Shout Out / Darkest Dungeon

• In earlier builds, characters with high stress would occasionally go "Game Over, man, Game Over!"
• The name of Swine King's spotter, Wilbur, is a reference to The Dunwich Horror and Charlotte's Web. There's also an achievement for losing a hero to him called "That'll do, Pig".
• The pregenerate names for the heroes include an Occultist named Alhazred, a Hellion named Boudica, a Plague Doctor named Paracelsus or Vaughan, or a Leper named Baldwin.
• The mask the leper wears is a reference to Kingdom of Heaven, especially since the Leper's default name is "Baldwin", and he used to be The Good King. ^note There are no records or medieval depictions that ever state he wore a mask.
• The Occultist will sometimes namedrop Nyarlothotep himself when he is Masochistic. Sometimes he will even shout "TEKELI-LI!". In fact, many of the Occultist's lines are in Rlyehian, the fictional language used by the Cthulhu cult.
• Two of the Bounty Hunter's techniques are called Finish Him!, which does more damage to stunned targets, and Come Hither — effectively an old-fashioned way to say "Get over here!"
• The Jester has the camp skills Tiger's Eye, Turn Back Time, and Every Rose Has Its Thorns, all of which are references to real songs with similar titles.
• One of the Hellion's abilities is called If It Bleeds. It makes enemies bleed.
• One of the Bounty Hunter's color schemes is the same as Boba Fett's. Another one is the same as Jango Fett's.
• The Formless Flesh boss takes heavy inspiration from The Thing (1982), particularly its One-Winged Angel form at the end of the movie. It's a Body Horrific, constantly shapeshifting mass of flesh.
• The bodies of swine are perennially popular candidates for Demonic Possession, as in The Four Gospels.
  • The hordes of swine monsters may be a reference to The House on the Borderland.
• The Houndmaster can buff his hound by giving him a Dog Treat. While calling this a reference might seem like a bit of a stretch, the Corpse and Hound patch notes make it screamingly obvious by outright referring to the treats as "Scooby Snacks" and suggesting calling Houndmaster characters "SHAG & SCOOB".
• The Musketeer's response to being targeted by the Heart of Darkness' Come Unto Your Maker attack is, of course, "All for one, and one for all!"
• The Fish Idol in the Cove bears great resemblance to Cthulhu.
• The Collector wears a cage on his head that has a striking resemblance to the ones worn by members of the School of Mensis. The cage vaguely resembles a crown and the Collector also wears a tattered yellow robe, with the patch notes even describing him as a "king in yellow". Two of the trinkets he may drop are "Junia's head" and "Barristan's Head".^note These are also the default names of the Vestal and Man-at-Arms, respectively.
• There's an achievement, gained by having a character survive 5 attacks at Death's Door in a row, called What Is Dead May Never Die.
  • This is also the description of Indomitable, the Leper's level 5 armour.
• The Crusader's appearance bears heavy similarities to the Elite Knight Set, and the bandit outfits are strikingly similar to the hollow bandits in Huntsman's Copse.
• The final boss of the game seems to heavily resemble The Idea of Evil.
• The Hellion's Barbaric YAWP! skill references a poem by Walt Whitman. The same poem was also prominently featured in Dead Poets Society.
• Some of the party combo names:
  • World of Tanks
  • Tomb Raiders
  • Good, Bad, and Ugly
  • Smokey and Bandit
  • Armored Core
  • Diamond Dogs
• There is a town event offering Antiquarians for hire, named Antique Roadshow.
• The Flagellant's Critical Hit cry of "Blood for the burden! Bones for the Light!" is heavily reminiscent of "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
  • And a hero in the throes of the Crimson Curse bloodlust may call out, "I am a Blood God!"
• An Irrational Houndmaster can yell about how his dog is the first being to orbit the world.
• Completing the Warrens-unique quest named "We Must Eat" grants a town event called "Bumper Crop". When this event occurs, a pair of familiar figures and some farm produce appear near the town memorial.
• The description and name of the new The Colour of Madness DLC make it clear that it is a shout-out (or even a Whole-Plot Reference) to Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space (a meteor lands in a rural farm and turns all around it into monsters). The announcement post even starts with a quote from Lovecraft that, while not actually from The Colour Out of Space, does closely relate to it^{The quote...} "With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos…", from the short story From Beyond.
• The achievement for collecting the baron's invitation is named An Unexpected Party
• A party of a Crusader, a Houndmaster, a Grave Robber, and a Plague Doctor are called "Those Meddling Kids," consisting of an athletic fellow, a scruffy guy and his dog, a pretty girl, and a bookish girl.
• The Thing From The Stars is highly reminiscent of Ludwig from the Bloodborne DLC The Old Hunters, being a disgustingly haphazard mixture of human and ungulate body parts (though some kind of deer rather than a horse) armed with a massive, bluish-green Laser Blade.
• A generic reaction to the Necromancer's "The Flesh Is Willing" attack is "What can one do against such reckless hate?", a genderless take on Theoden's line in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
• Some of the secret backer trinkets reference many other media such as The Black swordsman's gauntlet and Behelit as well as Tetsuo.
• Ectoplasms are clear references to oozes from Dungeons & Dragons. The mammoth cysts also bear a close resemblance to beholders from the same game.
• The Hellion's level 5 armour, The Wolf's Pelt, has this description: "From the legendary wolf 'Arya' of the North"
• When suffering the Masochistic affliction, a Grave Robber may mention playing "stabscotch", a name for Five-Finger Fillet coined by King of the Hill.

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