Shout Out / Demonbane

• Visual Novel only:
  • There is a poster for Phantom of Inferno in the cinema, during Elsa's walk around the town.
  • Music from the soundtrack of Kikokugai, another nitro+ Visual Novel, also plays in one of the movies Kurou can watch. Doctor West at one time also references its premise: that of a best friend killing your little sister and splitting her into five parts.
  • Doctor West at one time sings the lines from opening of Vampirdzhija Vjedogonia, still another Visual Novel from the same company.
  • Nya gives Alison a Mirror of Nitocris. Soon afterward, Alison brings various beings from Alice In Wonder Land to Arkham City. The mirror is also named after a short story by Brian Lumley.
  • Al names the Shoggoth Team Pet Dunsany. This is a reference to Lord Dunsany, who was a source of inspiration for Lovecraft's Dream Cycle.
  • Incidentally, the Shoggoth itself first made an appearance in At the Mountains of Madness where it rolled over and crushed giant albino penguins. Al is somehow able to procure fresh penguin meat from the South Pole for Dunsany (see Ruri's route).
  • The final battle involves a lot of shifting through time and space. Kurou visits a few of the more infamous places in the Mythos:
    • Celaeno, in the Pleiades Star Cluster. Notes taken from the Great Library form the Celaeno Fragments (as seen in The Trail of Cthulhu).
    • Yaddith, from Through the Gates of the Silver Key. Kurou mentions the protagonist Randolph Carter and his alter-ego (of sorts), the alien wizard Zkauba.
    • Yith (the black, aeon-dead orb in space) from The Shadow Out of Time.
    • The Darkness of N'kai, which appears in The Whisperer in Darkness.
  • Episode 3 is named Take Me Higher, referencing the theme song of another series that draws inspiration from the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Episode 13 of Leica's route is the aptly named Call of Cthulhu, in reference to the short story of the same name.
  • Episode 14 of Ruri's route is named after The Haunter of the Dark, another one of Lovecraft's short stories.
  • The description of Azathoth near the end (daemon sultan, flutes, nuclear chaos and so on) is taken from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.
  • The thing that attacked Kurou in the library and traumatised him against magic for life was, quite literally, The Dunwich Horror.
  • Hunting Horrors are Mythos monsters too, taken from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath and are servants of Nyarlathotep.
  • Metatron and Sandalphon are angels that were said to have been humans before. In some texts they are twins.
  • Timaeus and Critias are the titles of two dialogues written by Plato in which he talks about the creation of the world and its universal laws, as well as the history of Atlantis
  • In the epilogue Doctor West's Destroyer Robot is subtitled ~Everything for Big Afro~.
  • Al brags that she's more persistent than The Hounds of Tindalos, which is quite an achievement because they pursue their quarry without end through the angles of time. Better find a nice round bubble-shaped room to hide in, Kurou...
  • Kurou once quotes Amuro's "You hit me...not even my own father hit me." Also, "as cliché as it might be, Demonbane has vulcans built in his head".
  • During the Beach Episode, he begs "Give me liberty or give me death!
  • Doctor West at one time goes "Listen to my song!!!" and "Here's my Love Heart!!!"
  • One of the Bridge Bunnies, when screaming for Demonbane to stand up, says "Stand up to the victory!"
• Anime and Visual Novel
  • Episode/chapter one's title, "I AM PROVIDENCE", is named after a line in one of the letters H. P. Lovecraft had written during his life. In 1977, fans of Lovecraft created a headstone to mark his burial place and on it they put the line from his letter "I AM PROVIDENCE".
  • Miskatonic University is a fictional university in the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts, created by Lovecraft and used in many of his stories. The Necronomicon is also a recurring creation of Lovecraft's; in At the Mountains of Madness, several Miskatonic scholars have actually read that book of forbidden and maddening knowledge, and the University itself has a copy, and, as Al's Good End reveals, the original itself.
  • Kurou's name is the Japanese romanization equivalent of the name "Titus Crow", the main character in a set of horror fiction novels written by Brian Lumley.
  • Anime episode four / Chapter 5's title "The Invaders", is a Cthulhu Mythos story by Henry Kuttner.
  • Anime episode five's title (and that of Visual Novel chapter 7), "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", is a story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft.
  • Episode nine / Chapter 12, "The Hunt" is a Cthulhu Mythos story by Henry Kuttner.
  • Episode eleven's title shares its name with Chapter 14 of Al's route, "The Return of the Sorcerer", which would be a nod to Clark Ashton Smith's "The Return of the Sorcerer". Clark Ashton Smith was a correspondent of Lovecraft while he lived. In the story itself, the Necronomicon is quoted.
  • The last episode/chapter "Strange Eons" is a name taken from the book written by Robert Bloch of the same name. Bloch was a good friend of Lovecraft and best known for the Live-Action Adaptation he wrote called "Psycho". It references a line from the Necronomicon mentioned in several of Lovecraft's stories: "That is not dead which can eternal lie / And with strange aeons even death may die".
  • Al-Azif's name is derived from the Arabic name for the Necronomicon, "Kitab al-Azif."
  • Azrad's name is taken from the name of the author of the Necronomicon, Abdul Alhazred. Note, however, that Azrad and Alhazred are completely separate, unrelated characters in Demonbane's story, their only similarities being that both are associated with Al Azif and both are Arabian.
  • The Shining Trapezohedron is the name of an Ancient Artifact in The Haunter of the Dark, coincidentally associated with a certain Nyarlathotep.
  • Ruri's butler Winfield is named after Winfield Scott Lovecraft, the father of the author.
  • Dig Me No Grave is a Mythos short story written by Robert E. Howard.
  • Black Lodge is named after the parallel hotel in Twin Peaks.
  • Dr. West's name comes from the Lovecraft story Herbert West — Reanimator. In Al's route, he's even responsible for upgrading the Hadou Group's Toy Reanimator robots.
  • The Anticross and their Grimoires are walking shout outs as well (again, found in the anime and visual novel):
    • Master Therion is a pseudonym of occultist Aleister Crowley. His mech Liber Legis also named after Crowley's book, Liber AL vel Legis (The Book of the Law). Etheldreda was the name of Aleister Crowley's dog, and her other namesake, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, first appeared in one of Lovecraft's short stories, Polaris. Incidentally, they're not joking when they say she's the first grimoire. Polaris was the first appearance of a grimoire ever in the Mythos. Furthermore, some of Black Lodge's creeds, "Do what thou wilt" and "The word of the Law is Thelema", are references to Crowley's writings as well.
    • Augustus' The Golden Bough is a treatise on theology mentioned in The Call of Cthulhu.
    • Vespasianus' Book of Eibon appears in several of Lovecraft's stories (The Haunter of the Dark, A Shadow Out of Time) while Cykranosh is the Hyperborean name (in the Mythos) for Saturn.
    • Nero's Unaussprechlichen Kulten was actually created by Robert E. Howard and is Lovecraft's Gratuitous German translation for Nameless Cults, which calls forth the appropriately-named Deus Machina Nameless One. It's actually more like Unspeakable Cults, but regardless, that name works just as well.
    • Titus' Culte des Ghoules is another creation of Bloch's. Ogre has four arms, probably reference to Gug, the subterranean race of the Dreamlands.
    • Caligula's Cthaat Aquadingen is from Lumley's work.
    • Claudius' Celaeno Fragments, as mentioned above, are the work of Professor Laban Shrewsbury, whose name also gets dropped by Kurou as one of the professors at Miskatonic. Byakhees are creatures that are capable of flying through space, that appear in The Festival, by Lovecraft, and are said to be servants of Hastur (Hastur, Has-). Claudius' grimoire is just a copy. Shrewsbury himself appears in the sequel and summons a much more powerful Lord Byakhee with the original copy of the Celaeno Fragments.
    • Tiberius' De Vermis Mysteriis appears in The Shambler from the Stars, a Bloch story. Beelzebuth is an allusion to the ancient god Beelzebub or the Lord of the Flies.
• The Sequel
  • Laban Shrewsbury is one of playable character piloting Deus Machina Ambrose, obviously a reference to Ambrose Bierce, pre-Lovecraft author who created the name Hastur. Him being playable character might be reflection of how Hastur is rather benevolent god in Bierce's Haita The Shepherd.
  • Another Blood is Necronomicon: Blood Edition, this might be reference to Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. Note that this book isn't relate to Al Azif, and thus Another Blood come from alternate future that shouldn't exist.
  • As the Final Boss, Nyarlathotep appears as Clockwork Phantom, which is elaborate version of Tick-Tock Man from mythos.
  • Both the prequel novels and the sequel game introduce an original Great Old One. Its name is said to be unpronounceable, but is rendered as "Zs-A-Wia" (ズアウィア) in the text as a rough approximation. This Great Old One slumbers beneath the Amazon, is worshipped by a tribe of lizard-people, and is said to be an avatar of Death. This shows some similarities with the Great Old One Zushakon from the Mythos story "The Bells of Horror", which is worshipped by a Native (North) American tribe as the god of death. Both are rather amorphous, enormous shadow beings that cause death to anything nearby. Zushakon also has an extreme hatred of light, and Zs-A-Wia is eventually destroyed in a giant flash of light by Demonbane.
  • Kurou meets a Mi-Go early in the story. It offers to sell him human brains.
  • Doctor West builds a Destroyer Robot called "Sokyu no Super West Invincible Robot Type 28 DESTINY ~Show us that power, Gug!~" (the subtitle is a parody of Gundam SEED's "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase).
  • Dr. West laments that his latest Super West Invincible Robot #28 does not have a "Version Ka" ready for it yet. This refers to Katoki Hajime, a prolific mecha designer, who will often do alternate takes on existing robot designs from many series (most notably Gundam).
  • An alternate universe Hadou Group (namely, the one Kuzaku comes from) is mentioned to be doing battle against the Church of Starry Wisdom (which is lead by one of Nyarlathotep's human avatars) rather than Black Lodge. The name comes from a cult in the Mythos that worships Nyarlathotep.
• The Prequels
  • A good portion of the second novel's plot is an extended homage to The War of the Worlds, complete with "Martians" attacking Earth with heat-ray equipped tripods.
  • The "Martians" in question (actually spawn of Liber Legis, although they did evolve on Mars) share some similarities with the Mi-Go, particularly with their ability to replace a human brain with one of their own.
  • The second prequel novel, Assault of the War God, gives the name of Ruri Hadou's mother as Augusta Derleth, from August Derleth.
  • "De Marigny's Clock", an artifact capable of manipulating the flow of time, appears to be based on The Clock of Dreams, a coffin-shaped clock from the Mythos story of the same name. In the Mythos it is owned by Titus Crow (Kurou's inspiration), in the series Demonbane, Liber Legis, and Nyarlathotep all possess one (although the former two are generally not powerful enough to make use of its abilities). The device is named for Crow's sidekick, Henri-Laurent de Marigny.

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