Piranha Plant's side special, Poison Breath, seems to come from the Paper Mario series, specifically from the Putrid Piranhas from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Piranha Plant's "bud" even changes color to match a Putrid Piranha's yellow and red color scheme during the attack. This would make Piranha Plant the only Mario series character to have a move derived from the Paper Mario series.
In the living room of the Border House, to the left of the corkboard, there is a small, unmarked wall area that when hovered over will reveal a caption for a "Painting". Clicking it will instead cause April to walk to the adjacent right wall where the unseen painting is hung and comment:
April: "It's a reproduction of an early Lebowski. Not a particular favorite of mine, but, there ya are."
During the cutscene "Vision in the Living Room" which is only played if April has chosen to not work the evening shift at the Fringe Café, a shot of the painting depicting an abstract rendition of a woman's head can be seen. This painting appears to be a caricature of American actress Julianne Moore, who appeared one year prior to The Longest Journey's release in the 1998 film "The Big Lebowski" in the role of artist Maude Lebowski, suggesting that the painting may be a self-portrait.
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Leon's battle theme in the Battle Tower, composed by Undertale and Deltarune creator Toby Fox, appears to interpolate the track "A Baby Legend - The Baby is 2", from The Baby is You, a 2010 concept album by Fox based on the webcomic Homestuck. The choice of interpolation garnered attention for its strangeness by the standards of a Nintendo-affiliated game, as The Baby is You was a joke album about male pregnancy, made to poke fun at the Homestuck forum's rule against fanart surrounding the topic.
In the Canalave Library there is a Book that was not in the original games for the DS, called the "The Sea's Legend", that the game describes as being "recently discovered" and that states the mysterious following text:
Spoiler:"Once upon a time in the East Sea, there was a Pokémon known as the prince. A brave human asked Pokémon living in the sea to let them see the prince. Mantyke, Buizel, and a Quilfish with huge spikes acknowledged the human's bravery and joined them. Together, they set off in a boat over the sunset-streaked sea, sailing through the ocean gate stretched over the waves. News of this reached the ears of the prince, who went to meet the brave little party at the Seaside Hollow."
It's possible that this text was put into Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Spoiler:to tease the upcoming game Pokemon Legends: Arceus via giving the player a hint of a storyline or event that may happen in the latter game's plot. Furthering the suspicious nature of the text, Game Freak, when sending out review copies of the games, forbid any reviewer from talking about any of the text in the library.
In an interview with VGC for The GameCubes's 20th anniversary, veteran Rare developer Martin Hollis revealed that not only was he among the first people to see "Project Dolphin", but also that he was possibly responsible for the GameCube's name and theme:
“I arrived in Kyoto, went into the big building, and Mr. Miyamoto and his team straight away took me to this empty meeting room and sat me down in front of a television [...] They switched it on, and Miyamoto told me to press the A button on the controller. I pressed it and the purple rolling cubes appeared on screen with the boot up music that we now know so well, revealing the GameCube name. [...] As the on-screen reveal happened, Mr. Miyamoto stared at my face intensely! That was my initiation, which was maybe because I’d actually suggested the name ‘Cube’ during my time at NTD. Months earlier I did a sheet of paper at Nintendo of America with a whole load of suggestions for names and one of them was ‘Star Cube’ or something like that.”
Nintendo did indeed trademark "Starcube" lending more legitimacy to Hollis' suspicion.
In May 2021, Richard Raaphorst who directed the 2013 film "Frankenstein's Army" accused Capcom of plagiarism, because the boss enemy Sturm looks almost identical to one of the monsters in the film.
The internal name for the Alaska level on the game disc is "05_GREENLAND". this suggests that the level was originally going to be themed around and take place in the Dutch-owned island of Greenland instead of the U.S. state of Alaska.
Also, internal file names for the Pacific Island level ("07_EASTERISLAND") reveal that it was possibly supposed to be Easter Island (Rapa Nui).
In Level 7: Outpost, the hidden area where that level's Elysian Archive code can be found earns you an achievement called "Loekrise Kingdom". In that area, a small tent and clothesline are set up surrounding the code by a shoreline, with a message laid out in rocks along the shore that reads "LOEKRISE KINGDOM". This is believed to be a reference to the 2012 film "Moonrise Kingdom".
A model and a self-heal ability parameter for Ratchet were extensively worked on, suggesting the Autobot Medic was going to play a bigger role in the game than just appearing in cutscenes, possibly as a playable character in the Autobot Campaign or as a boss in the Decepticon Campaign.
On the disc, there is an unused character called "Evil Bumblebee" with black blood-splatter-like spots on his vehicle mode, which is Bee's old '77 Camaro alt mode. It is unknown if this was supposed to be a separate character from Bumblebee or the same character sporting a different look.
Cyclonus' signature Mini-Con Crumplezone appears attached to Cyclonus' Vehicle Mode as his cockpit, but in Robot mode, instead of appearing alongside Cyclonus or part of his "chest", he instead appears attached to his left arm. It's possible this was done by the developers to make the Decepticon a little more intimidating during his boss battle.
If the player has enough meter then they can have Jill preform two Supers consecutively. If this is done a certain way and timed well while the Tyrant is on the level, she will fire a rocket launcher at it and the opponent it is attacking, Spoiler:making it look like the ending to Resident Evil (1996) where Jill does the same thing to the Tyrant to defeat it.
Around Peter Quill's room and house there are many seemingly fictional things that are actually homages to 1980's pop culture media, but with the names, concepts or brands slightly changed or parodied:
•Prouix Calculator Wristwatch Advertisement - Based on real calculator wristwatches sold by companies like Casio.
•"The Lost Starwalker" Film Poster - A spoof of the film "The Last Starfighter" and its poster.
•"Caves & Creatures" Table-top RPG - Based on table-top RPGs popular in the 1980's such as the Dungeons & Dragons series.
•"Furthings" Monster Film Poster - Parody of the film "Gremlins".
•A banana figurine playing the guitar - Resembles the old McDonald's mascot "Mac Tonight".
•"Nukegames" - a take on the film "WarGames", the plotline of which involves nuclear warfare.
•"Deathtrap Dungeon" book - An homage to "Choose Your Own Adventure" books.
•"Robot Within" newspaper ad - The poster's imagery and film's concept is a callback to the sci-fi horror film "They Live".
•"Animal Graveyard" novel - An homage to Stephen King's novel "Pet Semetary".
•"VROOM!" Show TV magazine ad - A reference to popular 80s action show "Knight Rider".
There is an unused Splitscreen mode in the game's data that seems to imply that the Story Mode was going to support Local Co-op instead of just the Online Co-op it supports in the final release.
Within the data for Chapter 2 is an unused attack for Spoiler:Spamton NEO in which the player is limited to shifting the SOUL between three horizontal planes while dodging oncoming oversized bullets. This attack functions identically to the Purple SOUL mechanic in Undertale, implying that at one point, Spoiler:the Spamton NEO fight was intended to be based around that rather than the Yellow SOUL mechanic.
There is an unused Game Modes tab on the disc that comes with data suggesting that there were other game modes planned like "Boss Mode" and "Explore Mode", however no further data exists on these modes.
There are a total of 21 unused Mini-Cons in the game's data, some of which appear as text strings while the rest appear to resemble JSON files. However, two were extensively worked on before being scrapped. The first one was called "Endgame" and would have summoned large "holes in the fabric of space" that would have sucked enemies and objects into them. The second dropped Mini-Con is called "Bug-Out" and would have called upon "Emergency Warp Gates". Although Endgame was scrapped, his model was reused for in-game Mini-Cons Discord, Twister, and Overwatch.
Spamton draws a number of parallels to Mettaton from Undertale throughout his character arc in Chapter 2:
• Both characters have names ending in "-ton", and both Spoiler:have NEO forms that can be optionally encountered. Speaking with Swatch after Spoiler:defeating Spamton NEO on the normal route implies that Spoiler:the robot that became Spamton NEO's body was designed by Deltarune's equivalent of Mettaton. • Both characters speak in all-caps with idiosyncratic speech patterns (staggered text scrolling for Mettaton, random bracketed text and typos for Spamton). • The purchasable Spamton-shaped mannequin in Cyber City wears the same dress Mettaton does during the latter's opera performance. • Before fighting him on the Neutral and Pacifist routes in Undertale, Mettaton makes a statement that appears to align with the protagonist's goals before quickly responding with "NOT!!!" Spoiler:On the Weird Route in Deltarune, Spamton NEO makes a similar jab, even using the exact same formatting for the "NOT!!!" response. • Spoiler:Both Spamton NEO and Mettaton utilize similar mechanics in their fights. Both are fought using the Yellow SOUL, both include miniature versions of themselves with their own attacks, both use identical cross-exploding bombs, both feature attacks where the player must shoot their hearts (which fire back in turn), and both fights involve a free turn for the player (Mettaton EX taking a break, Spamton NEO being attacked by his own phone). • Spoiler:Spamton NEO's "Check" description reads "He's his own worst invention." This nods back to Mettaton NEO's "Check" description, "Dr. Alphys's greatest invention." • Spoiler:One line of flavor text in Spamton NEO's fight reads "The stage lights are shattered," nodding back to flavor text in Mettaton NEO's fight that reads "Stage lights are blaring." • Spoiler:Spamton NEO's battle theme, "BIG SHOT", samples Mettaton NEO's battle theme, "Power of 'NEO'". • Spoiler:Spamton NEO's ultimate attack on the Weird Route includes mock VCR HUD icons that read "WRECK" and "SPEW", nodding back to Mettaton EX's "REC"/"REW" attack.
The game went through a number of early titles throughout development including "Transformers Armada" (which was the name shipped with review copies of the game), "Transformers Armada: The Battle for Energon" and "Transformers Armada: Prelude to Energon", all of which bear the name of the show and toy line that it's based upon. However, when the game was launched at retail, the name was changed to just "Transformers" for unknown reasons.
If the player waits on the title screen for 2 minutes, a secret cutscene will play out featuring a mother and daughter, named Connie and Dakota, encountering the outbreak in Wilamette and fruitlessly fending off zombies from their car. These characters bear striking resemblances to Spoiler:psychopath Cliff Hudson's daughter and granddaughter in the photo found in his wallet after he is defeated.
In the living room of the Border House, to the left of the corkboard, there is a small, unmarked wall area that when hovered over will reveal a caption for a "Painting". Clicking it will instead cause April to walk to the adjacent right wall where the unseen painting is hung and comment:
In Level 7: Outpost, the hidden area where that level's Elysian Archive code can be found earns you an achievement called "Loekrise Kingdom". In that area, a small tent and clothesline are set up surrounding the code by a shoreline, with a message laid out in rocks along the shore that reads "LOEKRISE KINGDOM". This is believed to be a reference to the 2012 film "Moonrise Kingdom".
A model and a self-heal ability parameter for Ratchet were extensively worked on, suggesting the Autobot Medic was going to play a bigger role in the game than just appearing in cutscenes, possibly as a playable character in the Autobot Campaign or as a boss in the Decepticon Campaign.
Cyclonus' signature Mini-Con Crumplezone appears attached to Cyclonus' Vehicle Mode as his cockpit, but in Robot mode, instead of appearing alongside Cyclonus or part of his "chest", he instead appears attached to his left arm. It's possible this was done by the developers to make the Decepticon a little more intimidating during his boss battle.
Within the data for Chapter 2 is an unused attack for Spoiler:Spamton NEO in which the player is limited to shifting the SOUL between three horizontal planes while dodging oncoming oversized bullets. This attack functions identically to the Purple SOUL mechanic in Undertale, implying that at one point, Spoiler:the Spamton NEO fight was intended to be based around that rather than the Yellow SOUL mechanic.
There is an unused Game Modes tab on the disc that comes with data suggesting that there were other game modes planned like "Boss Mode" and "Explore Mode", however no further data exists on these modes.
Spamton draws a number of parallels to Mettaton from Undertale throughout his character arc in Chapter 2:
If the player waits on the title screen for 2 minutes, a secret cutscene will play out featuring a mother and daughter, named Connie and Dakota, encountering the outbreak in Wilamette and fruitlessly fending off zombies from their car. These characters bear striking resemblances to Spoiler:psychopath Cliff Hudson's daughter and granddaughter in the photo found in his wallet after he is defeated.