The king of the village in which the game begins is named Error, a reference to the infamous NPC in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987), whose only line of dialogue is "I am Error."
The dragon Smug (a spoof of Smaug from "The Hobbit") lives in the Mountains of Madness, named after the H.P. Lovecraft story "At the Mountains of Madness."
To enter the castle, the player must complete the code "Klaatu Barada Nikto." This phrase first appeared as an alien command in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and was used as an incantation in Army of Darkness (1992).
Smug says "All of your jewel are belong to us," paraphrasing a mistranslated line of dialogue from Zero Wing (1989), which became an internet meme in the early 2000s.
The Black Knight is directly inspired by the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). Like his movie counterpart, the game's Black Knight says "All right, we'll call it a draw" after being killed. During the fight, the Knight has a "flesh wound" meter below his health meter. He also asks the riddle "What is your favorite color?", the same riddle asked by the troll in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).