Raz's Archetype is voiced by Rosearik Rikki Simons, the voice of GIR from the American animated series "Invader Zim", as a direct compliment to Raz's voice actor Richard Steven Horvitz, who was the voice of the titular Zim, in order to recreate their character dynamic from the series.
The last two sets of challenges in Paprika World in Challenge Land are named "Wario... Where?" and substitute the Rhythm Heaven characters for guest appearances by characters from the WarioWare series, a nod to how both series share the same artist and character designer Ko Takeuchi.
On a bulletin board in the room with security monitors that's shut off when Leon sees Ashley, there's an image of a hamster-like monster. This is actually taken from the cover art of Bloodwych, a 1989 RPG dungeon crawler, originally developed for the Commodore 64 and eventually released on half a dozen 8-bit home computer systems.
A secret boss can be found in the third part of the game's eighth and final chapter Orbital Oblivion, though its existence remained widely unknown for seven years following the game's release until footage of how to reach it was uploaded to YouTube in 2009.
In order to access the boss, Spoiler:first collect all Nukes in the game on Hard difficulty to unlock the X-3000, an automatic "lightning gun" that can target all on-screen enemies. Next, replay the third part of Orbital Oblivion collecting all Nukes again, and then make your way to Mech Morphix's giant Duke cyborg. On the second floor housing its moving arm, there is a path in front of it with two large green vials, one of which is knocked over, and can now be used to access the boss.Spoiler:Going down the path will transport Duke to a barren, rocky platform in outer space, with Earth close by in the background and the secret boss floating in front of him, a giant green orb of energy named Wozma, a parody of the superboss Ozma from Final Fantasy IX. Defeating the boss will send Duke back to its entrance in front of the cyborg arm.
Scorpia is the pseudonym of a video game journalist who was most active from the early 1980's through 2009 and was known for writing controversial and harsh reviews of adventure and RPG games published in Computer Gaming World magazine. One of her most notable reviews was a lukewarm review of Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World that supposedly angered the game's designer, Jon Van Caneghem, so much he wrote a lengthy response defending the game and lambasting the review that was also published in the magazine. He then named an enemy after Scorpia in the game's sequel, Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra. In a 2019 interview with Kotaku UK, Scorpia stated there was never any true bad blood between her and Caneghem, but expressed disappointment that he didn't make the monster she was named after "big and nasty".
Upon completing the game once on any difficulty, additional costumes for Heather become unlockable via cheat codes entered on a new menu accessible from the title screen. Exclusively for the PlayStation 2 version of the game, 14 codes were released as promotional tie-ins with 8 North American and 6 European video game media outlets, with each outlet's costume adorned with their respective logos. The participating companies and the codes to unlock their costumes include:
North America: • Electronic Gaming Monthly, an American magazine, "EGMpretaporter" • Game Informer, an American magazine, "gameinformer" • GamePro, an American magazine, "ProTip" • GMR, an American/Canadian magazine, "GMRownzjoo" • Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, an American magazine, "SH3_OPiuM" • PlayStation Magazine, an American magazine, "badical" • IGN.com, an American website, "IGN_pickleboy" • GameSpy.com, an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware, "iaml33t"
Europe: • 13ème Rue, a French cable network, unlocked with the code "Suspense" • Game Reactor, a Scandinavian magazine, "SH3_Wrestlarn" • Play, a British magazine, "sLmLdGhSmKfBfH" • G@me Network, an Italian cable network, "IwannabeaGJ" • Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine, a British magazine, "extra_thumbs" • PlayStation 2 Revista Oficial - España, a Spanish magazine, "MATADOR"
A fully functional enemy known as the Squid was cut from the game prior to release. It was planned to appear in the Bluff Eversmoking and Dasa Mountain Pass maps, but can still be used in user-made maps and mods, or be summoned into the regular game.
During the "Tali: Treason" Loyalty Mission, Shepard is introduced to Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib, with the "vas Qwib-Qwib" part referring to the ship he lives in following his Pilgrimage away from the fleet. If Shepard further questions Zaal'Koris about the Qwib-Qwib and why he has not changed its name to something less embarrassing, he comments about possible alternative names like "the Defrahnz" or "the Iktomi". Spoiler:Putting those names next to the "vas" title creates the names "vas Defrahnz" and "vas Iktomi", referencing the vas deferens and the related term vasectomy respectively.
The Qwib-Qwib ship itself may also be a direct reference to the ship of the same name from Fred Saberhagen's science-fiction novel series "Berserker".
Eely-Mouth, the giant eel boss in Noki City, has an esophagus and stomach modeled with a significant amount of polygons. However, the game's camera never travels inside the eel at any point during the boss battle, leaving its detailed innards unseen during normal gameplay.
In the ninth level of Chapter 2 "Beauty and the Electric Tentacle", a Beauty Goo is stuck on a large Goo line. If you can make the Beauty Goo roll backwards off of the line, she will fall down an invisible pathway with very strong airflow and explode in an invisible tube. The Goos will fall down onto ground below the boundary line, and a torch-lit wall can be seen with a mysterious drawing of a Goo ball connected in a bond by three lines and two formulas written near it. A sign can also be found below that reads:
Spoiler:"It's so simple." - the original Sign Painter
The formulas on the wall appear to be for the force of Gravity (Fg = m*g) and the Spring force (Fs=k*x) of one Goo bond. Assuming there is a damping term (Fd = d*v), the system the elastic physics of one Goo bond operates under would be a damped simple harmonic oscillator.
There is an achievement for finding this Easter egg in the Steam and Games for Windows – Live versions of the game called "Subversive Traveler".
The original arcade release of The Idolmaster had several bad endings that were allegedly received by the first location play-testers so negatively that they were immediately taken out of the game. These endings are referred to as Death endings or "Z-ENDs" which can only be seen by earning a Z grade in the evaluation of an idol's performance, and involve the idols having a final meeting with the player to tell them they are giving up. The tone of each conversation varies with some idols frustratingly yelling at the player, while others will appear severely depressed.
The existence of these endings were considered an urban legend among the game's fans until 2014, when a volunteer for the now defunct fan localization website TLWiki found all of the intact Z-ENDs hidden in the data of the game's PlayStation Portable port The Idolmaster SP, and were later uploaded to Niconico. These endings were uploaded without an English translation, though archived text translations of every Z-END by TLWiki are available and included in the self-source tab.
At the start of Chapter 7 after destroying two of Stefano's paintings, Sebastian can backtrack to O'Neal's Safe House and trigger a secret conversation with him featuring the following pun:
O'Neal: "I told you I wasn't going to leave this place. It's fucking EVIL out there." Sebastian: "That may be... Spoiler:But there's EVIL WITHIN, TOO..."
Both characters then momentarily turn and look toward the player before O'Neal quickly ends the conversation.
A localized version of this secret for the game's Japanese release, which was released under the name "Psycho Break 2", also exists:
O'Neal: "I rather stay here doing a DANCE seriously." Sebastian: "You're DANCING? Spoiler:That's the BEST BREAK though..." "おまえかダンスだって? Spoiler:そりゃ最高にブレイクだな... 最高にブレイク" (SAIKOU NI BUREIKU/PSYCHO BREAK)
In the Japanese release of Deus Ex, several minor changes were made that altered the game's menu/text presentation and moreso made the gameplay generally easier: • The Power Recirculator will increase the power drain rate of augmentations. • Player-owned weapons will do x4 damage to enemies and level obstacles like doors on Easy difficulty. • All damage taken has a passive 40% reduction. • The "Dragon's Tooth" sword deals 50 damage instead of 20. • Note adding, editing, and deleting is disabled. • Normal text color is changed from 0,255,255 to 255,255,255. • Player text color is changed from 255,255,255 to 128,255,255. • All English fonts in text and item selection are replaced with Japanese fonts and names for items respectively • Infolink text slowed from 1 character per 0.03 seconds to per 0.09 seconds. • The version string in the main menu is removed.
In the Galbadia Missile Base control room, while in the "Equipment" section of the launch configuration panel, you can simultaneously press V/B/Up/Down (PC version) or Triangle/Square/Up/Down (PlayStation version) to view animations of an Elite Soldier and a G-Soldier dancing. Rinoa will laugh and comment on each animation.
Dark Cloud was first released in Japan on December 14, 2000. It was localized in English and released in North America and Europe the following year and was touted by Sony as being 30% larger than the original Japanese release. The additional content included an updated battle system, extra weapons and monsters, improved AI, additional Duel battles, and a 100-floor post-game dungeon exclusive to the English-language release called the "Demon Shaft". Defeating the final boss of the dungeon, Spoiler:Black Knight Pendragon, will award the player with the sword "Chronicle 2". The original Chronicle sword cannot be built up into Chronicle 2, as they are two separate swords. However, Chronicle 2 was also later included in Dark Cloud 2, where the Chronicle sword can be built up into Chronicle 2.
In the Kitchen of Max's house, there is a bright white picture hanging on the wall opposite to the Kitchen door with the words "Dark Chronicle" written on it. Dark Chronicle is the original name of the game and the one used for its Japanese and European releases. In North America and South Korea however, the game was released as "Dark Cloud 2".
The Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat 3 was released in North America in 1995, one year after the formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), and became the only original Game Boy game to receive a Mature 17+ (M) rating.
In the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game, the Dog Shrine is bulldozed and a Dog Casino is built in its place, containing a similar slot machine side quest that can unlock decorative items and 11 Xbox achievements. One of those unlockable items is a poker table featuring Sans, who can comment on your prizes found in the room. Spoiler:During a Pacifist run following the final boss fight, the player can return to the Dog Casino to find Mad Mew Mew in Sans' place, who will also comment on your prizes.
In the Nintendo Switch version of the game, the Dog Shrine from the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions appears abandoned and in shambles. The only new addition is a red and blue door referencing the Switch's Red and Blue variant Joy Cons which are used to open it. The door can be opened Spoiler:following the Mettaton EX boss fight and allows players to access a boss fight exclusive to the Switch version, Mad Mew Mew. Spoiler:This character is implied to be the spirit of Mad Dummy after it possessed a "Mew Mew Kissy Cutie" doll belonging to Alphys.
The last two sets of challenges in Paprika World in Challenge Land are named "Wario... Where?" and substitute the Rhythm Heaven characters for guest appearances by characters from the WarioWare series, a nod to how both series share the same artist and character designer Ko Takeuchi.
On a bulletin board in the room with security monitors that's shut off when Leon sees Ashley, there's an image of a hamster-like monster. This is actually taken from the cover art of Bloodwych, a 1989 RPG dungeon crawler, originally developed for the Commodore 64 and eventually released on half a dozen 8-bit home computer systems.
Scorpia is the pseudonym of a video game journalist who was most active from the early 1980's through 2009 and was known for writing controversial and harsh reviews of adventure and RPG games published in Computer Gaming World magazine. One of her most notable reviews was a lukewarm review of Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World that supposedly angered the game's designer, Jon Van Caneghem, so much he wrote a lengthy response defending the game and lambasting the review that was also published in the magazine. He then named an enemy after Scorpia in the game's sequel, Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra. In a 2019 interview with Kotaku UK, Scorpia stated there was never any true bad blood between her and Caneghem, but expressed disappointment that he didn't make the monster she was named after "big and nasty".
A fully functional enemy known as the Squid was cut from the game prior to release. It was planned to appear in the Bluff Eversmoking and Dasa Mountain Pass maps, but can still be used in user-made maps and mods, or be summoned into the regular game.
Eely-Mouth, the giant eel boss in Noki City, has an esophagus and stomach modeled with a significant amount of polygons. However, the game's camera never travels inside the eel at any point during the boss battle, leaving its detailed innards unseen during normal gameplay.
In the ninth level of Chapter 2 "Beauty and the Electric Tentacle", a Beauty Goo is stuck on a large Goo line. If you can make the Beauty Goo roll backwards off of the line, she will fall down an invisible pathway with very strong airflow and explode in an invisible tube. The Goos will fall down onto ground below the boundary line, and a torch-lit wall can be seen with a mysterious drawing of a Goo ball connected in a bond by three lines and two formulas written near it. A sign can also be found below that reads:
In the Kitchen of Max's house, there is a bright white picture hanging on the wall opposite to the Kitchen door with the words "Dark Chronicle" written on it. Dark Chronicle is the original name of the game and the one used for its Japanese and European releases. In North America and South Korea however, the game was released as "Dark Cloud 2".
The Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat 3 was released in North America in 1995, one year after the formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), and became the only original Game Boy game to receive a Mature 17+ (M) rating.
