[QuantumDelta]

I realise I haven't been around much for a while but <3 you guys always.

Been playing a lot of FFXIV:Heavensward and helping work on another game that hopefully many of you will enjoy next year...

There's a new Primal (like Aeons or Summons if you haven't played but played the other FFs) in Heavensward, called Ravana, this beauty here;

- A Primal is a God, summoned by the mortal prayers of their worshippers, in this case, a new insect race in the expansion.
It REALLY feels like a Shivan reference.

I know we had a thread like this a while back but considering how long ago it was there's probably new games that can be added to the list of stuff that ..basically volition made

[FrikgFeek]

Seems more like a shared source than direct reference. The Ravana is an 8-armed Hindu God and a follower of Shiva afaik.

[General Battuta]

Final Fantasy has always leaned pretty heavily on Hindu myth, so I'm guessing it's a shared reference, yeah.

[Mongoose]

There's a ship class in FTL that's a thinly-veiled Shivan reference, isn't there?

[General Battuta]

This guy? http://ftlwiki.com/wiki/Shivan

[AdmiralRalwood]

Not so much thinly-veiled as it is a direct reference, isn't it?

[Mongoose]

Thinly-veiled, using the same damn name, close enough.

[Deepstar]

I remember a SF Scorpion-esque as a boss in one of the Descent games...  .

Additionally there was a SF Mara in the hangar in the background in one of these indie space shooters.

The last reference i know about are the four arms of the Sathanas that were used as a ornamentation for an entrance area of the main base in a Sci-Fi RPG Maker game...

[QuantumDelta]

While it's well within their 'lore'/nomenclature to do this, the enemy design, and most of the things about the intro to the fight(dialogue), also the way they refer to him in the storyline, the fact that he only has 4 arms two lower, pointing down, two upper pointing up, the fact that he's black/red, his weapons charge red, and his body turns red, he also enters through his swords circling looking much like a knossos portal, there was no need for him to be insectoid, there's no prelevance for it in the world at all.... the area he resides in is called the smouldering wastes (supernova remnant? )
It's not the first time they've referenced freespace either, though it's always really subtle.
I should probably also point out that FFXIV is full of references to pop culture, other games, anime and it's own franchise, they make a long standing habit, almost (and I really do mean almost) everything in the game that isn't main storyline is a reference to something, and some of the main storyline is also references / homages..

[karajorma]

Googled a picture of Ravana. Looks nothing like the Hindu demon, kinda looks like a SD Ravana (although probably more like a Sathanas).

Yeah, I also tend to feel this is probably more than just a coincidence.