They worked on this game for seven years..... it was worth it. It is brilliant.

How did Ian miss the cat Easter egg from the beginning??? The wild plants with the white flowers are some variety of CATNIP!

The Lick reference is especially apropos in this game about an animal that constantly licks itself clean. I'm glad you caught it!

Is it just me or is the way the cat walks absolutely *ADORABLE*

When the cat falls off the pipe at the start, the moment she hangs on the edge is either a reference to Gandalf or the Lion King, I highly think the latter, cause cats.. Great video!

There's also a very famous vaporwave artist named Neko Corp (or more accurately, 猫 シ Corp), but I can't tell if that was intentional. I felt like the little puzzle where you meow at the right time to interrupt someone doing something might also have been a reference to Untitled Goose Game.

Ian-uh! How could you mention half the dev team immortalising themselves in the game, but not the somewhat inept [in the beginning, anyway] musician-bot named Morusque? It’s one of the aliases the composer of ‘Stray’s wonderful music uses. :)

Also in the club if you scratch the records and then talk to the second DJ he'll scream "HArDCORE!!!!" Which is a great reference to the Egghead character from Disco Elysium!!

After B12 joins the cat, they come across a mural of a boat on a beach. B12 remarks that he was to meet someone there. I immediately thought of the ending of "The Shawshank Redemption". This might be a bit of a stretch, because it is such a random movie to reference.

God I love Stray, definitely a game of the year contender for me.

you missed the obvious one. the zurks are a reference to the zerg from starcraft. they seem to attack in the same way as a typical zerg rush and even hatch from eggs very similar to the zerg eggs. they also seem to leave a biological creep everywhere they go, just like the zerg.

I always thought that the little fire head you see in some posters in the city are a representation of Calcifer from "Howl's Moving Castle" since Ghiblis are well known and liked in France, and a huge source of inspiration for many storytellers in video games.

Not sure if it's intentional, Easter egg or just a reference but the city is called Walled City 99 which is clearly a reference to Kowloon Walled City, but the number 9 is also a reference to Kowloon which literal translation is "Nine Dragons"

The memory that can be found in Mattbee's bar could be a reference to MC Donald's because B-12 says: "... Here they seem to sell burgers and street food. I remember my favorite place to go when... It was small and welcoming and the server's name was... I don't remember. It started with 'M' I think?"

Actually, Ian: the biggest assholes in the animal kingdom are us human beings.

i laughed when they did the Skyrim reference, and i was surprised nobody had talked about it yet haha

Ooh this is so interesting! Though honestly I do think you're stretching it a lot with the supposed Stranger Things references. A string of lights indicating your path forward is very different from lights indicating individual letters spelling out a message, the Duffer brothers are spelled with 2 Fs, and D&D is not specific to Stranger Things, so probably just a reference to D&D itself. "Du fer" is, however, French for "of iron" so, considering we are dealing with a world full of robots, that seems the more likely reference here for the bar. Additionally, Lupin III is itself a reference to Arsene Lupin, so it comes back around to that, either way. Very cool stuff though, like I had no idea so many of the character names were actually developer names, and I never would have guessed that that poster was an actual concept art! Much less that you could get it for real. And though I did get the Back to the Future reference, I had no idea that Seamus was actually Marty's middle name! Oh also, I deciphered the writing as well and here's another interesting one: the long chapter title you get when you get to the flat where you find B12 actually reads "Blue Twelve Flat", which is of course another self reference. I'm wondering now if the flat was actually modeled after someone's flat, or maybe (part of) the BlueTwelve offices? Hmm 🤔

Also at the bottom level in the club you'll find kegs of beer with "Montpellier" on them, the town which where the developers studio is.

I think a much more blatant reference, to the Half Life series, are the Zurks, modeled after the Headcrabs.

You missed another with B12, the movie Batteries Not Included had small self awere robots that small and almost tooked the same.

When I scanned that QR code in the video it gave me this: "The quick brown fox jump over 13 lazy dog"

I ran the QR-code from the video ( 5:17 ) and it came up with "the quick brown fox jumps over 13 lazy dogs"

I loved playing this Game! B12 looks like a puffer fish, so cute!

No mention that Morusque is actually the composer and sound designer for Stray?

Some day the Easter Bunny will come for you, Higton.

Great list, Ian! Another semi-Easter Egg is if you have the PC version of Stray, the main data folder for the game is titled "Hk_Project". So, they never changed the internal working title from the initital announcement seven years ago.

The amount of textures of any kind showing french text is staggering, it's more than any other game i've played up to that point, and it's not just for posters. Everyday life items such as containers, books or blueprints will contain french text. The funniest has to be the TVs branded "Camelote", which is a modified french word for "Junk".

This could be a stretch but I think the waterway area you meet Momo and his boat at before heading into the Zurk-infested sewers on the way to the Antvillage & Midtown, could potentially be a reference to the 1995 Cyberpunk anime movie, Ghost in the Shell, because once you enter that area and look up, you’ll see that your surrounded by 4 high rise buildings… I believe that this could be a small & quick or you’ll miss it nod to the iconic waterway fight scene when Major Motoko Kusanagi in her invisible thermoptic camouflage fights a fleeing & armed suspect/ puppet of the film’s main Antagonist, Project 2501aka the Puppet Master. Another reason why I believe this could be a reference to the anime is because Cyberpunk 2077 did a similar thing with the Lieutenant Mower Cyberpsycho Sighting (a parody of The Major) by having the location you find her in, being a square shaped waterway surrounded by buildings.

The developurrs have cemented themselves in gaming hiss-tory with a meow-velous (scratch)post-apocalyptic cat game.

As everyone knows, dungeons & dragons only exists in the stranger things cinematic universe.

The cat have his (her ? see no balls ^^ ) tail down the whole game, but at the end outside, it gets up of happiness. 😸

Love that Only Fools and Horses nod! Also all traders in Skyrim say that "Junk" line btw.

You guys forgot a big one. There are images on the walls of a pink boy with a crown. That is a reference to Milton from Annapurna's previous game What Remains of Edith Finch, which is in turn a reference to their game The Unfinished Swan (The King).

Loved to had found out what I missed in your video. You missed the Hotel Overlook reference of The Shining in B12 house! The wallpaper is really close if not same as the carpet of the hotel. I wonder if it was because a ghost as calling the cat (Remember the ghost in the shell situation of B12 and the inert humanoid body sat on the side of his casket)? Or that it feels weird and disorienting being in an almost life abandoned city (except the vegetation and zurks) where most of the direction you have to go is vertical? As in carpet=horizontal and wall=vertical)

Fun little thing: What's written during the TV section at 5:15 is: "Shopping" then Best Deals, under that: "Gifts for your loved one". And at 19:31 you can see 2 participants, the right one is named "Pierre" the left participant is called "Julien". The question at the top says: "Au bord de quelle mer se trouve yalta?" which mean: "Along the edge of what sea is situated the resort city of Yalta?" (more or less). And for the 2 answer possible, the left one is: "La mer noire" (The black sea) and the right answer is: "La mer Mishel (or Michel, not sure since the letter S and C are almost similar). I believe this is a reference to a french tv game-show that happened a long time ago, here the reference kzfaq.info/get/bejne/e5l4gJWBva_HZKM.html and "La mer Michel" is a play word on "mer" which is the same pronunciation as the word "mother" in french (mère) so "The Mother Michel" is a little joke here^^. I'm french, sorry if i made some mistakes.

As someone who has pernicious anaemia and got really low of B12 by the time it was picked up, I can say not having enough B12 can suck really bad for humans too

I knew I wasn't crazy when I thought Cool down sounded like Counting Stars! Its use in Samurai Champloo is utter perfection

The little B12 droid reminded me of the little robots in that Batteries not Included movie.

It might be a meowssive stretch but I do wonder if the naming of Midtown is a nod to FF7 since the physical vertical separation of the upper and lower class reminded me so much of Midgar (the lower plate is even called The Slums and upper Midgar referred to as Uptown). Other similarities include how the upper residents throw their trash onto those in the Slums and in lower Midgar it’s said you can go your whole life never having seen the real sky because of the plate blocking their field of vision. And those running Shinra and Neco would no doubt have gotten along splendidly.

What a great roundup 👍. I found most of these but missed most of the connections (I'm ashamed of not realising the Half Life ones 😞). Thanks for the education, my love for this game just went up another notch.

At the same TV 4:38 You can find an Starship Trooper reference. Tho you need to decrypt the robots ingame written language to understand it.

Great video! Speaking of video game references, the first Companion you meet in the bar in Midtown (the one that talks about trying to install an aimbot to cheat in billiards but getting malware instead) is named Razinput. I’m fairly sure this is a reference to the Psychonauts series protagonist, Razputin :P

3:00 fun fact, a bunch of the notes across the games are just recipes in French.

17:50 I thought the name is a reference to Isaac - one of the main characters in the show named "The Orville". Good show btw

I could be wrong, but the way you escape at the beginning of the prison level by tilting the cage left & right, reminded me of how you escape the cage in Another World, which was also a game made by a French developer 🤷🏽‍♂

Nice video. I was impressed with all your finds. How about what to me looks likes the Cast Away "Wilson" face on the poster top right from approx 21:04 ?

I bought this game when I got my ps5 thinking it would be nothing special,. But I got hooked on this Amazing game...so much so I completed it 100%..which is rare for me.. Also my cat was watching a lot of this game also which was quite funny...

Jenkins is a reference to Leeroy Jenkins, a famous, or infamous World of Warcraft player that caused his entire raid group to wipe after an idiotic solo run into a room.

There is also another easter egg with Elliot. He is using a cursed split keyboard technique called Dualwielding full size

this video made me love Stray even more! thanks a lot for the huge amount of investigation

It's not just a "made in France" there's also some beers / wine alcohol stuff you can find in the game, there's a lot under the nightclub with "Montpellier 2017"... the studio is in the french city of Montpellier so that's funny, and this asset was surely made in 2017.

At the very start of the game there is a "Always Sunny in Philadelphia" reference. The first level is called "inside the wall" and in the game features cats.

i loved this vid so much! thank you

This game is the purrfect game of the year.

i've been reading through the comments to see if anyones mentioned this but i haven't found any! with detroit become human being one of my favourite games i found a lot of similarities between the two, like robots co-existing with humans and finding ways to act and behave like them even though it reaps no benefits. i also thought some of strays soundtrack was similar to connors music in detroit, especially during the more chasey and stealth type scenes. two brilliant games, i love stray so much

I BLOODY KNEW IT!!!! I instantly caught on about the mr robot reference

Nice work! 😸

Meowsterful work Ian. Positively purrfect.

Stray is my game of the year

I loved this video good job

when Doc says that the “Defluxor” needs to be powered by 1.21 gigowatts. In back to the future 1 the creator of the time travelling dolorian also needed to be powered by exactly 1.21 gigowatts

14:41: Stray-nger Things. It was in the name all along. jk

RobOxventures- brilliant xD

I have watched almost every video about this game and I could not find any information and/or explanation about the Chinese culture influence in the game (Chinese waving cat for example) and about the guardian robot knowing martial arts to protect the slums. I wonder what kind of Easter egg that could be...

You forgot how b12 is uploaded into a computer(like glados) notices that was a scientist and asks for a second to think (like glados when hearing calorines voice)

"Counting Stars" (aka Cool Down) is also very heavily inspired by George Benson's "Affirmation"

I'm surprised that no one's talking about the Shining carpet pattern is some of the wallpaper for some of the rooms like in Zbalthazar's apartment in the slums it's pretty faded but you can see it

i'm sure the name zurk is a reference to the starcraft species zerg, where the cheapest unit (zergling) is a small 4 legged creature.

My brother is a semi professional jazz musician and seeing the lick had me so tickled, I showed him right away

Speaking of the broom question, here's a fun fact; roughly every 100 days, most of the cells in your body will have divided and the original died out, leaving the new copy. So that means every 100 days, you're essentially a new copy of yourself.

14:40 Stray-nger Things!

Damnit Ian, I didn't have my lap-cat ready

I almost shat myself when I came across the Skyrim references. My all time favorite…

I am not a big Ff7 fan, but the flowers reminded me of Aerith, and Midtown name reminded me of Midgar.

Jenkins, is also a reference to "Officer Jenkins" from the fan created "Skyrim: Cops", available on KZfaq.

You forgot one level I dont remember wich but theres gordans crowbar stuck in a valve wich is a even clearer easter egg since it refrences both halflife and, well valve.

The guitar playing dude at the end has one song that I could swear was inspired by Animal Crossing and K.K.Samba (the dog)

You'll find another crowbar in the docs apartment, near the desk you find the gun

I don’t know if a stretch here too with references to Halo, but I felt the Zergs were very similar to the flood, they had sentinels, and B12 - a nicer, non-back stabbing 343 Guilty Spark. This game was so awesome..

So the QR code was put there by Guru Larry.

I just finished the game today hoping to try my speedrun trophy soon

Near Midtown there's a robot called Bonobot who is a poet. Could possibly be a reference to the singer Bono from U2

The I Remember trophy to me is an Easter egg to Father Ted. Father Jack scene I remember lol

10:05 I've actually encountered numerous merchants who say that in skyrim

My god Triggers broom is a modern retelling of the ship of Theseus. Mind blown...

@Eurogamer 13:14 Doc has a _Ghostbusters_ badge/pin on his chest, also

Code name "HK"? HK = Hong Kong, where the Kowloon WALLED CITY was located up until 1994. Check old images of that neighborhood and compare it with Stray. Speaking of HK. One can also find parallels in this game with the Covid lockdown, especially how it's handled in China.

Robot's name is Jenkins? Likes video games? Like LEEERROOOOOYYYY JENKINSSSSS????

Only easter egg i noticed was the Skyrim reference "taking a screwdriver to the knee" 😂

Koola's name is behind the musician in the slums

When the cat leaves The Flat location (where he meets B12), he opens double-door (after entering the code) in the style like in Bloodborne game. See the moment kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aL-ViK17md6lc2g.html

Sojiro had a coffee shop not a bar

Good ole C-Bomb! Plans for a part two and more, Ian?

10:09 some line is said by a robot in first town

i was just thinking about siren head yesterday and it's on this video what a coincidence i was thinking why nobody has made an elden ring siren head boss mod

Im sad not to have seen a Easter Egg of Johnny5, missed opportunity on the devs part i think

Funfact: simon is the only robot in the whole game with shoes

Might be mistaken but the track played by the "Daft Punk" robots sounds a lot like the track "VersaLife" from the very original Deus Ex game at 1.5x speed... ?

At some part you can also find a crowbar holdinga a Valve