You can barely go two yalms in Eorzea without running into a Shout-Out, Pun, or Punny Shout-Out. To name a few of them:
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Challenges
- The Challenge for sending your retainers out on 15 Exploration Ventures within a week is called Venture Bothers.
- The Challenge for raiding the Aquapolis 5 times is called Aqua Gleam Hunger Force.
- The Challenge for clearing 3 stickers from your Wonderous Tales log is called Tales of Derring-do Bad and Good Luck.
Dialogue
- During one of the Pugilist Class Quests, Hamon notes that the toads he's sending you after are huge, "and that means they have huge guts." He further advises you wait for an opening, then "rip and tear" through them.
- At the start of one of the Bard Job Quests, Jehantel notes "That I took an arrow in the knee is what most folk believe..." regarding his retiring from archery.
- The Goldsmith questline features several.
- How does Gigi describe the Jade Fox, who is not Roroton, but Robert)?:
- SeCrEtS aNd LiEs, SeCrEtS aNd LiEs! ThE mAn Is NaUgHt MoRe ThAn A mIsErAbLe PiLe Of SeCrEtS aNd LiEs!
- When the Jade Fox is confronted, he tells Gigi that he has "an overdeveloped sense of justice. It's going to get you into trouble one day." During the same confrontation, while trying to convince Serendipity that he is innocent, Roroton says "Listen to your assistant; you know it to be true!"
- When the Garleans are discussing The Ultima Weapon, Nero assures Gaius that he'll have it "fully armed and operational."
- As part of the quest to gain the Harvest Dance emote, you must speak with a young boy who, among his musings, says, "Ummm...scoop with both hands, then look left, up, up, right, down... Or is it up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right? I wish she would let me take notes..."
- An NPC during the egg hunt event tells you that you know of the word and bird is not the word.
- An NPC is selling pots and says "You get a pot! And you get a pot! Everyone gets a pot!"
- During a flashback to the Battle of Carteneau, upon losing contact with his squad, Raubahn was trying to get in contact with them, screaming "Mad Snake? Mad Snaaaaaaaake! Answer me!", which in Metal Gear Solid is similar to one of the lines Colonel Campbell says when you get a game over. What cements this as deliberate is that while [Adjective]+[Animal] is a valid Roegadyn name, neither character mentioned is a Roegadyn meaning they're using code names with a similar convention as Foxhound's.
- Tataru when you first meet her is singing the "Trololo" song.
- When gathering donations from members of the church, one of the members shouts, "Be silent and take my gil!"
- During one of the Hildibrand quests, the inspector asks Gilgamesh "Surely you can't be serious!?", to which he replies, "Grrr... Now you call me Shirley!?"
- Later on in the same questline, Hildibrand surviving and recovering from what should have been a fatal poisoning is attributed to the fact that "he spent the past few years building up an immunity to zombie powder."
- Hildibrand's rival detective is named Briarden and he introduces himself as "Consulting Inspector".
- When Minfilia continues to press the investigation of Lahabrea without stopping to rest, Tataru remarks, "All work and no play makes Minfilia a dull Scion.
- One FATE has a group of Imperial soldiers yelling, among other things, "The weak will be assimilated!" and "Resistance is futile!"
- An NPC in Revenant's Toll, in the market area, is a man who would like to inform you that what you're carrying is "not a Knife. Now This is a knife!" while holding up a....collapsed fishing rod?
- During the Allied Beast Quests, Tataramu muses that The Laughing Alchemists' motives are "a mystery wrapped in an enigma".
- Famed "Tidus"-slayer Trachtoum can be found singing "They call me a workin' man, I reckon that's what I am" to himself.
- But then when you show your face to him when it comes to Leviathan, he sputters "I have to lie to women to tumble 'em, an' that don't happen much! Me member's tiny, it's pathetic!"
- During the 3.3 Hildibrand quest "The Gigi Situation," after Gigi puts back an expensive vase with his magic, Hildibrand and Nashu are rather nonchalant about it while Cyr has something to say about it.Cyr: Do not demean this mammet's power as a mere parlor trick! We just witnessed a miracle and I demand that you all acknowledge it!
- During the 3.4 Hildibrand quest, "A Gazebo To Call Our Own," when Cyr asks the Exceedingly Experienced Treasure Hunter if she happens to be a long lost twin sister to an Ishgardian noble, she springs this gem."What?! I... Er... Look behind you! A three-headed goobbue!"
- During "Don't Trust Anyone over Sixty", Orland responds to Hildibrand's accusations by saying "You should feel ashamed of your words and deeds!"
- When asked to expound upon the nature of corrupted crystals, the scientist Hahasako shouts, "O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" Upon your return, Hahasako also uses the words "galumphing" and "chortle."
- On the Scholar quest, "For Your Fellow Man", you have to cast Leeches on five invalids to cure them of their illnesses. Talk to the Heavy-eyed Invalid to learn her woes.
- In the Dark Knight quest "Ishgardian Justice", Fray quotes Clint Eastwood from the movie Unforgiven:Fray: The next knight who bears steel, I'm not only going to kill him, but I'm going to kill his wife, his friends, and burn his godsdamned house down!
- During the Dark Knight quest "Heroic Reprise", while you're fighting off waves of Amalj'aa, Fray will shout "What a day! What a lovely day!"
- During the Dark Knight quest "Our Compromise", your opponent will have this to say before the battle:Myste: I offer you peace! Restitution! A chance to make amends! Do not think you are above it! Do not think that a reckoning will be postponed indefinitely!
- Continued after the battle is over, where he has a line that sounds eerily similar to a certain Queen of Inks:
Myste: In your darkest hour, in the blackest night... think of me... and I will be with you. Always. For where else could I go? Who else could I love but you? - At a certain point during the Paladin quest "Fade to Black Lotus", you could demand that a kidnapper return the child he's holding. Otherwise:Burly Bloke: What do you want?Warrior of Light: I want your clothes, your boots, and your chocobo.
- When Cid's Enterprise takes flight again in the 2.0 storyline, Alphinaud channels Captain Picard:Alphinaud: Enterprise, engage!
- A broom in Matoya's Cave will greet you with "Evol gnipeews s'tel"
- Zuro Roggo, a big singing poroggo and the first boss of the Antitower, laments that "It's... not easy being...<croak>..." after his defeat.
- Inside the Rising Stones, when you talk to Yda, she says she "loves the smell of victory in the morning."
- While promising her assistance in the search for the Garlean spy in 2.4, Yugiri points out that the investigation will require "a very particular set of skills" that she happens to possess.
- In Mor Dhona, one lookout happily exclaims that they "can see clearly now the rain is gone".
- In one of the Vanu Vanu tribe quests, one NPC, upon being intimidated by the sundrop dance, exclaims "My style is impetuous! My defenses are impregnable!"
- In 3.2's Hildibrand quests, the dialogue box before accepting the first quest notes that "You cannot help but wonder if you are about to have a bad time." Later, when invited to wait in the gazebo outside of Fortemps Manor, Nashu panics at the prospect of being attacked by the gazebo. The poor guard talking with you two, plays the role of the exasperated Game MasterHouse Fortemps Guard: "It's...it's a sodding gazebo..."
- In the 3.5 quests, while trying to admonish Gigi, Hildibrand says that the world is their home, that they'll go "Where the Red Fern Grows"
- After being stripped of his armor and left out in the cold, Orland returns to the scene complaining "I'm cold and there are malboros after me!"
- In one of the daily moogle tribe quests, you get to slap a moogle that is being rude to you. In response, he replies "D-did you just... What... How can she/he slap, kupo?" which is a reference to the infamous video of an Indian reality tv show where one of the contestants slaps a woman after she slaps him, then yells "How can she slap?" repeatedly as multiple men on set dogpile him.
- In the level 60 quest for Bard, Guydelot has his own criticism for the Final Boss.
- During the briefing for "A True Kojin of the Blue" in Tamamizu, Saikoro mentions that he was out for a stroll in Kobayashi Maru.
- During a quest to boost morale among the troops assaulting Castrum Meridianum, one lalafell responds:
- During the quests for Alexander: The Creator, Alexander's ability to travel through time is repeatedly referred to as "the Wings of Time".
- During the same quest, Quickthinx Allthoughts claims that "Time is a flat roundshape."
- One character refers to a spy working for another as one of his "little birds."
- A possible bit of dialogue in the Stormblood story: "There is no justice. Just us."
- After deciding to head to Doma to spread Zenos's forces thin in Stormblood, Alisai ponders just how to reach Othard, quipping that it's not exactly "over the river and through the woods".
- When the others mention being able to breathe underwater due to the gift of the Kojin tribe, Thancred, who wasn't present when this gift was bestowed on the player and a handful of the Scions, retorts with "I'll have you know, I can hold my breath for 10 minutes!" He later points out that he picked up this skill in a Pirates' Cove along with a knack for selling fine leather clothing (though Thancred specialized in belts rather than jackets).
- One quest in the Ruby Sea will have you looking through bird nests for treasure. Searching the wrong one will bring up the message, "This is not the wildfowl treasure you're looking for."
- At the conclusion of the Azim Steppe questline, the newly-crowned Warrior of Light can command the tribes to "Crush the imperials! Drive them before you!"
- One of the Storm Commanders stationed at Camp Skull Valley will tell you that the Sahagin seek to "crush us, see us driven before them, and hear the lamentations of our women".
- The final boss of Doma Castle, Hypertuned Grynewaht, charges into battle screaming "RIP AND TEAR!" Also notable is his opening taunt - "EORZEAN! COME OUT AND PLAY!"
- Having just unleashed the combined artillery fire of the Alliance upon the gates to Ala Mhigo proper, what else would Vice Marshall Pipin say but "The enemy's gate is down!"
- During one of the Red Mage job quests, you find a girl in a crate. When you introduce yourself, you can ask her two questions. "Are you okay?" and "Does a girl have a name?" If you ask the latter, what is her answer? "Arya."
- After doing Hell's Lid, Tataru finds herself busy talking to a Red Panda auspice and tells the Warrior of Light to talk to the others, ending with "... and what does that fox have to say?"
- During the Omega storyline, when the player's team is fighting their way to the Sigmascape, Nero deploys a new version of his Magitek Powered Armor and Gunhammer Mjolnir, now respectively called "Iron Nero" and "Mighty Mjolnir"
- On the night before the attack on Doma Castle, Hien asks that you raise a glass to freedom. Later, just before you enter the dungeon, he will remark that History Has Its Eyes On You.
- Later, during an Echo flashback with Raubahn, when the younger Flame General told Lyse's father, Curtis, that he was willing to die for Ala Mhigo, the rebel leader's response was succinct: "Dying is easy, (soldier). Living is harder."
- As the fight against Titan draws closer and closer to his defeat, he declares himself Defiant to the End by telling you "to the last, I grapple with thee!"note
- Upon starting the level 10 fisher quest, Sisspu notes a certain look in your eye.Sisipu: I know that glimmer! It's the... Eye of the Fisher! It's the thrill of the bite! Rising up to the challenge of our rival!
- After commissioning an ode from the bard Aubrenard in the Leatherwork quest, he'll remark on one of his favorite lines in what he just penned. "So shines a good deed in a weary world."
- During the fight with Yojimbo at the end of the Even Further Adventures of Hildibrand, right before he reveals himself as Gilgamesh, he says "The time has come, and so have I!"
- Speaking of Yojimbo, when he sinks into the darkness to reveal himself as Gilgamesh, he doesn't do it in any ordinary fashion. He does it Terminator 2: Judgment Day style, giving a thumbs up.
- In the 4.5 update, the battle between Hien and Magnai the Older has this exchange:Magnai the Older: Hmph, predictable!
Hien: What!?
Magnai the Older: Every step you will take, every move you will make -- the Sun sees all! - When one of the Mooglesguard is defeated a second time during the Thornmarch duty he will say "Ack, I'm bad at this."
- Before heading off to deal with the "Black Sarcophagus" in one of the level 30 Rogue quests, Jacke promises you that "we'll get this Aisibhir...an' his little bomb, too!"
- After unlocking the third tier of the Facet of Fishing, Frithrik asks if you're willing to go into Il Mheg to do some fishing. While you can respond that you know Feo Ul, the real kicker is saying "I ain't afraid of no gho--pixies."
- During the prolonged fetch quest of the Return to Ivalice raid series, Hancock shouts, "One man's ruse is another man's keikaku!"
- Catching the dig site watchman in the act of poaching from the site in the quest "A Scandal in Komra" will have him admit to how he did so, then claim "and we would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids. Also you, however old you are."
- The Wandering Dramaturge's first attempt to describe your fight against Cid's memory of Emperor Varis is rather reminisicent of a JoJo meme:"You would dare approach me thus?" Lord Varis scoffed. "Where men of greater strength and mind both would flee, you dare commit to such folly?" To which the liberator coolly replied, "How else am I to smite thee save...erm...approaching..."
- In the level 60 Paladin quest quotes The Simpsons:
- While in battle, Solkzagyl will also make another quote from the same episode:
Solkzagyl: Yes! Fight and struggle! - The level 17 quest in Eureka has Krile tasking you with repairing a beacon with some Anemos Crystals. She claims that "Sixty percent of the time it works every time."
- In the Vath quest, "Adventurers Don't Get Cold Feet", Jantellot of the Convictors mistakes the Vath Deftarm for a giant talking crab. Being very fond of eating crab, his thoughts drift if you talk to him again after the Deftarm walks off.Jantellot: Now I find myself wondering if enormous talking crabs taste the same as silent ones. Hmmm... Tastes like crab, talks like people...
- Qeshi-Rae in the Facet of Gathering portion of the Crystal Mean Quests mentions that she wants to eat some of the samples you bring back, to which her thoughts were Hmm... Sacrilicious.
- In the Moonfire Faire 2020 event, when charging up the Bold Bombard, it will say "URGE TO BLOW...RISING!"
- Senri, a cat auspice, claims they could kill you five times before you hit the ground.
- Hildibrand quotes The Simpsons episode Cape Feare while stealing a key from a jailer in Kugane.Hildibrand: And turn and flex and shake and bounce!
- After the Dohn Mheg dungeon in Shadowbringers, Ardbert tells the Warrior of Light that, "the first rule of dealing with the Fuath is ''do'' not deal with the Fuath!"
- Mogmont in the sidequest "An Immaculate Home": "This aggression will not stand, kupo!"
- In Dwarf Best Tribe quest "Chief Concerns", Ronitt rolls in with a troop of tankards while singing "The hills are alive with the sound of...TANKS!♪"
- During The Rising 2020, the quest "Glass from the Past" has J'Behn Tia reveal that his stained glass picture of Nanamo Ul Namo was accidentally broken by kids who got a little too close to the picture. While the nicer option would call for a reenactment of the scene with the Warrior of Light offering to be Nanamo (especially hilarious if they're a male roegadyn or hrothgar), they can be a little bit vindictive by recommending six people (possibly the Thaumaturge guild plus Cocobusi) until they cut themselves off and say their punishment must be more severe.
- While tracking spots of frozen blood across Coerthas' western highlands in the level 54 Paladin quest, if you talk to Constaint before investigating one of the spots, he'll say to himself "Hope this is not Solkzagyl's blood..."
- During the level 35 Ninja job quest, "Once Upon a Time in Doma", Karasu Kanshi, ambushing you at Fool Falls, announces himself with "Who is the more foolish: the fool of Fool Falls, or the fool who comes here without realizing he's been followed?"
- In Sui-No-Sato, there are two Auri men at a table. The man in pink is berating the man in black for his heavy drinking.
- In an early dialogue exchange with Magnai, he dismisses a female Warrior of Light as not ethereal enough to be his soul mate. One of her possible responses is, "I'm your rolanberry."
- Endwalker:
- Upon reaching the moon and meeting the Loporrits, you're given the opportunity to sample one of four types of carrots. The blue "Philosopher's Carrot" briefly opens your mind to the universe, from the mysteries to the transformative truths. And ends with the number forty-two lingering in your mind.
- Similarly, in Ultima Thule, the last area of the game, an NPC asks you what the meaning of life is as part of an aether current sidequest. One of the answers is simply 42, and will have the NPC praising you for recognising it.
- Before departing for Endwalker's The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, the Warrior of Light has a drink with Thancred, Y'shtola and Urianger. The latter proceeds to get absolutely drunk and is confused at how his fellow Scions have conjured simulacrums of themselves with doubling magick, finally scoffing "very well then, keep thy secrets" when the baffled Warrior of Light can't explain it.
- While investigating the cause of M-017's erratic behavior in Ultima Thule, the player is tasked with pointing out oddities in the former's behavior via a first person sequence. The sequence plays out like a tell-spotting scene in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, with the player striking the iconic "Objection!" pose from the Ace Attorney series after the player points out that one of M-017's joints has an intermittent electrical surge going through it:M-017: ...An anomaly, you say? Performing diagnostic... Error confirmed. My connection to central command is suffering from intermittent failures. I must leave at once and present myself for maintenance at the nearest facility. You will excuse me.Companion: What you need, my friend, isn't maintenance. It is to confront the truth.
- One of the doomed worlds described by Meteion was a planet that met its end by being encased in ice, which was how the world ended in Cat's Cradle.
- Defeating the Rainbow Golem in the Excitatron 6000 will have it utter "So you have chosen... fortune?" before dropping dead.
- In the 6.15 Hildibrand quest, "The Sleeping Gentleman," the Warrior of Light/Darkness gets a vision of Hildibrand's arrival in the First during Elidibus summoning Shades of Light. He happened to be right in the war path of Giott, who mistakes him for a shade and gives him a "Dwarven decking."Giott: Piss off, ghost!
- The jump puzzle that debuted in Moonfire Faire 2018? It's known as the Eorzean Nimble Warrior.
- During the Level 74 Tank role quest in Shadowbringers, Granson screams "He can't keep getting away with it! He... He can't keep getting away with it..."
- In one of your interactions with Margrat, she offers you an opportunity to work further with her in exchange for scrips. One of the Warrior of Light's replies is "Compensation? Benefits? 'Sod you, pay me' as they say."
- Ibuki, one of the Sharlayan scientists you meet in Margrat's Custom Delivery quests, mentions the difficulties of creating new materials for arms and armor, saying that adventurers always demand them to be harder, better, faster, and stronger.
- In the Monk story quest, "Return of the Monk", optional dialogue from D'zentsa has her cheering the Warrior of Light on.D'zentsa: No mercy, [player name]! Sweep the leg!
- During the Manderville quest "Lunar Conspiracy", you'll come across a field of Hildibrand clones and to explain what's going on, you're given two dialog options. One of them is "They're phantoms created by the refraction of starlight from swamp gas".
- When accepting Wuk Lamat's request in Endwalker, you can have the Warrior of Light say that they're excited to "boldly go where [they've] never gone before".
Mob and NPC Names
- The Warrior Job quests are all given to you by a Roegadyn named Curious Gorge.
- Your Pugilist questgiver in Ul'dah is Hamon Holyfist, and in personality he's a loving callback to Joseph Joestar circa parts 3 and 4.
- Near Little Ala Mhigo, there is a camp of enemies called the Corpse Brigade. They even wear the same shade of green that said faction wore in Final Fantasy Tactics.
- The leader of the millers in the "Poor Maid's" FATE chain in La Noscea is named Rabid Ratata.
- One of the Elite Marks in Western La Noscea is a crab named Dark Helmet.
- The first boss of the Keeper Of The Lake is named Einhänder. And if you know the game that references, then you'll have a good idea of his main gimmick - namely, that he will switch out weapons that he carries underneath, from a bar to a minigun to a cannon. Later on, during the final boss fight of Keeper of the Lake, and much later on, in Heavensward in the Sea of Clouds region, you'll find the same style of enemy mobs that appear named "Astrea" and "Endymion". Both are the name of the actual ships players controlled in Einhander. The YoRHa raids later add a sub-boss that heavily resembles the penultimate boss of Einhander, down to the black colouring and the "petals" that form its armor plating.
- Within the Antitower, there is a Spriggan boss called "Ziggy", accompanied by a number of adds it spawns called "Stardust". This is especially notable because this boss came out in patch 3.2, the first since Bowie's passing. 5.4's dungeon, Matoya's Relict, continues the theme with not a boss, but a mob named Sonny of Ziggy.
- Mentioned below, the recurring bosses of the Midas portion of Alexander have slightly altered versions of the names of the Combaticons. Onslaught-Onslaughter, Brawl-Brawler, Vortex-Vortexer, Swindle-Swindler, Blast Off-Blaster and finally Bruticus-Brute Justice.
- One of the potential NPC racers in the Chocobo Race is Legally Yellow.
- 2016's Moonfire Faire centers around a Sentai trio called the Posing Rangers. The name of the team, premise and explosions may bring Super Sentai or Power Rangers to mind.
- The boss of Alexander: The Heart of the Creator, the Ark summon from IX, was renamed Cruise Chaser, and has the designation "Blassty." This is a shout-out to the 1986 game Cruise Chaser Blassty which the Ark summon was originally a reference to in the first place.
- Similar to the FATE above, you can recruit a Hellsguard named "Careless Whisper" to your adventurer squadron.
- Late in the main scenario of Stormblood, you can find an NPC named Odo.
- The second boss of the Yorha raids, named Hobbes, seems to be a reference to GLaDOS from Portal in that it looks a lot like her in the way it hangs from the ceiling, with a core sticking at the end of an angled body, and it's whole existence is to perform dangerous testing on whoever enters its lair. It is even polite with you even as it attempts to kill you.
- An "untamed shrew" is a random low-level mob appearing in Thanalan.
- While he may not be piloting a Humongous Mecha in the Bozja Southern Front, everyone both in-game and players alike know to fear the chocobo known as the Red Comet.
- In the Coerthas Central Highlands at Camp Dragonhead, there is a visiting Gridanian acting as a questgiver by the name of Belmont. Even more fitting when you remember that the main enemy of the Belmont family, Dracula, has a name that literally means "little Dragon" or "son of the Dragon," and here is a Belmont hanging out in a land undersiege by dragons...
- The Enforcement Droid introduced in Heavensward's Azys Lla brings to mind the ED-209 of RoboCop (1987), especially with the addition of a numbered model actually labeled the 209 in The Twinning from Shadowbringers.
- In the Elpis region of Endwalker, there's an NPC named Sappho, who, in our world, is an ancient lyric poet from the Greek isle of Lesbos, and is considered to be the earliest example of an LGBT poet. The NPC even quotes Sappho's poetry if you speak to her.
- Going even deeper, nearly every Ancient is named after some person from Greek/Roman history and/or mythology.
Other
- One of the attacks used in the final fight for Tam-tara Deepcroft Hard Mode is Red Wedding.
- The final boss of Hullbreaker Isle is a Kraken, who uses an attack called At World's End.
- Continues on into Sastasha (Hard), where the Kraken is summoned by a pirate (who thanks to a mutation resembles Davy Jones) shouting "Release the Kraken!" and a new attack from the Kraken being called "On Stranger Tides".
- The level 48 Culinarian's frying pan tool is named Hells' Kitchen.
- The scene in the main scenario where Nabriales effortlessly stops Moenbryda's axe with a single finger is very reminiscent of Aizen's reveal as Big Bad in Bleach
- Godbert Manderville in the course of the 'Her Last Vow quest line reveals is own version of the melee Limit Break 2 Bladedance, with a Giant Golden Hammer that engulfs the enemies in a golden light.
- A golden saucer quest is called "So You Think You Can Ride This Chocobo", referring to the lyrics of the Crazy Chocobo song from Final Fantasy XIII-2.
- The Monk's One Ilm Punch is an Eorzean flavored shout out to Bruce Lee's famous One Inch Punch, complete with Bruce Lee-esque posturing afterward.
- In Ul'dah you can find Ino and Sakura talking to some guy.
- Cid Garlond's personal airship is named The Enterprise.
- After some significant upgrades, he later rechristens the ship The Excelsior.
- Before accepting the quest "Bolt, Chain, an Island", the bit of text in the description reads, "Alphinaud loves it when a plan comes together."
- The Twintania mount has an "attack" (does no damage since every mount with an attack ability is just for show) called Aerial Combat Maneuvers and its info box simply says "Do a barrel roll!" Twintania even does said barrel roll when you command her to do it.
- Jandelaine, the Aesthetician, strikes some poses that wouldn't be out of place in a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure scene.
- When Gilgamesh is confronted prior to the Battle on the Big Bridge during the ARR Hildibrand Adventures, Gilgamesh performs the signature Ultraman rise pose complete with a red background, albeit he doesn't grow any bigger.
- The Dark Knight's Living Dead buff will protect the player from being knocked out and they gain a zombie like debuff should they suffer a blow that would have put them down. The debuff is called Walking Dead.
- The Dusk Vigil dungeon contains a number of references to the Night Watch from A Song of Ice and Fire. The dungeon is a huge ice-crusted wall of a fortress in the frozen north, similar to the Wall. The dungeon's name, "Dusk Vigil" means the same thing as "Night Watch". The dungeon is filled with undead, icy zombies of the former defenders, similar to the Others the Night Watch are meant to defend the realm from. The quest to unlock the Dusk Vigil is titled "For All The Nights To Come", which is the last line of the Night Watch's oath. In addition to that, the last boss of the Dusk Vigil has an attack named "Winds Of Winter".
- The final level 60 quest for Culinarian ends up with a pure tribute to a Shokugeki in Food Wars!.
- In the Antitower, the first boss's lines include "The Lovers...The Dreamers...And Me!" and "it's not easy being..." It should be noted that the enemy in question is a singing frog.
- Alexander: Midas gets a homage to Humongous Mecha and Tokukatsu shows like Super Sentai, Power Rangers and Voltron on the 4th floor, but a specific reference is to an obscure group of Transformers, the Combaticons. From the names of the bosses all the way to the Combining Mecha gimmick.
- During the Hildibrand quests in Heavensward, Nashu mistakes gazebos for some form of dreadful beast.
- Several achievement chains for the Mentor Roulette are titled "I Hope Mentor Notices Me", which is taken from the popular meme "Notice Me, Senpai!" with Senpai being a similar title for mentor.
- For Little Ladies' Day 2016, the players are introduced to a group of, effectively, Eorzean Idol Singers who are on the rise in popularity. The name of the Lalafell member is Ulala.
- When fighting Mistbeard in Hullbreaker Isle (Hard), he will occasionally shout "The legend never dies!" He even wears a mask similar to the Mask of the Father.
- The description for Patch 3.3's Stone, Sky, & Sea: The Minstrel's Ballad: Nidhogg's Rage: "He who harkens to rambling bard's ballad of man who was dragon man who was maybe just dragon obsessed with burning people and thatched-roof cottages is either great warrior or great fool."
- Gaius van Baelsar resembles Grahf quite a bit.
- The Palace of the Dead shares its name with the one found in Tactics Ogre. The trailer for the Soul Surrender patch cements this reference further by using the same exact soundtrack.
- The Hildibrand quests in 3.4 require you to steal an old man's armor and pants. When handing them in as proof, the latter of the two has the description "The old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be..."
- The same quest chain has an old woman attempt to distract Cyr by telling him "Look behind you, it's a three-headed Goobbue". Trachtoum, the supposed member of the Company of Heroes who "prepares" you to fight Titan, claims the same thing to try and distract you during a boulder-breaking competition against him way back in "The Lominsan Way".
- An obscure one; the Au Ra Bairon tribe is described as a desert tribe who "are all trained from a very young age to collect and drink their own bodily fluids."
- In the boss battle against Susano, the Lord of Revel will become a giant and swing his giant sword down on the party. One of the party members will have to stop the blade in a Button Mashing segment which shows that player holding the giant sword up themselves. The scenario and game mechanic bear similarities to the first boss of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The comparison has been noticed.
- In the Ruby Seas area, there is the wreck of a ship named the Kobayashi Maru in the northeast corner of the map.
- In PvP, the 'Dueling Circle' is actually a square. Yoshi-P kinda had to ask why.
- At the hot springs in Kugane, you can find a roegadyn standing around in nothing but a subligar saying "It feels like I'm wearing ''nothing'' at all!". A nearby hyur looks away as he mutters "...Stupid sexy roegadyn..."
- Examining the Wind-Up Dezul Qualan has this text."Dezul Qualan began crafting war dirigibles after having a vision of ninety-nine red balloons floating over the Black Shroud."
- One of the attacks Byakko uses in his fight is called "Sweep the Leg", referring to the illegal move attempted on Daniel in The Karate Kid.
- In the sidequest "Crazy About Crystals", you are tasked with killing nixes, which are giant frogs. After you do, your questlog notes "What happens when you hit nixes with sharp metal objects? The same thing that happens to everything else."
- One of Shiva's attacks is Agrias' Heavenly Strike.
- In the duty Baelsar's Wall, one of the bosses is a prototype Magitech Armor. Though the magitech armors you see throughout the game are based off the magitech armor concept art from Final Fantasy VI, this particular boss is based off the actual sprite that appeared in game, complete with clawed arms.
- In one quest where you help carry bags full of mined leftovers for someone, the item description for said bags says "You load ten and six tonze, what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt..."
- A minion you can get in Kugane is called Wind-up Meateater with the flavor text "Watch out, boys, he'll (literally) chew you up."
- Seiryu's boss fight features two attacks called "Coursing River", which is followed by "Great Typhoon" if you get knocked into the water. Both of these are a reference to the lyrics of "I'll Make a Man Out of You".
- The promo art for FFXIV being on Windows 8 shows all the characters for the standard jobs positioned in a circle looking up.◊ It's very similar to the cover of the PSP remake of Tactics Ogre. Bonus points since the same artist did the art for both games.
- A lot of armor sets are direct references to Tactics Ogre. Dragoon for instance has the Valerian and Rune Fencer sets which look exactly like the Dragoon and Rune Fencer classes from Tactics Ogre respectively.
- The High Seraph Ultima's incantation for calling minions is the same one used for the Summon Darkness spell in Tactics Ogre.
- The Minion "OMG" (A Wind-Up Toy of Omega) has for its Description: "Weird. Technological. Fascinating." Yes, it's WTF. It also has a flamethrower it uses sometimes. Literally, it's a OMGWTFBBQ.
- In Savage, Omega's Level Checker will tether two players with a debuff described as causing gradual memory degradation. The tether's name? Chain of Memory.
- One of the outdoor furniture items is a Brick Garden Circle, and the description tells you that "All these squares make a circle."
- One of the minions you can get is a Shi Tzu puppy named Gestahl, in acknowledgement that the emperor of the same name in Final Fantasy VI really did look like a dog-headed person.
- In the climax of the allied beastmen quest in Stormblood, Nhaza'a Jaab gets thrown into the water as he escapes. A shark approaches him from behind with the accompanying Scare Chord music.
- The last quest in Hildibrand's Stormblood story involves a drug called Dewprism.
- Blink and you'll miss it, but during one particular massive jump in the Ridorana Lighthouse, one of the Moogles who accompanies the 24 adventurers to the lighthouse can be overheard singing, "But I would climb 500 yalms...~"
- A clear-cut musical reference exists in Dohn Mheg, where the soundtrack pulls inspiration from Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Faeries.
- In the Shadowbringers dungeon The Qitana Ravel, as the party moves outside above a waterfall after defeating the second boss, directly ahead is an enormous tree within a large forest, in front of which passes a flight of bright red birds. The scene makes a lovely visual reference to the title screen of Secret of Mana.
- Late in the Shadowbringers main story, the WoL arrives at a village of dwarves who all wear large horned helmets that conceal their faces, except for their eyes, which glow yellow, and their fluffy white beards. In one sidequest, the WoL must find a dwarf's hammer, which they learn originally belonged to a dwarven smith named Watt.
- While melodically the music for Thornmarch and Good King Moggle Mog XII's - may his pom pom be ever fluffy - theme is merely a Dark Reprise of the classic Moogle Theme used in the series since FFV, the orchestration as well as the chanting verses make parts of it nearly identical to "This Is Halloween"
- You can obtain Red Hare as a mount.
- One of the randomly generated surnames you can get for a Highlander Hyur is Redwyne.
- Sometime during Stormblood, the Laurel item had its flavor text edited to include "or as it is known by some, the yanny bush." This is in reference to a viral argument about a soundclip sounding like "yanny" to one half of the users while the other heard "laurel".
- The daytime background music track for Il Mheg, land of the faeries, is titled "Fierce and Free", which is almost a direct quote from one of the faeries in Legend (1985).
- The final zone of Shadowbringers is The Tempest. To make the reference very clear, the areas within include the Caliban Gorge and the Trinculo Shelf, and the background music is titled "Full Fathom Five".
- To further this, the Tales from the Shadows story "Ere Our Curtain Falls" ends with a soliloquy from Emet-Selch that begins by quoting the first two lines of Prospero's own famous soliloquy.
- The Sorrow of Werlyt quest chain seems to be a love letter to old school giant robot anime.
- While the Weapons are initially appear to be a Mythology Gag to Final Fantasy VII, they are also a homage to the Evangelion Units in being man-made biomechanical robots that can consume their pilots once their limiters are removed. This is best reflected in the second phase of the Ruby Weapon battle when a giant white, naked clone of Nael Van Darnus bursts out of the Weapon's back, sprouts wings and attacks you with a giant red moon. Two of the attacks are even called Impacts.
- While the Diamond Weapon functions like Evangelion Unit 01 in protecting its pilot and killing the project's overseer, the soul bonded to it is named Alphonse.
- The "G-Warrior" warmachina is a love-leter to the Gundam series, taking after the ∀ Gundam (or Barbatos Gundam) in being excavated from a bygone age and the Gundam 00 Raiser in appearance and abilities. Plus it strikes the same iconic pose as the ZZ Gundam when it sorties into battle.
- As a reward for completing the Sorrow of Werlyt questline, players are gifted the "G-Warrior MG" housing decoration. While the tooltip says the "MG" stands for "Master Garlond", those familiar with Gunpla kits will recognize the short-form of the 1/100th-scale "Master Grade" line.
- The final quest of the line, "Forever at Your Side", is also similar to the ending of Zeta Gundam, as both Allie and Kamille end up in dissociative, coma-like states at the end of SoW and Zeta respectively. Allie recovers at the end, as does Kamille in ZZ.
- Some of your dialog options before starting the duty are I Have Control, G-Warrior, Engage! and Understood.
- Not to an anime, but talking to the Rueful Civilian in Terncliff after defeating Sapphire WEAPON will yield one to Pink Floyd: if you ask him to tell you about himself, he'll describe himself as "just another sad old man, all alone and dying of... well, I doubt you'd care even if I told you."
- The Mid-Season Upgrade the G-Warrior obtains is called the G-Saviour, and bears a certain resemblance to the Gundam "Dendrobium" deployed towards the end of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, including especially the huge missile pod "backpack" that dwarfs the actual mech, complete with missiles that shoot smaller missiles.
- The references continue in the Cloud Deck Trial, where using the teleporters to move between the platforms will give you a debuff called Immobile Suit, an obvious pun on the Gundam franchise's mobile suits.
- The Weapons themselves act as popular machines as well. The Ruby Weapon isn't based off of a Gundam-based suit but seems to act like the Black Salena/Akito's Aestivalis Custom from Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness. The Emerald Weapon resembles and acts like the Quin Mansa from Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and the Diamond Weapon acts like the Neue Ziel of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory.
- While the Weapons are initially appear to be a Mythology Gag to Final Fantasy VII, they are also a homage to the Evangelion Units in being man-made biomechanical robots that can consume their pilots once their limiters are removed. This is best reflected in the second phase of the Ruby Weapon battle when a giant white, naked clone of Nael Van Darnus bursts out of the Weapon's back, sprouts wings and attacks you with a giant red moon. Two of the attacks are even called Impacts.
- If you're planning to enter the Triple Triad Battlehall, you need to know the first rule of Triple Triad Battlehall: You talk to everyone about the Triple Triad Battlehall.
- If you're a participant in Chocobo Racing, you might encounter race chocobo named "Speed Racer", or even "Barrel Roll".
- The Heroes Gauntlet dungeon culminates in a fight against a "Distant Ideal" named "Spectral Berserker" - essentially a phantom of a long-lost hero, as all the foes in the dungeon have been. And even more specifically, the boss appears to be a rendition of Heracles from Greek mythology, the OG Berserker from the visual novel - one of his lines states how his blood is boiling, a reference to Heracles' fate in myth.
- Early in the 2021 Fanfest wherein Endwalker was announced, some joking suggestions of enemies to be fought on the moon were thrown about by Naoki Yoshida and Koji Fox, including an Evangelion. One of the foes later confirmed to be fought in the upcoming expansion is Anima, which much like the Evangelions is the soul of a major character's mother imprisoned and weaponized in the form of a titanic monster.
- An alternate text command for the "Sweat" emote is "/tillyoubleed".
- The entirety of Elpis reveals startling paralells with the Kingdom of Zeal and the Ascians. Two advanced civilizations working on things far beyond the present time, peoples blessed with incredible abilities, having utopias of sheer beauty (Elpis itself even looks like the Zeal kingdom as depicted) destroyed by "End of the World" scenarios and even both in the past. One would think Corridors of Time would be a fitting background theme for that map.
- The Scions traveling to the end of the universe to face a despair-inducing Hivemind of god-like power with a female representative, some of their members sacrificing themselves so the others can reach their foe, bares similarities to the final arc of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- The final dungeon of Endwalker, The Dead Ends, has a section where the party goes through an apocalyptic scenario on a star eerily reminiscent of modern day Earth where the end of the world is brought about by rogue AI bent on destroying humanity for the sake of peace. The name of this section? Judgment Day.
- The description for the "Play Dead" emote on the Online Store notes that the death animations are unique for every race and gender and suggests you "try them with your friends and let the bodies hit the floor".
- In a Twitch streaming interview, the writers admitted that they were inspired by Kaworu from Evangelion when writing Elidibus/Themis's introduction scene in Elpis. This also works as an Actor Allusion as both were voiced by Akira Ishida.
- Hesperos, the final boss of Pandaemonium Asphodelos, is a walking homage to Dracula from Castlevania. He's a vampire in all but name dressed in a similar fancy outfit complete with a cape driven to villainy in part because of his deep feelings towards one person, and in Savage, he gains a One-Winged Angel form reminiscent of Dracula's most iconic transformation.
- Following up Hesperos, Pandaemonium Abyssos reveals Lahabrea's family to be a massive homage to the Birkin family from Resident Evil 2. The parents are scientists who oversee the lives of horrific monstrosities while also raising a child, and both turn out to be morally dubious at best (Lahabrea/Remake Annette) or monsters with few or no redeeming qualities at worst (Athena and Hephaistos/William and Original Annette). Their child turns out to be key to the current plot by virtue of simply being their child. Like Hesperos with Dracula, Hephaistos, who serves as the final boss of the tier, references William's G forms in battle, hideously transforming at various points and, in Savage, his transformation to his One-Winged Angel form starts on the right arm and puts focus on a giant eye that grows there - the exact same way William started transforming. As an added bonus, his Savage form uses attacks that contain the word Tyrant, a nod to the iconic ultimate weapons of Umbrella.
- In the quest Booking Books, the last book is described as being about a Bangaa handmaiden and her lance with the back of the cover saying "Restricted". A reference to the Lusty Argonian Maid.
- The Landerwaffe mount (a dragon-shaped airbike) is named after a dragon from a pre-merger-to-Enix-Squaresoft game, Bahamut Lagoon. The quote attached to the bike, "Wow, you're swifter than a salamander!" in Japanese is a exact wording of one of the most infamous lines from the same game.
- After fighting Suzaku, Soroban comes flying in spinning with flames coming from his shell. To which Tataru exclaims: It's a firebird! It's an airship!"
Legacy specific
- In Ul'dah at "The Platinum Mirage", a Mammet will tell your fortune. After analyzing you, he can tell you "The answer... is 42."
- In the Twelveswood surrounding Gridania, there is a type of Galago (monkey-creatures) called "Curious Galago".
- The Quests for the battles against Ifrit in 1.0 were called "It Kills With Fire" and "Ifrit Bleeds, We Can Kill It". The latter is reused as the unlocking quest for The Bowl of Embers (Hard) in ARR.
- In a city to the west of Limsa, there's a Roegadyn named "Immodest Mouse".
- Immodest Mouse returns in Stormblood, as a farmer on the outskirts of a village in the Peaks.