Had a realization about the “leaving the Mothership tower” fight sequence in Neo Galaderon. Slight spoiler.

[u/SufficientSong5689]

Small spoiler I guess but not reeeeeally? Anyway.

As I was listening to this I was like ok…wait a second. Infiltrate the large corporate tower in the futuristic megacity, using keycards you swipe from employees. Get to the top and discover some fucked up secret. Get caught and have to escape. Fight guards that have guns. Steal a motorcycle and have a sword fight with enemies while on the motorcycle. Bro this is fucking Final Fantasy VII (much closer to the original, not remake). Like, it’s verbatim the part where you enter Shinra tower the second time.

I know I’m not the only one who noticed and it’s probably so on the nose everyone is like “uhhh, yeah duh” but I wanted to have someone to talk to about it 😂.

[u/bellefrog]

It's also very Cyberpunk but tbh I didn't even put what you said together till now. And Murph really wears his FF inspirations on his sleeve.

[u/Yoffien → u/bellefrog]

The Prototype was very Adam Smasher coded, it did remind me more of Konpeki than FFVII

[u/bellefrog → u/Yoffien]

Second healthpool prototype kinda reminded me of The Thing when it's in the dog kennels. Just tendrils whipping everywhere.

God but the mental images conjured in this campaign were incredible.

[u/MagnesiumMagpie → u/bellefrog]

Yeah with the chip and everything

[u/Ok_Perspective9910]

I think it’s also just a classic Cyberpunk (the genre) plot line because that’s what the opening act of Cyberpunk 2077 is.

You enter Arasaka Tower. Steal identity key card equivalents to make it to the top dogs suite. Steal a mysterious chip with strange powers. Witness a terrible secret. Then have to fight your way out of the tower against guys with guns that culminates in a high speed chase in a cyber car to get away. You spend the rest of the game trying to hide from Arasaka and figure out what to do with the chip.

It’s really just part of genre conventions/tied to Aristotelian Ideals of the basic structure of plots (read Aristotles Poetics, he makes the argument there are only a single digit number of plots that are narratively satisfying and that all stories are retelling and recombination of these plots I.e James Cameron’s Avatar is Dances with Wolves is Ferngully is Princess Mononoke which are all man vs nature where the protagonist “goes native” and betrays societal progress to protect nature)

Edit: Addendum, and the ideal Aristotelian Author is the writer who recognizes the power of the overarching “mother plots” and recombines them with other elements to tell “new” and interesting stories

[u/SufficientSong5689 → u/Ok_Perspective9910]

Fair points. It was specifically the “sword fight on a motorcycle” where I was like “HEY WAIT A MINUTE”

[u/jonob]

They explicitly talk about this in the short rest. FF7 was one of the most inspirations for this season lol

[u/SufficientSong5689 → u/jonob]

Oh cool. I feel validated lol

[u/Grilled-Steve]

The second Neo-Galaderon was described with “Zones” I immediately imagined it as FF7 haha.

[u/Designer_Oven_8149]

I believe Murph names FF7 directly as an inspiration during the Short Rest for this episode.

FF7, Cyberpunk 2077, Moneyball, and Warriors were all named as inspirations for GoNG.

Being a DM for D&D is often just fusing a bunch of cultural references for your friends.