The V.I.P. Bot "Robotic Sucker" (based on the titular character from Mister Mosquito) is depicted irritating Astro Bot as he is trying to take a bath. This appears to be a reference to Stage 4 of Mister Mosquito, which infamously involves the player attempting to suck blood from Rena Yamada as she is trying to take a bath.

When Astro Bot released, many players noted how there was no reference to Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII despite how important that game was to the original PlayStation, or any sort of Square Enix content in the game for that matter. During an interview with Game File, Nicolas Doucet (studio head of Team Asobi) hinted that the team had considered adding a cameo from Cloud, but were unable to get permission from Square Enix, stating it was "difficult to comment on that".

The V.I.P. Bots "Dad of Boy" and "Boy" (based on Kratos and Atreus from God of War respectively) are named in reference to the "Dad of Boy" meme, where following the release of the 2018 God of War game, many players began making jokes about the amount of times Kratos referred to Atreus as "boy" in the game.

To promote the release of the game, the 400th issue of Edge magazine featured ten variant covers based on the game's V.I.P. Bots, with different covers available through different means:

• Subscribers of the magazine could receive variants based on Bloodborne or The Last Guardian.
• Purchasing from UK retail would grant access to variants based on Shadow of the Colossus, Journey, God of War, and Returnal.
• Purchasing from overseas retail would grant access to variants based on Horizon, Gran Turismo, Ghost of Tsushima, and Ratchet & Clank.