also in the Lostbelt, Oberon gets very excited about a "lost play" of Shakespeares. This one doubles in foreshadowing because the most famous of Shakepeare's "lost plays" is Vortigern and Rowena
  • The same Lostbelt features a brief appearance by the Seven Dwarves, complete with heigh-ho heigh-hos and everything.
  • The original Avalon le Fae was called Tonelico (at least in the Japanese version of the game).
  • Also, in Lostbelt 6, an amnesiac Mash is given a bridal gown to wear by a Bogart fairy who wishes to marry her. It is very similar to the one worn by Chise Hatori when she was sold to be married in The Ancient Magus' Bride.
  • Morgan's entire story seems to be a reference to Homura's arc from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, from having Used to Be a Sweet Kid, her using time travel shenanigans to try to save her people mirroring Homura's attempts to save Madoka from her fate, her people persecuting her over and over again, and finally turning cold and cynical after several attempts of failing to save them.
  • A battle against a vaguely mechanical-looking dragon on the deck of a moving airship? The battle against Albion in Lostbelt 6 is pretty much a dead-ringer for the fight with Ultima Weapon in Final Fantasy VII.
  • After her unsuccessful attempt to kill Koyanskaya in Lostbelt 6, Melusine states that she should have gone for Koyanskaya's head, and not her heart, which is very similar to the "You should have gone for the head" line Thanos said following Thor's unsuccessful attempt to kill the purple alien by attacking his heart in Avengers: Infinity War.
  • Koyanskaya's appearance in the sixth Lostbelt is specifically noted to be modelled after Fräulein Rottenmeier from Heidi, Girl of the Alps in artist commentary.
  • While Lostbelt 7's setting in the Americas has been long-settled, the fact that nearly all of the major playable (Kukulkan, Tlaloc [particularly her water-based powers] and Tezcatlipoca's "Jaguar Man" armor) and non-playable (Izcalli/Moctezuma's black-and-gold Puma armor) characters share their Mesoamerican influences with the plot of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is pretty close for comfort.note 
  • Lostbelt Kukulkan sends Huitzilopochtli flying with what she calls "Mayan One Punch" in her appearance in the seventh Lostbelt.
  • The subplot where the party has to enter a soccer tournament with dinosaurs is a reference to Inazuma Eleven Go 2: Chrono Stone where the protagonists of that game did exactly that. Kotomine even specifies that the team he's coaching is Scary Eleven, seemingly named after the game series.
  • The very end of the first part of Lostbelt 7 has an apocalyptic vision / prophecy called The Day of ORT. It is very easy to compare this to The Day of Lavos from Chrono Trigger.
  • Much later in Nahui Mictlān, when U-Olga Marie shows up and saves our heroes, the cast starts quoting Superman, of all things.
    Habetrot: Look! Is that a bird?
    Da Vinci: It's a flying machine!
    Tepeu: It's the president, isn't it?
    Protagonist: No! It's-
    Mash: Director Olga Marie!
  • U-Olga Marie being the one person who can casually stop ORT dead in its tracks with her power to stop time is a very belated Brick Joke to Nasu's original notes that only Ultram@n could stop ORT, given that the U stands for Ultra.
  • Camazotz defeated ORT by ripping out its core, the same way GaoGaiGar defeats its enemies with Hell and Heaven. He was also given the title "The King of Braves"; another GaoGaiGar reference, because he shares the same voice actor as Shishioh Guy.

    Event Elements 
  • During the first Halloween event, Liz has Carmilla cleaning her castle. In the English version, Carmilla struggles, shouting, "Out Damn Spot!"
  • "Saber Wars: The Caliburn Awakens."
    • Title aside, all the bosses of its daily events were renamed to reference famous sci-fi works, capping it off with Lancer Alter nicknamed Arth Vater.
    • Blackbeard is still a pot of references as usual. When the party take off his ropes since he claims he'll help Altria Lily with her training, he will say "You have activated my trap card!" and prepare to KO Lily with a Lupin dive before getting hit with a Caliburn Groin Attack.
  • When the player imagines the reaction of the female servants if (s)he gets stuck in a tea party with Nursery Rhyme forever, (s)he imagines Mash calling them the worst.
    • This is most likely a reference to the live show where Risa Taneda said the quote when Nobunaga Shimazaki (who voices the main character in the drama CD) decided to grope Scathach's breasts on her stage 4 card through the abuse of green screen during a livestream.
  • An event quest calls Paracelcus Dr.Evil.
  • The Prison Tower event is essentially Dante's Inferno, where Dantes plays the Vergil to the protagonist's Dante.
  • Nasu mentioned on his blog that the Da Vinci event would be very similar to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. This confused several players as the initial premise had no similarity, but you do end up fighting seven boyfriends of Jeanne Alter and one of them is also a girl.
    • In the same event, when Caesar and Paracelsus speculated that the counterfeiter is a Servant..
      Da Vinci: A Servant? Who could it be? Michaelangelo? Raphael? or perhaps.. Donatello?
    • In the rerun, the Challenge Quest was called "Tokimeki Alter Club". The official English translation decided to take the opportunity to change the name to "Doki Doki Alter Club"note .
  • The Journey to the West event has some references to Dragon Ball as both are parodying the original legend; you can even ask Xuanzang if she's looking for the seven Dragon Balls.
  • Onigashima is a great big one to Momotarō.
    • There's a scene in Onigashima where Musashibo Benkei beats up Ushiwakamaru to get past a guard post. This corresponds with the Noh play Ataka and its kabuki adaptation Kanjinchō, where he had to do the same thing to Minamoto no Yoshitsune; Ushiwakamaru's adult selfnote . The iconic event of the same play (Benkei reading out a scroll) also appears in-event as a limited Craft Essence.
  • The first Summer event (a two-parter), "Chaldea Summer Memory / Heat Odyssey":
    • The first half has the cast getting shipwrecked on a deserted island and deciding to make the infrastructure of a civilization, going well and beyond what is needed for survival. This is the primary plot of The Mysterious Island.
    • The "Admirals of the Round" CE has the Knights of the Round Table in costumes that resemble Admirals from KanColle.
    • In the second map of the Summer Event, you will eventually encounter a half-submerged statue of whatever statue you build on the first map in a shoreline, almost mirroring the infamously iconic shot of a scene from Planet of the Apes (1968).
    • In Marie's Brilliant Summer interlude during the second part of the event, she tries to teach the boar piglets how to sing. After some typical vocal exercise tones like Elohim and Essaim, the piglets directly quote the full "Cthulhu Rl'yeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" line, to the (relatively subdued) surprise of the ladies. The boar piglets follow this up with a Shadowgate reference, with two completing each others' sentences and saying "It's a sad thing that your adventures... have only just begun here" (another piglet will then note that that quote isn't quite right).
    • In Altria's Brilliant Summer interlude, the piglets call themselves Teenage Mutant Boar Piglets.
    • Also in the second map of the Summer Event, one of the final building choices is quite blatantly a giant Stargate.
    • During the second part of the Summer Event, Martha challenges Beowulf; and comments on how she's supposed to be a saint. Beowulf responds that she's a Saint with Cosmo. Also, Beowulf's role in the plot and Martha's reaction are both reminiscent of Fist of the North Star, with Martha in the Kenshiro role.
    • The challenge quest for the revival is named Super My Home Daddy.
  • In the Prisma Illya crossover, Blackbeard threatens to do things to "a certain red dress king and a drunken flat chested girl" if he isn't taken to see real magical girls. This refers to Nero and Shuten-douji, whose seiyuu voiced Sakura Kinomoto and Madoka Kaname respectively.
    • You must collect Soul Gems from the Magical Girl Queens (Medea Lily, Nursery Rhyme, Helena, and Medb) in the Prisma Illya event to advance.
    • Ruby thinks Mash's magical girl name should be Captain Magical Girl.
    • The Echo of Altera calling herself Shin-Altzilla.
  • In the English version, at the second annual Nero Fest, the team of Xuanzang, Ruler Martha and Beowulf is titled "Bear Knuckles".
  • The second Halloween event has a map very much resembling that of Ghosts 'n Goblins, except in the opposite direction because you're trying to return back to Elisabeth's home from the first village. Complete with Siegfried popping up to warp you back to the start to do everything all over again after beating the "final" boss.
    • When the event is released in NA, its title gets named "Super Ghouls'n Pumpkins" to add to the Ghosts'n Goblins reference.
    • At least in the NA version, the fifth story chapter of the event is named "It's Frozen, so Let it Go".
    • The final stage icon looks like an Egyptian Eye of Horus. When superimposed over the Pyramid, it looks very familiar...
    • Moreover, on the map screen, the pyramid sticking out of Cjeste Castle looks like a large golden triangle. Think about what it would look like flipped upright.
    • The title of the event continues both the Dragon Quest and Ghosts 'n Goblins references; in Japanese, it mashes all the superlatives they used for the various Ghosts 'n Goblins games over the years together ("chou", "goku" and "dai") to make one extremely overblown name; literally, it's "Super Extreme Big Pumpkin Village", and localized, it'd be something like "Super Ultimate Gourds 'n Gals" or similar. The subtitle, meanwhile, is a reference to that of Dragon Quest III, being "Soshite, bouken e..." ("And into the adventure...") to contrast the "Soshite, densetsu e..." ("into legend") of DQIII.
  • The second Christmas event, "Little Santa Alter":
  • Valentine's Day chocolate events (redeemable each Valentine's Day event):
    • Giving a chocolate to Kid Gil for Valentine's Day will give the protagonist a ticket to Gil's water park, Waku Waku Zabuun. The protagonist will then have an Imagine Spot, first off hanging out with all women (in their past Summer outfits), then with all men, including Blackbeard who offers this quote:
      Blackbeard: I don't want to see a group of muscle-brained, wrinkly old Expendables cast-offs! Not. At. All!
    • Abigail's Valentine chocolate has a character sheet cribbed from Call of Cthulhu.
    • Sheba makes you answer a riddle for her chocolates: you're walking through the desert, and you encounter a Tarrasque. You flip the Tarrasque over on its back. The Tarrasque lies on its back, waving its limbs and tail violently, but it can't flip itself upright. But you're not helping. Why are you not helping?
  • The chibi Nobus from the GUDAGUDA Meiji Resurrection event now have a Mazinger Z and Guntank form!
  • In the post-main plot part of SE.RA.PH, Emiya is jealous of Emiya Alter's cool gun. The English version specifically has him saying "Dammit... I... I want thaaat..."
  • At the start of the "All the Statesmen" event, Erik, Altria (Alter), and Gawain start singing the Spam Song when poor EMIYA is unable to keep up with everyone's demands for food.
    • Upon waking up in the "All The Statemen" event, Edison starts singing "Nants ingonyama bagithi baba!"
    • Before da Vinci commences the Rayshift, she explicitly says "Don't Think, Feel!" This is a complete Non Sequitur to Mash's immediate concern that "something's really wrong with Senpai!" and has little to do with the trope, more to do with a Shout-Out to Enter the Dragon.
    • Bunyan's introduction features a reference to the Monty Python lumberjack skit.
      Bunyan: "...I'm a lumberjack! And I'm okay!"
    • In the English version, when Bunyan is introduced, the main character exclaims: "An attacking... titan".
  • The second Summer event, "Dead Heat Summer Race / Death Jail Summer Escape":
    • The entire premise of the first half of the event—a cartoonish team race filled with goofy obstacles and extravagantly-designed vehicles—is one big Wacky Races reference.
    • The recruitment cutscene for Fran's team has her exploit Moriarty's fatherly instincts to ensure he won't be backstabbing her. When Babbage asks how she figured this out, she has him read an excerpt from a manual on dealing with evil servants. In the English version, it reads like an entry from the SCP Foundation.
    • Several teams are a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh!: Helena's team specifically is a reference to 5D's with her Samat Kumara Wheel being an homage to Jack Atlus's Wheel of Fortune & their team name (Team Satisfaction H∴T∴E). Meanwhile Nero's team name is "Tyrannical Shooting Star" (or "Tyrant Shooting Star" in Japan), an amalgamation of the Team 5D's ace monsters or their ARC-V counterparts (Red Daemon's Dragon Tyrant & Shooting Star Dragon), plus the color of their Red Venus being the same as Fudou Yusei's Yusei-go. The team name "Tyrant Shooting Star" does not only fit Altria Alter and Nero perfectly, Altria in general, but even moreso the Alter version, is heavily associated with the Red Dragon, with Vortigern taking the form of the opposing White Dragon.
    • Upon witnessing Babbage turn into a car; one optional response in the English version is "Whoa..."Transform and roll out", huh?"
    • The Ishtar Cup is apparently being held on Tatooine. Specifically, the Mos Espa Podrace track.
    • In the English version, at one point Altria Alter tells her co-pilot, "Drive closer! I want to hit them with my mop!"
    • Another Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's reference. The story event has participants racing in a track to power a ritual to summon a deity and said deity is defeated by a Mesoamerican god. In 5Ds, it's the Earthbound Immortals defeated by Crimson Dragon. In this game, it's Gugalanna defeated by Quetzalcoatl.
    • In the English version during the chariot race against Boudica while dodging the erupting volcano blasts, Nobunaga shouts "Tell me, have you ever danced with a Nobbu in the pale firelight!?" She then promptly comments that the target demographic will likely not get the reference. Then, when she and Mysterious Heroine X go flying into the volcano, Altria Alter notes that Nobbu is still smirking and giving a thumbs up as she sinks into lava. On a blander note, they fell into the lava because their drop-off avoidance technology copied from "R**mbas" failed to stop their ship in time.
    • As the racers come up to Artemis Valley, Ishtar describes it as a peaceful valley surrounded by two great "tracts of land."
    • As they reach the final stretch, Helena declares it's time to go to ludicrous speed.
    • The event story is basically a Steel Ball Run parody, with Ishtar giving each team some golden bones to bring to the Underworld to revive someone. The part 2, being a prison break, is a parody of Stone Ocean (or The Story Of Ricky) instead.
    • When the racers first fight against Gorgon in the jail courtyard, her enemy name is actually "Snakes Are The New Black."
    • In the English version of the game, part 2 more resembles The Shawshank Redemption's prison break dig, especially the first leg of the "race" within the prison. The player can pick a dialogue option to directly reference the film, gets called out on it by Mash, and the plan actually gets put into action successfully (to even the protagonist's surprise).
      Protagonist: "Oh...first, they could remove the toilets and..."
      Mash: "That's very specific. Did you see that in a movie? I'm not sure what that would accomplish, but I knew you would come up with something, Master."
    • Shortly after they start digging, team Fran makes a hole and Professor M dubs the tunnel "Tom, Dick, and Harry" — an odd usage of the saying, but in the context of a tunnel a reference to The Great Escape.
    • The cartoony, Super-Deformed-character-filled map layout of stages of "Death Jail Summer Escape" are all references to retro games.
  • The third Halloween Event: "Halloween Strike! Demonic Climb - Himeji Castle War":
    • The event's main inspiration is Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla with the original Elisabeth Bathory squaring off against the mechanical versions of her. She even notes in the English version of the event that Mecha Eli-chan's personality is closer to that of Carmilla, so she should have been a mechanical version of her and even saying "Mecharmilla" would be a much more fitting name.
    • The colour scheme of the costume Nightingale wears in the limited-time Halloween CE "Trick or Treatment" is similar to the colour scheme of the suit of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. Observe.
    • The limited-time Halloween CE Golden Wings is a blatant Legend of the Galactic Heroes reference, with Ozymandias and Arash as Reinhard and Kircheis.
    • Apparently Osakabe-hime orders all of her otaku stuff from Amazon, AKA Amazones from the Servant Universe. Midway in the story, we meet the CEO, Penthesilea (complete with a unique sprite).
    • The English translation has Assassin of Nightless City referring to herself as "Nite Brite" and sings her name. This is most likely a reference of the Lite-Brite toy and commercial jingle.
    • Section 5 of the main story of the event is named "Elisabeth Rim". Even more mecha references!
    • Cleopatra claims that her cobra is an illusion created by her Pharaoh Fighting Style: "You may think of it as one who 'stands!'" Assassin of Nightless City then tells her to stop talking about it because she suddenly has a feeling that if Cleopatra keeps going, they'll get in trouble.
    • Near the climax of the story, Osakabehime has to resort to a Star Wars Shout Out: "Help me, Mecha Eli-chan Mk. II! You're my only hope!"
    • Sakata Kintoki (Rider) shows up as a boss enemy in one of the Himeji Castle nodes. His Servant name is overwritten as Karimen Rider, as if it wasn't obvious enough before.
    • Ozymandias appears as a boss enemy in one of the Inverted Pyramid nodes. His Servant name is overwritten as the Memetic Mutation "Praise the Sun, It's OZY Kids!"
  • In the third Christmas Event "Christmas in the Underworld", upon meeting Ereshkigal, she tells you to retreat back across the upper layers of the Underworld. One of the responses is "If I ascend, I get sick."
    • One chapter opens with something different. Santa Altera and Caster Gilgamesh discussing who Nergal was and his relationship with Ereshkigal in a blatant Edutainment Show format with goofy music in the background. It's identical to the And Knowing Is Half the Battle science scenes in Martian Successor Nadesico. Why? Because the company the main characters there worked for was named Nergal.
  • Hokusai's Trial Quest:
    • One of the possible dialogue choices the protagonist could make when O'ui suddenly changes costume and reveals her surprisingly buxom body is "Nice tracts of l--"
    • The English localization makes the The Call of Cthulhu references more blatant as Hokusai outright mutters "...Ph'nglui...Ph'nglui", the first part of the famous occult phrase.
    • As the Trial Quest ends and Suzuka and the protagonist begin saying their goodbyes, Suzuka mentions wanting to introduce the messy father-and-daughter pair to "videos from this lady about room clutter". This is a very time-sensitive reference to Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and similar creators when they were popular in 2019.
  • In the beginning of Setsubun, Tomoe says that one of the board games she mentions playing is "Spehss Mehreens 41,000".
    • When Raikou appears and acts like...Raikou, Da Vinci comments that she's going full Kishimojin, a mother who is both demon and goddess in some Buddhist traditions.
  • How the Valentine 2018 event works with purchasing buildings and upgrading them, while you receive news of how your buildings affect Chaldea, is pretty much a parody of Cookie Clicker.
  • One of the Chaldea Boys Collection CEs is explicitly called "Musketeers", involving all versions of Cu Chulainn (FSN, Prototype, Caster and Alter — arguably in the roles of Athos, D'Artagnan, Aramis and Porthos, respectively). This gets double when you notice their outfits take clear inspiration from The BBC series over any other version.
  • Mordred declares "WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER" (both in Japanese and English) as the party fights their way through the Hanging Gardens.
  • When the protagonist declares they need to go to sleep to figure out the mystery in "Murder in the Kogetsukan", Wu wonders if they're just like that comic where a detective becomes much smarter by falling asleep.
    • When Sherlock mentions the absurdity of a Magic Foreigner in a mystery; Moriarty responds that he has acquaintances in the East End. In the original Japanese, he flat out name drops Fu Manchu. (One of Fu Manchu's titles was "The Yellow Peril In The East End.") The reason for only implying is that Fu Manchu's name is copyrighted.
    • Sherlock reveals to the protagonist how he faked his death by putting a squash ball under his arm to temporarily stop his pulse which is the same method the other Sherlock did as revealed in "The Empty Hearse".
  • "GUDAGUDA Legend of the Imperial Capital Grail"
  • "Servant Summer Festival!"
    • Servant Fest itself is a very obvious parody of Comiket, a doujinshi Fan Convention held biannually in Tokyo. The reason why it's part of a summer event is because the first time Comiket is held during the year is in August.
    • When the Mysterious Foreigner flees on the first day of Summer Servant Festival, Mash starts to exclaim that they're transforming and rolling out before correcting herself and just saying they're flying away.
    • Tamamocat starts to say she made jelly donuts, but corrects herself and finishes with riceballs.
    • When Jeanne Alter talks how Medb walking away while laughing makes her look like a Rich Bitch, regular Jeanne says that she is reminded of "that salesman who's always laughing."
    • More of a Brick Joke, but Ushi says she'll beat Musashi's record of most Udon bowls eaten. We see her trying to do exactly that in the Under the Same Sky advertising campaign.
    • After realizing how scary dolphins really are, Jeanne Alter says that she got an idea for a dolphin death game manga, then suggesting the title "So Long, and Thanks for All the Kills" for it.
    • When Archer of Shinjuku is taking bets on who will win the beach volleyball game between Medb and Ushiwakamaru, Tristan walks up and asks if he'll take a bet of 66 trillion, 200 billion Gil bucks. This is similar to the bet Sakyo makes with Ganzou Tarukane in the Rescue Yukina arc of YuYu Hakusho (66 trillion, 200 million yen).
    • Some of the doujin comics the protagonists can create for the summer 2018 event include Miss Anastasia who Loves Ramen and We never Summon.
    • One notable CE features Arjuna and Karna with outfits inspired by Baahubali, itself derived from their home epic Mahabharata. According to Karna's description, the doujin itself has a reference to a rather infamous scene to the second movie soldiers with shields are catapulted at the castle with coconut trees.
    • Another is Giant Babbage, complete with Yokoyama's Zhuge Liang replacing Waver and Mecha Eli having Robo's iconic frown. According to the characters the doujin even manages to have the exact same flaws as the GR: The Day The Earth Stood Still OVA series, like gratuitous, meaningless cameos and an unsatisfying cliffhanger ending.
    • One Craft Essence homages My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, with Rin in the role of Katarina and Luvia in the role of Maria.
    • When Ritsuka and Mash agree that it would be nice if "this moment lasted forever" Osakabehime pops in and scolds them that You Just Had to Say It and goes on a rant on how now everything will go crazy and starts listing disasters ending with "Cats and dogs, living together!"
    • Jeanne making her dolphin an Office assistant is a reference to Kairu, the Japanese version of Clippy.
  • "Oniland"
    • Shuten-douji becomes the Onicure, with the event itself releasing story sections at 8:30 AM as a reference to the usual airtime for the series' episodes.
    • Shuten-douji's Non-Human Sidekick, Spot/Haku, looks an awful lot like Kyubey. Its motivations are also awfully similar as well, up to the reveal as the true villain having used innocent people's desires to give itself vast amounts of magical energy.
  • "Samba Night, Holy Night", being a Professional Wrestling themed event, is naturally one long string of Kinnikuman jokes, with a number of scenes from the manga getting blatantly referenced or recreated, such as Martha mentioning she was disqualified from the off-screen qualifiers when she saved a puppy via Trainstopping.
  • The New Year's 2019 event has Chaldea staying at a supernatural Japanese inn, and when Fionn and Diarmuid start enjoying a feast not meant for them, Goredolf starts worrying that they'll all be turned into pigs.
    • At the beginning, Goredolf suggests that Sion may be out of shape because she works on magic computers all day. Sion replies that actually she has a jogging regimen because Atlas Alchemists have to be fit in case they might appear in a Fighting Game at any time.
  • The opening of Chaldea Boys' Collection 2019 event is very similar to the credits of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films, which fits since the event focuses on Sherlock's Arch-Enemy, James Moriarty.
  • "A Study at the Meihou Manor" has Salieri in the role of a musician named Antônio Roberto Jobim and Jeanne Alter in the role of a singer named Elis.
  • At the start of the Tokugawa Labyrinth event, Sion explains the situation of everyone disappearing is as unlikely as someone being murdered by a ball thrown through a vent from another room.
  • The Case Files event has Mnemosyne as the antagonist, an AI modeled on an ally that was originally designed to help the protagonist which goes haywire, rebels against its creators for a purpose it sees as beneficial, and in the final battle deploys weaker copies of itself against you. It’s basically FGO’s take on Ultron.
    • When you and Reines realize that the world is fake, the background becomes extremely stylized similar to Kagetsu Tohya.
  • Carmilla's Phantom Thief gimmick in Las Vegas summer event is a parody of Cat's Eye, up to the Calling Card.
  • After Okita receives her swimsuit, she daydreams about the GUDAGUDA gang liking her and saying "Congratulations!".
  • Summer Okita wants to watch the sunset before she dies (she got better, though) similar to Master Asia of Mobile Fighter G Gundam who watches the sunset before he dies.
  • Gudaguda Final Honnoji:
    • The entire set up of taking the Warring States is very similar to Nobunaga's Ambition, to the point of the cast joking about what an exploit getting the mines on Sado Island early are, a common strategy in the game.
  • Las Vegas Seven Swimsuit Swordbeauties Tournament:
    • In the vicinity of something named Camelot, Jeanne is French, and she's using an animal (Reece XP, a shark) to drive away her confronters at first. The protagonist might say "RETREEEEAAATT!!" but it might be closer if they would just say "RUN AWAAAAAYYY!!!". All in all, it could be an indirect spoof for the French Castle scene from the movie (though Jeanne does not excessively taunt).
  • The rerun of Gilfes is taken over by "Space Ishtar" who is in a suspiciously familiar UFO.
  • Space Ishtar's final form being a fusion named Astoreth is reminiscent of Shin Megami Tensei. In the first two game's plot, Astaroth was a fusion of Ishtar and Ashtar.
  • The Challenge Quest for Sei Shonagon's Valentines is her and Zhugeliang. In NA, Zhuge liang is "Ya Boy Great Teacher" while in Japanese it was " パリピ孔明" ie Party Person Great Teacher. Both are references to Ya Boy Kong Ming and its original Japanese title.
  • In "Aeaean Spring Breeze", one of the signs in the Labyrinth says "Fire Walk With Me." This is in both Japanese and English versions.
  • The "Échiquier de l'Apocalypse" event is full of board game references. The intro alone references at least eight different board games, one being based on Macross. The main mechanism references games such as Monopoly and Werewolf (1997).
    • One of the shop items in the event is a life counter.
    • In the background of the cafeteria in the beginning, one can see the distinctive board for Settlers of Catan.
    • Edison and Tesla get into their usual tussle playing game called "Current Wars" which stars their real-life feud. This game actually exists.
  • The residents of Gameboard Mosaic Akihabara are Meeples.
  • The NA name for the Monopoly Clone game is "Culdpoly." Incorporating Monopoly of course, but also Culdcept.
  • "Servant Summer Camp! ~Chaldea Thriller Night~"
    • From the get-go, the CM of the event has various horror movie references:
      • Bryn and Sigurd are on a boat with the obscured name, "-tune's Folly" likely "Neptune's Folly" from Jaws: The Revenge.
      • Randolph Carter's black cat can be seen in the group shot with EMIYA, Mash, and Illya.
      • Jason's mask is behind Tomoe. The event's setting in a woodland lakeside summer camp is another reference to Friday the 13th.
      • The TV Tomoe is playing in front of matches the one Sadako crawls out of.
      • The axe in the stump behind Prince Lanling is from The Shining.
    • The Cutthroat enemies introduced in the event resemble Ghost Face.
    • In Act 5, the cast end up in the Smiling Hotel. It even has a reference to the famous door scene with William Tell, Christopher Columbus and Spartacus taking the role of Jack at the same time. Though instead of an axe, Columbus uses his beard to break the door.
    • At one point while searching for clues, Tomoe Gozen is quite excited since it reminds her of similar searches in her video games, in particular one puzzle involving a grand piano.
    • After the Hotel the crew goes to investigate a suspicious shopping mall that turn out to be infested with zombies, upon Murasaki immediately prays and hopes that they aren't runners.
    • In Act 11, after Yu Mei-Ren merges with her clone, the player character has a dialogue option to ask her whether anything funny got mixed in, to which she replies that the idea she might have merged with a fly is ridiculous. This is a reference to The Fly, where Seth Brundle accidentally fuses himself with a fly in a teleportation device experiment gone wrong and as a result gradually warps into a fly/human hybrid monster.
    • One of Abigail's lines as event shopkeeper is singing a cat version of "Bacon Pancakes" from Adventure Time.
  • The opening credits of the Chaldea Boys' Collection 2021 event, "Holy Grail Phantom Thief Amakusa Shirou & the Slapstick Museum", is a reference to the opening intro of Catch Me If You Can.
  • "Chaldea Summer Adventure"
  • Among the itenary that Koyanskaya of Darkness has planned for the protagonist during the 2022 Valentines' event is spending 2 hours watching Bewitched with Morgan and Habetrot.
  • With chapter 1 of "15 Bespectacled Intellectuals" directly called 'They Live' in English, it's clear that the event's premise of Servants having to take up glasses to see the true ominous world around them and the monsters that lurk all around them is a homage to the film They Live!.
  • Tomoe Gozen's team's doujinshi for the second ServaFes covers Lady Avalon's Altria-themed Game of Life; Ghost 'n Faeries, a game where you play as Lancer Altria fighting against wicked faeries and evil dragons; and Altriacraft, a game where you play as Altria Caster journeying to find materials to build her dream Camelot. For each of them, Tomoe is about to name-drop the game's copyrighted counterpart when the Protagonist stops her from going any further.
  • During "Halloween Rising", one of the Marchen/Fairy Tale quests features BB as Princess Kaguya. She has a buff representing each of the Impossible Tasks; however; if you have Beni-enma in your party; those buffs will go away after one round with Benienma in the first round because part of the plot of "Sparrow's Inn Daily Report" was Chaldea getting her those impossible items. The debuff even has her saying that "I Have the Things Everyone Has Collected Before Here Chirp"
  • Nemo is the wellfare Santa during the "7 Days / 8 Years" 2023 Christmas event where he acts as a courier. His Extra attack has him stacking up present boxes to twice his height reminiscent of Death Stranding.

    Others 
  • In the 18th chapter of GUDAGUDA Order comic where Scathach makes an appearance, the characters and commentaries make reference to Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, since Scathach was the original Japanese name of the character Ulster (or at least its variation: Skasaher), which eventually evolved into thinking that Scathach can do Astra, the OP-ness of Ulster's sister Larcei (JP Name: Lakche), and Okita comparing herself and her Noble Phantasm with Larcei and Ulster's mother Ayra and her Astra. Which is pretty amusing because Fire Emblem Heroes, FE's own mobage game, was later released after the strip was released in Japanese, becoming possibly one of FGO's greatest rival games, and the official English translation was released somewhere around the time FEH released a Genealogy banner, which featured Ayra.
  • The New Year's CE EXP Card: Dogs in Space has the description "This is the final frontier in the vast universe. LOVE = ATTRACTION!"
  • The 2020 Chaldea Boys Collection card "Buzzer Bitter" features Ashwatthama and Bart with very familiar basketball jerseys.
  • During the Queen of Sheba's 2nd Interlude, she tells Oberon (who racked up a lot of debts) that she has been given permission to cut off his flesh as payment, with Oberon retorting that she can't let him spill any blood in the process, is a reference to The Merchant of Venice. Coincidentally, one of the people who he owes is Shakespeare (who allowed her to do that), but Oberon confirms that his author only faked the IOU.

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