Dreamfall: The Longest Journey - Cultural References

Cultural References

While the first game of the series established its own mythos, Dreamfall borrows numerous names and concepts from the Australian Aboriginal mythology, such as the Eingana and Alchera/Dreamtime. Similarities can be found between the decoration and architecture of the Azadi buildings and the Islamic art and architecture. Also, "Kian" is a Persian name and "Azadi" (Persian: آزادی‎) is "freedom" in Persian. In addition "Reza" is an Arabic name widely in use in Iran. "Temiz" means "clean", is Turkish and rarely used as a surname. A scene involving Brian Westhouse in the "real world" takes place in Tibet, and while most Tibetan can speak Mandarin Chinese in Tibet, they generally use the Tibetan language in all their conversation. In the monastery, it would make even less sense for monks to use mandarin.

Within the game, there are also references to other games published by Funcom, for example, to Anarchy Online: a copy of the Anarchy Online novel can be found in Zoë's apartment; there is an engineer wardroid at the street dealer in Newport and a small yellow cleanerbot (seen in many large cities of AO) in Olivia's store; and the music that plays on the first floor of Reza's apartment is also a track from the Anarchy Online. Perhaps, one of the most unusual features of Dreamfall is the in-game presence of its own disc covers, as well as those of TLJ, on multiple locations, e.g. on Reza's bathroom shelf, on the floor near Zoë's TV, behind the Chinese merchant in New Venice, etc.

Several popular movies are referenced, as well, for example, when Crow is telling Zoë about being a sidekick, he makes a reference to The Lord of the Rings films directed by Peter Jackson. He implies that right after he was elected the Sidekick of the Month by the League of Sidekicks, Samwise Gamgee (portrayed by Sean Astin) "stole" the title from him. Brian Westhouse also says, "Where we're going, we don't need wings", a reference to the final lines of Back to the Future.

Wonkers the Watilla, an intelligent stuffed purple gorilla-like creature acting as Zoë's personal assistant and playfellow, is voiced by Jack Angel. Angel had earlier used an identical voice to portray as a similar character, Teddy, in Steven Spielberg's 2001 film A.I.. Ragnar Tørnquist has stated that the character of Wonkers was directly inspired by Teddy, and he sought out Angel to give Wonkers the same feel as the earlier character.

When Zoë first arrives in Arcadia, her comment that " in Venice any more" is a possible reference to The Wizard of Oz. The most notable homage pointed out by critics is the disturbing similarity that the character Faith bears to Samara Morgan from The Ring, who is, in turn, based on Onryō from Japanese ghost stories.

April's encounter of a "ticking sarcophagus" is a possible reference to one of the endings of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.

Intentional or otherwise, the two closed taverns near the South Gates of Marcuria are named "The Cock and the Puss" and "The Salty Seaman" ("Best nuts in Marcuria!"), which may have sexual implications ("seaman" is a homophone of "semen"). Such word plays go back to The Longest Journey, where a character makes a reference to "pubs with oddly suggestive names, like 'The Lazy Cock'."