Reference Counting · 3:37am Apr 14th, 2020
So I mentioned I might do a quick accounting of all the references, so here they are. I might forget one or two, but if so I can edit this.
The stuff with glacial flood is based off terrain in the Pacific Northwest, created by glacial outburst floods during the last ice age.
Sunset’s netherrealm friends are from the Disgaea series.
The turrets Charge Carrier contributes are based on the maser cannons from Toho’s kaiju movies. I say that rather than Godzilla since I believe they premiered in War of the Gargantuas.
The nexus pylon is a Starcraft reference.
The bits Sunset creates are based in part on the bits/options/extras that you can get in many scrolling shooters, which mirror your shots. They’re also based on the Wolf and Saint drones from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, which is why they’re split into offense and defense, and where Sunset gets the acid bolt spam later (it’s a skill that can be applied to Wolf).
Immelmare is a ponification of Immelman, the pilot after whom the maneuver is named.
Purple meteors are the result of the Draco Meteor attack in Pokemon.
The giant stony arms are both a reference to Avatar: The Last Airbender’s earthbending that I referenced in the previous story, and a reference to Borderlands 3’s Amara, although hers aren’t made of stone.
The superheated metal spell is based on the Reapers’ magnetohydrodynamic cannon from Mass Effect. Sunset’s powerful, but not powerful enough to one-shot dreadnoughts with it.
Triple Finish is the final smash of the Pokemon Trainer in the Smash Bros series, commanding all three Pokemon to attack at once. The parallels are clear.
The metallic creations Sunset makes are Sentries, a Protoss unit from Starcraft 2 that in certain game modes can recharge shields, and create shield domes.
Compressed Space is the nanomachines of Zone of the Enders (which, yes, is by Kojima as well).
Annihilators are a version of the Protoss Immortal unit that can be used in the campaign and co-op game modes. Unlike the standard, they have an ability that allows them to damage air units. They use antimatter in their attacks, although presumably not a large quantity of it.
Kaizo blocks are of course a staple of fan Mario levels, being invisible blocks that only appear when hit from below. Sunset rotated it ninety degrees because the Ice Skate was coming at her from the side.
The title of this blog refers to a system in computer science of counting references to variables to allow garbage collection to free up memory once the count reaches zero.
I wish I could like a journal
Thank you for this.