You don't have to look ahrd to find alot of fun cultural references in the WA series, but I'd like to try and see how many we as the fans can name. Be it references dwteen games or from old myth and such. Also if you've ever seen anything that seemed WildARMS inspired go ahead and mention it here. Personally in the anime .hack//SIGN I always thought Sora's design was suspiciously like Zed's, he even jumps and makes that *BOING* sound like Zed did.

Some of the things I can come up with off the top of my head include:

Obviously, Zeikfried being an alternate of Seigfried, hero from the norse myth of the Vulsung saga.
-Yggdrasil, in norse mythology Yggdrasil is the AshTree that supports the world. And amoung many myths around it one is of the dragon beast that gnaws it its roots, the Niddhog.
-Arghetlahm, norse goddess of bravery
-The fenril knights, fenril being a translation of fenrir, hellish she wolf of norse legend.
(funny, Zeigfried is named after a hero and the Fenril knights are named after a monster)

-The original game has like one text box of dialogue vaugly mentioning Yggdrasil, what it entailed was a machine capable of changint he world, hence the base of WA3's story
-WA2 makes smal mention of the EMMA motor early on
-Jet's gun the "Airgetlam" phonetically the same as the Sword Magess' "Argetlahm"
-The earth golem in 1 was called "The fortress of the heavens" in 2 and 3 there were golems named Asgard, being name of the realm of the norse gods meaning "fortress of the gods"

there are others I know of but I can't think of them right now.

Also, I have heard somewhere that the "Necronomicon" is an actual book. I believe it is the "book of the Dead" or something like that, and was translated or written or something (sorry for foggy memory), by someone named John Dhee.

Yggdrasil is also in Wild Arms 1 as a machine developed by the Elw. The Metal Demons steal it and use it to create monsters, supposedly RR is from it too.

Um...other things...plenty of things. Cocytus is from mythology somewhere. Rhadamanthus(spelling?) is a river in Hades in ancient mythology too, I believe.

Also the Elw(Elf), are in or at least mentioned in each game in some way shape or form.

Yay, all good. yes, Cocytus is the river of ice surrounding the final layer of hell in Dante Allegiri's divine comdey Inferno. And among the 4 sub divisions of that final layer are; Ptolomea, Caina, Judecca, and Antenora. I'm glad you brought that one up. I don't believe I missed it.

And of course the necronomicon is the subject of the famous novel of the same name, in said novel the necronomicon is a book of forbidden dark magic said to have been lost in the anals of history, hence it's features as a magic enhancer in the game.

Some others i missed are the
-Kuiper belt, roots, and core in 2nd IGNITION: The Kuiper belt in real life is actually the ring of asteroids sperating the inner planets, mars, venus, mercury, and earth, from the outer planets, being jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune, and pluto.
-The four starter Gurdians in all three games are based off the animalistic gods of Feungshui; Suzaku the red phoenix, Seiryu the Blue dragon, Byakko the white tiger, and Genbu the black tortoise.

Oh and just out of curioustiy, after playing 1 and 3 did you notice the sheilds left by Zeikfried that you and Maya and Janus' groups fought over each had a face printed on it that looked like one of the original quarterknights?

A few other things;
-The Fenril knights, were each named after a piece of armor, Garret(Jack) was named the Vambrace which was his last name in Japanese, but in English they romanticized it into Van Burace. A Vambrace is the forearm guard that goes over the gauntlet. Rudy has a metal one and Zed had an orange one.
-Beatrix(Beatrice) was a dream demon in WA3 in a poem by Edgar Allen Poe he makes mention of a being named Beatrice that appeared to him in dreams.
-Lombardia is some kind of territory or landlocked property in or near northern Italy.
-Virginia's last name is Maxwell, related to Calamity Jane Maxwell? perhaps. Her rival, Maya Schrodiger(sp?) is a perfect copy of Jane. Both are reading a book based on Jane's life and adventures. I forgot the title of the book though, it shows up in the intro with the train and after you rescue Maya from the disection dungeon thing.
-Schrodinger(sp?) was the naem of a famous mathmatician and philosopher and one of his more famous studies was the question;
"If you're shown a box, with no holes and you're not allowed to touch it. being told nothing but that there is a cat in the box, can you distinguish if the cat is alive or dead using only logic?"
And amusingly Shady's BG stroy reveals that he was released from a box in which Maya's father imprisoned him in.

The Necronomicon was never a real book, it is a work of fiction created by Howard Philip Lovecraft, who used it in many of his stories.

But people say a lot of things about it...that for example, the only known copy is locked away in Rome, or that it is written in blood on dried human skin..

Hell, I found my copy for 9.99 at Kustom Kulture. I swear.

This one isn't made out of skin though...where is it? I think I lost it...

Getting back on track.

In Wild Arms 2, although it was long ago that Coco played, there was a refference to some of the Norse gods. The puzzle had you associate names of days of the week with the gods.
Tuseday, Tyr, Wednesday, Woten (Odin.) Thursday, Thor. Saturday, Saturn.

At the exeption of Saturn, whom I always though to be a Roman deity, I assume the names for our days of the weeks originate from Norse mythology?

The hell? I guess Sunday was slapped on there after the Crusades, or what?

Well the days, I believe, come from the Japanese days of the week. Starting with Monday(Moon), and go to (Sun)day. Not sure of the exact japanese terms but that is what I have always heard.

Maybe.
Wild Arms is Japanese, to begin with. Some translation muddling is at hand here..

I was reffering to the novel entitled "The Necronomicon" or something to that extent, that was about the fictional necronomicon. I realize that the concept of the necronomicon was ficitonal. Anyway, the days came from the japanese days of the week derived from words meaning, moon, fire, water, tree, gold, earth, and sun.

In Wild ARMS you're faced against a group of minibosses in 4 on 4 fight in the dungeon with the jewl cases and later the teardrop. (Sry don't remember the name) The moonsters are titled; dog, eagle(or maybe it was rooster), donkey, and ox. These are the forms of four beasts apearing in the New Testement of the Bible, in the Book of Revelations.

Sticking to a short biblical srting; Counting Janus as a demon with the three prophets it could also be said that they represent the 4 horsemen, Janus being Death, meeting the mount's description of a pale and sicky green. Merady being War, because of her aggressive personality, and her purple robes. In ancient rome purple was a color of royalty and were used by an elected official, the imfamous Julius Caesar, who has often been attributed to the number 666, but the color called
'purple' in ancient rome was actually a shade of blood red, much like the horseman of war's mount, meant to show all encompassing power taken through admirable force. Marik would be Famine, for his theaving of Filgaia's life force, being a direct show of the planet's famine. And Reehart would be the white horseman, being first and in charge as well as the less agresive sign of oncoming triumph.

Also the transformations of the three prophets later in the game show more refference to biblical mythology. Although I can't cite this one very well, I recall somewhere in the Book of John the mention of hideous sinful beasts of man and animal. Some of the animals metnioned were rams, oxen, and eagles. Once transformed Marik is clearly some kind of bird, Merady has ram's horns and Reehart has oxen horns.

Last is a very subtle note, the council of seven. Seven being a holy number used multiple times in The book of reveltions: Seven heads of the Dragon, Seven stars, Seven candle posts, Seven eastern churches, the seven seals, etc. The list goes on.

Some references between games;

-The De La Metalica book appears in the Original and Advanced 3rd. In the original it was a book on alchemy and in 3 it was a book type enemy.

-In 2nd IGNITION the Guild Garage master's son's freight train, Dianbai Guang, is the same design as the passanger trains used in advanced 3rd

-A powerfull throwing item (the strongest to my knowledge) in 2nd IGNITION was named "Saberfang" which is the name of Boomerang's weapon. The item sprite used was also identicle to the Saberfang found outside KaDingel after you see the last of the normal Boomerang. The Saberfang item in the original was used to unlock the secret BoomerangFlash boss when brought to the Area.

-Speaking of the arena it and Duke Pegucci are in both the original and Advanced 3rd. Making a blatant show of Pegucci's immortality.

-In the Selieje(sp?) university there are some hints given by random students that the school was once an abbey. Also it's structure resembles Curren Abbey's and the teardrop plate sits down the mainhall. A little girl makes a comment, "If you cry pure tears by this wall it's said it will swallow you up." Or soemthing to that extent.


And the alst one for the night
-The ruined Ka Dingel appears in Advanced 3rd.

OK so i lied, [3] more;
-Clive's rifle's name is Gugnir, the name of the cheif norse God Odin's spear.
-And Odessa's Varukisas in 2nd IGNITION is classified as a gullwing type aricraft, making direct reference to professor Emma's flying mahcine's final stage from the original.
-[The event horrizon, that Lrod Blazer is trapped behind is an actual scientific theory on the workings of a black hole. When something enters a black hole all form of matter moving at or slower than the speed of light is taken in. If this is true to say then nothing can escape a blackholes grip and once inside not even particle residue will be left. The determined line where aftering vanishes having crossed is called the event horrizon. A fitting place to trap an all powerful destruction machine.]
ok now that's all, someone please help add more. Wildarms is so much cooler when you know all the little jokes behind things.

Well because you asked for more.... Here are some references in between the 3 games:

-The Golems are Optional Bosses in the first and Force abilities in the second.
-I think Mimir's Well's Music sounds a lot like the Photosphere from Wild Arms1. You fight Lolithia in both places. You also destroy what you think is the main evil in each (Ziek and Hyades). Of course, Mother and Beatrice pick up after them.
-Rayline Observatory=Leyline Observatory?
-Guardian Blade=Argetlham=Airget Lahm.
-When you are leaving the floating place in WA3 and Maya says she is staying behind, she is in a different form. From what I remember, she looked like Emma from Alter Code F.
-Adventure books speak of Marivel and Anastasia.

Ooo very good, nice finds indeed. The Leyline and Rayline pronounciations are in fact the same. Mirmir is the name of one of three wells in Yggdrasil that lead from Midguard to the lower worlds resting on the roots of the ashtree in Norse mythology. And the connection from the Guardian blade to Jet's gun is also a good one. Another joke about that is that the way Jet was supposedly made points to a vaugly touched science in the first game, being the alchemy used to create the living metal used for the holmcross project. And yes, the earth golem and lucifer make a reappearence in 2nd IGNITION, as anyone who decided to retrieve Marivel(Meriabelle) the secret extra character would have found out having completed her related sidequests. Which also leads to the Adventure boks, which made references to, as you said, Marivel and Anastasia, as well as Quartly and other landmarks from 2nd IGNITION. I'd never noticed if Maya's true form looekd like Emma, but I wouldn't think it unlikely. (I'll have to replay that and check back.)