Throughout the series, in addition to multiple Call Backs to previous games, the Dark Parables contain many references to other media.
The Exiled Prince
- Felix the Fish, the mascot of Big Fish Games, appears as a statue in the Little Mermaid's grotto.
- Another, possibly unintentional; the Frog Prince's outfit bears a strong resemblance to that of Ezio in the Assassin's Creed games.
- On a plaque, found in a flower urn during the bonus game, are the lyrics to "Someday My Prince Will Come."
Rise of the Snow Queen
- In the bonus game, the victim in the spider's lair is identical in appearance to a murder victim in Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale, which is also a product of Blue Tea Games.
- When you meet Gerda, she gives you an artifact called the Golden Compass.
Jack and the Sky Kingdom
- Jack is dressed similarly to Indiana Jones.
- He also bears some resemblance to Flynn Rider.
- Doubling with Genius Bonus: While fighting with Prince Leonard, the prince accuses Jack of running away. Jack replies, "I prefer to call it a strategic retreat!" This is a quote by the legendary playwright Tennessee Williams, who wrote in a letter that "I am running away but I prefer to call it a strategic retreat."
Ballad of Rapunzel
- In the Concept Art revealed on the developers' Facebook page, Rapunzel is shown sitting in the window of a tower that looks a lot like the one from Tangled. There's also the part about singing to activate her magic, and the Swiss-Army Tears which revive Ross in the sword ending. Mother Gothel was also the name of the villain in the movie.
- Much of the main plot is clearly based on Frozen, what with the princess with deadly magic powers being locked away... this might also explain why a bunch of characters from the earlier Snow Queen game make cameos.
- One, possibly unintentional, is the fact that Snow White and Ross Red's birth mother was the Empress Brunhilda. This could be a small Shout-Out to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.
The Little Mermaid and the Purple Tide
- You get an achievement for finding three little statues of Felix, the Big Fish Games mascot.
- You get another achievement for finding all of the cups of tea in the game and clicking on them, which will turn the tea blue. It's a bit of a farewell to Blue Tea Games, as this would be the last game in the series with which they were directly involved for several years.
The Thief and the Tinderbox
- With all the books flying around and the strange dark tone of the place, the interior of the tinderbox might remind some players of Hermaeus Mora's Apocrypha in the Dragonborn DLC for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Requiem for the Forgotten Shadow
- It's starting to look like somebody at Eipix is a fan of The Elder Scrolls. The detective comes across a room hidden behind a waterfall which contains statues that look like the Shrines of Talos in Skyrim, and there are other statues which closely resemble the Greybeards.
- On the docks of Anaben is a statue of a figure climbing out of the water and holding a lantern. This is clearly an homage to "The Black Ghost of Klaipeda
," a very similar statue on the docks in Klaipeda, Lithuania.
