Possible References and Inspirations in Undertale 

Spoilers Flowey is a flower

It's also worth noting that Alphy's finds all her anime in the dump. Which means she watches literal garbage-tier anime.

"Possible Inspirations and references in Undertake" "Ok guys it's Earthbound goodnight!"

This game has Earthbound written all over it

→Horned monster that protects the humans. →Sadist flower. →Main character is a human in a world of monsters/youkai who may or may not want to exterminate everyone. →That one boss that keeps coming back everytime you think you won the battle. →The bosses talk too much. →Musics that make you shiver. →4th wall breaks. →Shy scientist. →Cute undead monsters. →You have to dodge a lot. →Most of the times it's 6 bosses. →314159 ending screens. Undertale seems to have heavy Touhou inspiration...

I'm pretty sure the Pyrope enemy is a refrence to Terezi Pyrope.

15:14 Yeah, toby said he used mario paint to make some music.

You missed the touhou references. The structure of Undertale's story: A bunch of monsters get driven underground, is very similar to the backstory of touhou 11 where a bunch of oni and youkai were driven underground. Flowey's bullet patterns are also really similar to the bossfight Marisa Kirisame. There are others but I don't want to go on forever x3

Ness calls Dad: Calling your dad gives you DETERMINATION Lucas talks to a frog: Knowing that the frog takes good care of your data, gives you DETERMINATION

Mind if I contribute some more additions? 1. Dogsong is possibly inspired by the Homestuck songs "Walls Covered in Blood" and "Nepeta's Theme". Both use the Mario Paint cat sound effect, and the former sounds almost exactly like it was written in Mario Paint. Toby Fox composed both songs, as well. 2. The Temmie race is named after the game's artist, Temmie "Tuyoki" Chang. According to Temmie's tumblr account, she based their appearance off of a doodle somebody made for her without knowing what she looked like; Temmie adopted the design as her mascot, and they're used to represent her in Undertale, like how the Annoying Dog represents Toby.

homestuck/undertale land similarities: waterfall - LOWAS hotland - LOHAC

3:56 I think their themes' tones are different. Omega Flowey's theme is fast paced, while Giygas's "theme" is just creepy ambience.

In the Omega Flowey battle, not only are there inspirations from Giygas, but Flowey's character is very similar to Porky's and it even boils down to extremely similar quotes used: Flowey:"Your worthless friends...can't save you now!" Porky: "No one will help you now!" Flowey:"Call for help. I dare you. Cry into the darkness! Mommy! Daddy! Somebody help!" Porky:"Do you want to scream for help here in the dark?! Why not call your mommy, Ness! Say, "Mommy! Daddy! I'm so frightened! I think I'm gonna wet my pants!"" Also, in the battle with Undyne on Neutral or Pacifist playthroughs, one of the things that will appear in the flavor text box says "Undyne heroically points toward the sky" which could be a reference to Kamina from Gurren Lagann, as he is often depicted making the same pose.

Here's a little contribution as well, this game uses TONS of Chrono Trigger's sound samples from it's soundtrack, mostly in the tracks ''Battle against a true hero'' and ''Reunited'' in Chrono Trigger, the whole game revolves around time travel, something that sans is known for doing and knowing a lot about, a fun fact is that in Chrono Trigger's soundtrack, there's a piece called ''Determination'' which is used in moments where the characters don't give up to give peace to earth. Chrono trigger also has something peculiar, in this game, the humans cannot use magic anymore, they used to before, but after certain events, they were forbidden to use it, and now, only certain MONSTERS and CREATURES can use magic in this world, coincidence?

Anyone else thought of Yukari's(touhou) hat when seeing the hat of Tsunderplane?

The ruins looks reminiscent of Derse Judgement hall looks reminiscent prospit Waterfall is like VERY SIMULAR LOWAS The core and hotland looks VERY SIMULAR to LOHACW Another medium is a reference to the medium

Death by Glamour is based of one of Toby's own creations, Noisemaster's Theme from Cucumber Quest. It also along with Core, Another Medium and Waterfall is based of an unfinished Homestuck song by Toby called Patient, which was meant to be a counterpart to and remix of Doctor(a Homestuck song by George Bunzinkai, Micheal Vallejo and Clark Powell) . Doctor is also inspired by Moonsong from Cavestory (I don't know the artist).

I think it's pretty well-known by now that Toby used the Final Fantasy VI, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger soundfonts in a few songs. "But The Earth Refused to Die"'s title is also a reference to the unique game over for Lavos in Chrono Trigger, "But... the future refused to change."

That buff horse-thing was totally inspired by Equius

The Baby is You. I love you if you get this reference. Toby, you can never forget.

Looking into Homestuck would be very relevant. Homestuck, like Undertale, happens in a world inside a game, where the game mechanics become relevant plot elements.

Amalgamate is probably also inspired after the battle with the Circus Tent in Earthbound as well, since that is the only other battle that really takes up the screen in that game.

Follow up video is up now: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I5hhOnCMWL8.html

Toriel look like Sariel and Keine Btw im touhou fan :3

"Living With Determination" on the True Lab. Fucking hell, Toby. If that is not some bizarre coincidence, how did you even think of that off the top of your head for the game?

Yo I just wanted to thank everyone here for the comments. There's a lot of great suggestions here.

In Snowdin, there's a small dog house and if you go up to it, it says "Must be bigger on the inside." Doctor Who reference.

When i heard megalovania in undertale it struck me. I had heard it before. And it scared me a bit. Shook me a bit. After i beat sans it hit me. Homestuck. I laughed my ass off

I'm honestly disappointed that nobody has managed to notice the similarities to P-Body and Atlas that Papyrus and Sans have. Their colors and height match perfectly. How the hell am I the only one to call this out so far?

I FOUND IT I FOUND SOMEONE TALKING ABOUT GHOST TRICK YAAAAAAAAAS

imo Dating Tense! (8:20) sounds A LOT more like Investigation 2002 (Core) from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All.

This video fills me with... The desire to play Earthbound What? Did you think that I was going to say Determination? I don't do drugs!

There's also the fact that Hotland is a direct rip of the Land of Heat and Clockwork from Homestuck. Also, the Pyrope, a rope on fire, references Terezi Pyrope, a Homestuck character that loves hanging people with rope and has a crush on a character in the Land of Heat and Clockwork.

Napstablook and Dummy's themes could've been inspired by Pepper Steak from the OFF soundtrack. Also, the Flowey boss fight could've been inspired by Cyriak because the boss fight has a lot of images animated in an unsettling way, similar to Cyriak's work.

Psh I've watched so many Undertale videos now I have practically played all three endings multiple times without getting the game

I'm glad they said memory head looks like giygas.

I'd like to add in that it's possible that the first encounter with Napstablook could be inspired by the game OFF, where the main character is fighting ghosts (spectres) and the main battle theme sounds very swing-like, much like Napstablook's.

11:40 What's the name of that cartoon?

The hell nobody realize Touhou 11 SA all almost similiar to UT?? -_- and mostly some of Touhou music as well. Just soo we know I guess UT was combination to all games hmm..

its funny when he said equius zahhak and it showed is lusus xD

In the Asriel Dreemur fight, the move "Star Blazing" should be a reference to "PK Starstorm"in Mother 3, or "PSI Starstorm" in Earthbound

Mahou Shojo Madoka Magica could be a reference on the design of Omega Flowey, it is similar to the witches design

3 endings? There's 5 endings! True Pacifist Ending Neutral Ending Genocide Ending Soulless Pacifist Ending Dirty Hacker Ending

I was just expecting "earthbound" "earthbound" "earthbound" x100 But honestly, I was going to check out earthbound, but everything in it looks creepy as hell.

Temmies are kind inspired by the Mr. Saturns in the Mother series (or Earthbound in America)

that's probably NOT a reference, but it's something i noticed, at 17:02 the "persona 3" music has the phrase: "living with determination", that maybe it's connected with the fact that the monsters in the true lab are deformed living with determination injected in their bodies.

I love the megalovania bit. It's like hearing it evolve over the years, just wonderful~ It gets a little more complicated in each one.

cave story earthbound homestruck persona mario paint ghost blue Phoenix wright Touhou Jojo Yume Nikki Shin Megami Tensei

Well, when you think about it, this game draws *heavy* inspiration to Touhou, doesn't it? In both games, The monster race (or "Youkai", as the Touhou games calls it) are driven to a sealed place where no one, in theory, could cross to either side because the Human race made them almost extinct. The fights on both games are in Bullet hell style (or variants thereof), in which the style of their bullets and shots depends on the persons. The boss monsters are all humanoid in looks, similar to how all youkais in Touhou are humanoid. The main character are both human, and eventually befriends the characters in the games. I haven't even getting into the character connections and some music ideas, but you get the idea.

what about one of the enemies called _pyrope_ ? one of the homestuck characters name is terezi _pyrope_

7:51 OMG HOW AM I JUST REALIZING THAT XD I'M A FAN OF BOTH GAMES AND I'M JUST REALIZING X3

The fist time I heard about Homestuck and now I'm finished with it wow

Oh! I thought alphys was inspired by a Simpson!

yo... that picture you used for equius... wasn't equius....

Dogsong and THE PLACE were very accurate. Really Nice job.

I personally like Homestuck's version of Megalovania or MeGaLoVania!

Here's some additional references. If you pay careful attention to bullet patterns in Undertale you'll see similarities to touhou boss bullet patterns. For Example, King Asgore's bullet patterns share a striking resemblance to Patchouli Knowledge(Touhou 6: Stage 4). Another matching bullet patterns is Yuyuko (Touhou 7: Final Boss) with Flower's Bullet patterns and even Asriel Dreemurr's bullet patterns. Toby Fox did mention Touhou was also an inspiration for the game.

That wasn't equius, that was his lusus, lmao, also temmie village is very similar to Mr Saturn's village

The part where flowey laughed at you and closes your browser might be a reference to the part where Caliborn gets in control of Homestuck

I was waiting for the Alphys and Francis comparison...

kinda crazy that the name of the song from persona 3 was called "living with determination"

Frisk = Madotsuki???

bacon... bacon is always the answer

17:10 The song says 'Living with *Determination*' OMG

*Cough Cough* Jade Harley *Cough* Homestuck *Cough Cough* MTT Hotel *Cough*

What about the Spider Croissants on Muffet's table? Could it be a reference to the original Legend of Zelda as examining it gives the player a message of mistaking it for a Power Band? Because a Power Band exists in the Legend of Zelda that is similar in shape, and can be viewed as a croissant.

The annoying dog is also probably an Earthbound reference, as there was also a dog (named Ruffini) in EB that was "possessed by the spirit of the game dev." In addition, Mt Ebott is a potential Mother reference. Mother had a mountain called Mt. Itoi, named after Shigesato Itoi, the creator of the game. "Ebott" is just "Toby" pronounced backwards.

I love PW:AA Cornered, I automatically knew that the Papyrus Date had it when I heard it. So happy that you had it included here.

I would say that Naptablook and his battle theme could be inspired by the game Off

I feel like this dude deserves more subs because of his formality. Like, this is very well done video. Not just one of those "top 10" list you seen thown around with everything spoken in on screen captions

omg i appreciate you touching on homestuck SO much, many people barely mention it or ignore completely in their videos

Went back to this vid 5 years later and realized the PERSONA REFERENCE

undertale has so many homestuck references even the title is one.

6:53 pretty sure it's "I, UNDYNE, WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN!" now. they changed it

every time I listen to "the place", I get shivers

This video introduced me to jojo, and i will always thank you for that!

Aaron represents Equius Zahhak's guardian. Not Equius himself

Here's a reference that I have noticed. When you spare Papyrus, he says: "You must be shacking in your boots! Right before you enter Twoson, I'm sorry I spelled it wrong, The officers best you up for traspassing in the caves. One of the Officers say : You must be shacking in your boots!

great gameplay, great story, lots of secrets and mysteries and a ton of different references and a patchwork of inspirations......wow Undertale really is something!

Woah bro so cool never would have come up with this conclusion myself. Totally don’t know you but I feel connected at a soul level now. You finish my shower thoughts like the ones I have daily on the toilet.

15:50 - The 3rd part of the Amalgamate theme also has a peculiar tone in the background that can be heard in "Giygas' Intimidation" from Earthbound. Which I reckon you sort of touch up on in your next video, the whole song is definitely inspired by Giygas' presence which you did catch.

"Well back to business." *Hears Megalovania Oh wait I clicked back XD

So I was wearing my headphones when and when Gasters sound font thing (idk) started playing it scared the shit out of me :D

Great! I couldn't find anything better than this video (: thanks!

"It must be bigger on the inside" (EDIT:The song is actually called Amalgam, Not Amalgamate) **THINKS DOCTOR WHO**

I'm supposed to be watching this RU-vid video, but this one ad keeps kicking my ass.

I know for a fact that Uboa was a major inspiration for W.D Gaster. You can find them almost the same way, they look the same, and plus in the halloween hack toby made, he uses the Uboa sprite (you can see it in the video)

He put the wrong picture for Equius but apart from that, huge respect for delving deep into research

It could just be a coincidence, but I think that Flowey (particularly his boss fight) has a lot of references to Marx from Kirby Super Star. Even the vibes of the characters (cute traitors) are similar. Plus, Jevil from Deltarune seems to be influenced by Marx, or maybe Dimentio from Super Paper Mario.

16:10 I was wearing ear buds and that made my ears feel weird

i know this is ancient, but I got a huge chill throughout my whole body (like some get from terror or fury) the moment I saw giygas, and I haven't even gotten the second character in earthbound.

Well, "The blank expression"is a tradition to all RPG protagonist.

I got this from the actual page of Undertale in Wikipedia. Source is from here; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undertale#Development Basically, it's all about the talking system in Undertale, like the interaction and dialogue. I'll spare you with more details that will babble out of my mouth. *In an interview with The Escapist, Fox listed off inspirations for the game: "The talking system came from Shin Megami Tensei. I feel that it's important to make every monster feel like an individual. If you think about it basically all monsters in RPGs like Final Fantasy are the same, save for the graphics. They attack you, you heal, you attack them, they die. There's no meaning to that."*

There is another webcomic called Cucumber Quest that includes a character called Noise Master that Toby Fox wrote fan music for. It sounds almost exactly like the leitmotif in Death by Glamour.

Great video I really enjoyed it !!

“Battle against a true hero” is insipred by the music style of “Touhou project”

The thing shown at 11:08 is in Wingdings, but it says: DARK DARKER YET DARKER THE DARKNESS

There is also quite a lot of references to OFF, which is also a great game.

Oh my lord the opening with the abyss then the whoopee cushion has me in stitches