25 Purrfect Stray Game Easter Eggs - DID YOU FIND THEM MEOW-LL?

[@LucieOne]

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

[@stopcontact4005]

I think 7 years of development for 5 hours of gameplay is not really good but the graphics are amazing.

[@stopcontact4005]

I am not hating on the game, i like the game but i think it was pretty short. And i think it was worth the money

[@frendlycriptid6168]

@@stopcontact4005 what you need to realize is that time is something so many companies don’t take, sure it’s a long time compared to big companies but this is a smaller company. And it’s great that they decided to take the time to master the atmosphere and story. The time taken is why the game looks so good compared to other games, it’s gotten a pretty good story compared to other games of its style and it is far less buggy then other games that are still buggy. So basically yes the time is 100% worth it instead of getting the game with more story with terrible graphics compared and many bugs. I’d say the time wasn’t worth it if it was a big company who has shown they can create a lot in a short time like the cod games.

[@spiritmuse]

@@frendlycriptid6168 Definitely. Also, a big reason these larger companies can churn these games out in such a short time is because they massively overwork their workforce. I don't know of course how the crunch culture is at the Stray developer, but longer development times for shorter games should become the norm, in my opinion.

[@jwalster9412]

I didn't know that, but you can definitely tell in the fine details.

[@mrnickbig1]

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

[@eurogamer]

WOW!

[@RealBradMiller]

Correct! I have some that are miniature and others that are over five feet tall. Not only do cats love it, but bees can't resist the flowers. Makes a great tea, too!

[@jwalster9412]

So that's why the cats were sleeping their.

[@RealBradMiller]

@@Alpha1_Isolde Roughly half of all cats are unaffected by catnip! I don't think it works on kittens, either. Idk whether to feel bad for them or not! Lol

[@szinga]

@@RealBradMiller yep! my cat is unaffected by catnip but goes crazy for valerian :)

[@abydosianchulac2]

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

[@George_2983]

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

[@LordOfNihil]

its a cat, they are adorable by default. they are so cute they can and do get away with murder.

[@e-811]

its a very cute very realistic kitty trot

[@Blepinbeepyourbloop]

They made sure the toe beans and tiny pink nose was just the right shmol to not be cute like an irl cat

[@Luuknoord]

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!

[@RealBradMiller]

Meow, you fools!

[@samtheman3633]

​@@RealBradMiller CATDALF!!

[@nickevans417]

Yeah, I actually yelled it out. Fly, you fools!

[@octochan]

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.

[@DSW_314]

Yes, meowing to make the robot drop the paint-can does seem like a reference to "Untitled Goose Game".

[@narintod]

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.

[@kalararanel]

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!!

[@alyonkabenya]

i thought that the 3 dancing guys are the reference to disco elysium) but this one is even cooler!

[@LordOfNihil]

never did figure out how to unlock that one. i figured one of the other side quest would reveal but unfortunately that was the one that completed the game.

[@AngelBeatYunara]

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

[@princebaal]

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.

[@cookinaryy]

And fun fact: in the Cat section of the credits, one of the cats is named Calcifer!

[@andersgeek]

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. :)

[@eurogamer]

*sad trombone noise*

[@asneakylawngnome5792]

@@eurogamer And he plays a Nujabes song! I lovvvveeeeeeeee Nujabes

[@josettelemaire9092]

Isn't Bono represented as the poet at the elevator in Midtown.

[@Martyste]

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".

[@LinayatIlyas]

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

[@LordOfNihil]

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.

[@gregajk]

At first, zergs were called zurgs during Starcraft 1 develeopement, so yeah, seems like it! 🙃

[@davidlightblue2023]

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?"

[@curioushoodie]

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"

[@EvripidouM]

It must be intentional cause that's where the inspiration for the game came from

[@yongvicky]

Yup and at 3:40 (about Stray devblog) Stray was originally called HK, a clear reference to Hong Kong

[@spiritmuse]

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 🤔

[@soundslikephiladelphia]

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

[@ivanpetrov5255]

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

[@cgRui34]

The subway train also had a crowbar in one of the seats, referencing the Half Life games which always started with a train ride. edit: this was actually covered in the video lol. I was writing the comment before getting to that part.

[@ivanpetrov5255]

@@cgRui34 Yeah, I do that too. It's either, I need to say something, but then close the window after the video ends, or I make a comment, then I hear something else, and now I need to edit the comment.

[@xRandomCityx]

Not even close

[@miaoumixed4268]

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.

[@jandraelune1]

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

[@ComradeMarlow]

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

[@eurogamer]

I don't agree because everyone who watches this channel is lovely and we think you're all great

[@ComradeMarlow]

@@eurogamer aw, well damn. I can't really argue with that

[@Uybak]

since when

[@ComradeMarlow]

@@Uybak k, i guess geese do suck worse

[@xRandomCityx]

Nah just you

[@PLAYER_42069]

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.

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

I think it's kinda pretty common for games to have its main executable based on its codename, should that got changed mid way through development. It's very likely not intentional because usually it doesn't make sense to change the project name mid way through development.

[@nightcatarts]

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

[@ZohaibIkhlaq]

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

[@ninomojo]

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

[@chandlergreff3113]

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

[@hovermotion]

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...

[@Zuernaxashyr]

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

[@afjer]

That's true but Belethor's delivery is particularly memorable.

[@alexs.5873]

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

[@DaKaizer85]

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

[@maries1993]

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.

[@rustyhowe3907]

I was getting those exact vibes too, plus the overall aesthetic of the slums looks similar to FF7's design.

[@RioFordays]

In the final room of the game, you also get to look at the city through a panoramic window, kinda like in 7R once you're inside the Shinra Building.

[@shanenice5380]

Yeah I take notice

[@Marquise1]

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)

[@nicolas.p1750]

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 kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2SrfmWGja6WatE 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.

[@VladimirE.-is2ee]

The corporation name is less of an easter egg and more a situational joke. Note all those boxes you can jump into... they have NECO on the side, and they do, indeed, contain a cat.

[@yvonne35533]

This is one of these games with not only a well thought out story but very stunning graphics that have so much detail and tiny secrets everywhere. It’s worth playing this masterpiece in a slow way to see at least a bit of all the love that went into it.

[@Wogle]

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

[@totalcreativegaming6681]

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.

[@jimwithheld7217]

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 ?

[@stephengoodman9058]

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.

[@sadostrich_3853]

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

[@entrophany]

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

[@GabrielBadwolf]

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

[@grizzler-nl]

Indeed. Suggesting B12 is something cat-specific is downright silly.

[@shinyagami8843]

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 🤷🏽‍♂

[@Martyste]

It's also the way that Steiner and Markus escape from their suspended cell in Final Fantasy IX.

[@RealBradMiller]

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

[@mosqit4324]

🗿

[@RealBradMiller]

@@mosqit4324 How'd you guess my location?! Have not seen a single cat here. A few chickens though. 🐓🐓🐓🐓🗿🐓🐓🐓🐓🗿🐓🐓🐓🐓🗿

[@omegadragons321]

a-PAW-calyptic

[@carlosalejandrocorderoabad3383]

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

[@calsaver]

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).

[@danniballecter7936]

Am I the only one that always thought it was fitting (and funny) that Anna"pur"na is the publisher of a cat game? xD (I actually ended up using the name for one of my cats in Minecraft...called it "Annapurrna" though - with two r's).

[@dino_xor]

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

[@matTmin45fr]

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

[@kingghidorah8106]

it's an intact tomcat. His head is massive because of the jowls.

[@PetitTasdeBoue]

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.

[@FanaticJarlEmma]

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

[@mr-x7689]

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.

[@Pendragonthegreat]

A game for the ages. Loved every single thing about it

[@dschultz9466]

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.

[@Andrew-wv7qp]

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.

[@kthskies]

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

[@TK-985]

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

[@darknessblades]

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

[@xmifi]

This game is the purrfect game of the year.

[@HaNk1e92]

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.

[@langdon7x]

Meowsterful work Ian. Positively purrfect.

[@danniballecter7936]

Don't you mean "pawsitively"? xD

[@jto7642]

lol i trip the bots too, i thought i was the only one that did that!

[@liamnewton-harding1440]

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

[@martaramoon17]

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

[@stitchfan08]

Stray is my game of the year

[@emilia5476]

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

[@kaitpotatoes6418]

I wouldn’t b surprised these devs are nerds and Orville IS a satire of start trek I LOVE these eggs

[@jellene4eva]

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.

[@meisterlampe749]

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... ?

[@c1plas]

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

[@LordReskiy]

Koola's name is behind the musician in the slums

[@Punkpsychobilly]

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

[@MaxDeverill1]

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

[@handle1644]

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.

[@kitten_fire14]

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

[@stormy7745]

RobOxventures- brilliant xD

[@AlodiaLozano]

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

[@jamesbaker1987]

So the QR code was put there by Guru Larry.

[@LeBongFairy]

Cats aren't narcissistic. They do not have the capability to be such. Instead, they are introverted and heavily misunderstood

[@SolanumVR-t2k]

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)

[@gustonzimasheen]

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

[@user-ii7zt9gr5]

1 fact in every chase and every level and chapters there are atleast 2 cow pictures one of its snout in the cam and 2 just standing there's even 1 in some of the vents

[@fabianlaibin6956]

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

[@Cosmothecat_]

As a big Half-life fan, it is always nice to see Half-life easter eggs in other games. Even after all these years, its nice to see developers still implement half life easter eggs.

[@fahfrfr]

i loved this vid so much! thank you

[@MasterSplinter79]

I don't know if it counts as an easter egg, but I found a Leathal Weapon easter egg! In the end credits you can see the names: Riggs (RIP) and Murtaugh (RIP)

[@EvripidouM]

I didnt notice the RIP bt Murtaugh's name. Very sad, he was the cat who inspired the protagonist

[@choochoobe]

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..

[@RetroMythologist]

Floating down the sewers is very reminiscent of "Apocalypse Now".

[@dane4944]

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

[@ronitganguly3318]

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

[@GerryBolger]

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

[@Dung30n]

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)

[@fishyprincessx]

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

[@kirstybookwyrm]

[@lindalily69]

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...

[@Steely_Fran]

Those same waving cats are part of an Easter Egg in the game Control.

[@mcrazza]

Nice work! 😸

[@Manc_Lock]

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

[@timobarkhau7952]

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

[@mrmeowmeow710]

I loved this video good job

[@mthecritic6795]

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

[@Monsterfiluto_23]

9:55 found that one myself. I was so happy that i found that 1 myself.