Hollow Knight has its fair share of pop culture references to other video game or anime titles, whether by direct references or subtle expies.
- False Knight is likely a nod to Makaku from Battle Angel Alita, a similarly insane, man-faced maggot who takes over the body of a heavily armored champion. They both hide their parasite heads under helmets with giant, curved horns.
- Quite a few of Hollow Knight's critters (many of which are undead due to the plague) look like hollows from Bleach, not least the vessels themselves, which are creatures of supposed emptiness with pale, bony masks covering their heads.
- Midwife bears an uncanny resemblance to No-Face from Spirited Away.
- Waldie, one of the spirits in the Glade of Hope claims to "bear a dark soul and a tendency to go berserk in battle". He also thinks that "you wouldn't have the guts to face [him] anyways".note
- Grubberfly's Elegy, which makes you shoot Sword Beams from your nail but only while at full health, is a pretty plain reference to The Legend of Zelda, in which Link can do the same in some games. If you equip both Grubberfly's Elegy and Fury of the Fallen, you also gain access to a Peril Beam, only usable when you have one health left. An identical power was available in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games, by equipping the Peril Ring.
- There are some shout-outs to Castlevania:
- Grimm's fire bat attack and flame pillar attack clearly mimic two of Dracula's most famous attacks, especially the "hellfire" attack where he opens his cloak to launch the projectiles.
- Grimm's backdash move is also another Castlevania reference - It's like a sped-up version of Alucard's backdash!
- One of the ghost bosses, No-Eyes, uses attacks that look and move almost exactly like Medusa Heads.
- Galien's main method of attack by spinning his Sinister Scythe and turning it into a Pinball Projectile is reminiscent to the Grim Reaper / Death boss fights. Galien can also spawn miniature spinning blades just like Death.
- The Mantis spinning scythe attacks also resemble one that Death uses in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
- The Kingsmould’s attacks resemble those of Axe Knights.
- In the Watcher's Spire, there's a telescope on the left window overlooking the raining City of Tears... in a similar layout and scene to the telescope room found on the highest part of a tower in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Sadly, peeking on Lurien's telescope doesn't reveal anything surprising.
- The Pantheon of Hallownest iteration of the Mantis Lords is named the Sisters of Battle.
- There are also some shout-outs to Metroid:
- Uumuu is awfully reminiscent of the Metroids, as is its background music.
- The fossil of the bug from whom you get the Shade Cloak in the Abyss visually resembles the Chozo Statues in Super Metroid.
- The slow buildup to meeting Nosk in Deepnest is similar to encounters with SA-X in Metroid Fusion.
- Several mechanics, story points characters are comparable to the Dark Souls games and their related titles:
- The dark atmosphere in general, and the setting where you explore a ruined kingdom. The background history and lore are not told directly, but by Story Breadcrumbs instead.
- Some of the game's areas faintly echo areas in the Souls games while being distinctly of Hollow Knight. The White Palace, in particular, is like what would happen if Anor Londo wanted to be Super Meat Boy when it grew up, being the center of a decayed kingdom featuring resplendent white architecture with knights that fit the part, though it is quite bright, unlike Anor Londo's default perpetual sunset.
- Benches act like the game's bonfires, being guaranteed save havens that heal you and allow you to do some things in your inventory that you can't do elsewhere.
- When you die in a Souls-like game, you lose some precious resources and must backtrack your way to where you died just to recover them. In Hollow Knight, this is similar as you lose all Geo when you die, and must return to the same spot and kill your leftover Shade to recover them.
- The Hollow Knight bears more than a few similarities to two separate characters from Dark Souls: Artorias and Gwyn.
- With Artorias they share the status of a hero fallen to the force they were meant to oppose, a BFS wielded with one hand while the other is injured (or missing in the Hollow Knight's case), and a fighting style that channels the force they were corrupted with.
- Meanwhile, like Gwyn they sacrificed themselves to protect their world, is the Final Boss who the player aims to replace in their duties, and is in a rather sorry state when encountered.
- The Watcher Knights are expies of the Abyss Watchers. Though mercifully, the last one will not get supercharged.
- At the 24:15 timestamp of this video with Team Cherry
, Ari mentions that the Soul mechanic in this game is somewhat based on the health mechanic from Bloodborne. When you hit an enemy in that game, you regain a bit of health. Here, you can regain soul by hitting enemies, and you can use that soul gauge to manually restore health.- In fact, the game's entire premise is reminiscent of Bloodborne, since Hallownest is infested with monsters that are the victims of a mysterious, deadly disease. (Not to mention all of the eldritch gods.)
- Most enemies have stock dialogue when Dream Nailed, representing their primitive minds in an infected state. One of these bits of dialogue is "Away... Away...," which is one of the things that the plagued villagers yell at you in Bloodborne.
- The Dashmaster charm's appearance and color scheme resemble Sans◊ from Undertale. Its effect may be a reference to his ability to effortlessly dodge the player's attacks and his ability to get from place to place instantaneously whenever you're not looking.
- There are also obvious references to some of the third-party works used as inspirations in making this game's setting:
- From a Reddit AMA and in certain interviews, Team Cherry mentioned that Hallownest was created as an inverse of the world tree setting in Faxanadu, one of the games that served as an inspiration when they made Hollow Knight.
- Angel's Egg was one of Ari's main inspirations for the artstyle and atmosphere in Hollow Knight. Dark color palettes and grey shades are common, with faded cities and/or shells placed on walls everywhere in the backgrounds. One of the most obvious similarities are seen in the City of Tears - a dark city constantly under rain, while there is a central fountain with statues in it. Plus, there's also a cracked egg located in the Abyss.
- The Radiance is very reminiscent of the final form of Lumine. Both are true final bosses after besting an infected swordsman, both are angelic in appearance and fought against a cloudy yellow background, and both rely on screen-filling light-beam attacks. Even Team Cherry has stated that Mega Man X8 is another inspiration for Hollow Knight.
- The Crystal Crawlers uses the same crawling sound as the Gold Skultullas in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
- The Baldur enemy is often found guarding certain passages; for example, the way to Greenpath is initially gated off by a Baldur. You could even say they are... Baldur's Gate!
- Brumm's name in the game files is "IGOR", a reference to the assistant of Dr. Frankenstein in the 1931 film... and Brumm also refers to Grimm as his "Master" several times, reinforcing the connection.
- At least two of Grimm's non-Castlevania attacks look like they came from another vampire-based video game franchise, Darkstalkers. His dive kick looks like Demitri's Bat Spin and his uppercut looks like Morrigan's Shadow Blade. The way his cape forms drills also resembles the latter's weaponized wings.
