Dragon's Dogma can certainly remind the player of many other games and stories.
- There are apparent references to Berserk. Two of the preset characters bear a strong resemblance to Guts and Casca, with Mercedes herself being a visual expy of pre-Eclipse Casca. As part of a cross-promotion deal with the 2012 Golden Age Arc OVAs, the game included two sets of Berserk-based equipment: Griffith's "White Hawk" armor set and sword, and Guts' "Black Swordsman" armor set and his nameless pre-Eclipse greatsword (unofficially named "Thousandlimbs"). However, due to licensing issues, the equipment had to be dummied out of the Steam release.
- Speaking of crossovers, Travis Touchdown appears as a pawn in the Japanese version of the Switch release.
- There's a few nods to Capcom's own franchises, including:
- One of the character classes is the ninja-like
Strider. - Every dragon enemy in this game, including the Big Bad, have weak spots with their hearts. In 1988, Capcom made Forgotten Worlds, an arcade sci-fi shmup with a badly injured dragon as the second boss. The Dust Dragon, as this boss is called, has a weak spot with, you guessed it, its heart. You even have to expose it to attack it as you do in Dragon's Dogma.
- When creating your Arisen and Main Pawn, you can name them whatever you wish; however, you must then select a second name from a list of "monikers", which is the name that will appear online if the name you've chosen has been blocked by another player's console's parental controls. The list of monikers that you can select includes names from many of Capcom's other games, including Chun-Li, M. Bison, Dante, Asura, and Magnus. Other monikers include shout-outs to other media; for instance, one of them is Rhaegar. A compilation of these references is covered in this video.
- The "Blink Strike/Burst Strike" sword skills are similar to Dante's "Stinger".
- The "Sprint/Mad Dash" special attacks are almost identical to Guy's Hayagake dash special, with the only difference being that the overhead kick is replaced with a jump which can then be followed up with midair attacks.
- The Cursed King's Belt references Leo from Red Earth.
- in Bitterblack Isle, the safe area has the same music as the save room in Resident Evil 4.
- One of the character classes is the ninja-like
- Pawn quotes that reference pop-culture:
- When creating your Arisen, they can have a reddish scar/smear across the bridge of their nose, very similar to the default appearance of Hawke.
- The golems definitely seem to reference certain other laser-spewing constructs with their delayed-explosion beam sweeps.
- The trophy for maxing someone's Affinity is called "Affinity and Beyond".
- One of the quests is called "Off With Its Head".
- Goblins may randomly shout "Who let the dogs out?", referencing a popular song of the Baha Men.
