A new recent Genshin Impact demake gives the anime game a whole new pixel art startup sequence that calls back to the Game Boy Advance-era Mega Man games. Mega Man Battle Network fans will immediately recognize the inspiration here, as the artist does a great job of emulating the style, music, and even the fonts that were used nearly 20 years ago.
A Redditor named Colilite is the artist behind this impressive Genshin Impact pixel art demake. It’s a 56-second clip that shows the traditional startup animations for a GBA game, except everything is Genshin Impact-themed.
Even the iconic opening Game Boy text has been replaced with the words ‘Irminsul Online,’ which is a reference to Sumeru’s Archon questline. And those words are followed by a pixelated HoYoverse logo.
Continuing with that Sumeru theme, the Dendro Archon, Nahida, is front and center on the actual title screen. Her head is placed in the same way that you’d see Mega Man’s in the Battle Network games, with the same font of ‘Press Start’ text overlayed on top of the image.
You can check out Colilite’s full demake clip for yourself in this Reddit thread. The artist goes into a bit of detail, stating that the background music is a retro version of Nahida’s theme in her version 3.2 gameplay trailer. They also mention that the dark portion to the right of Nahida’s head is supposed to be Irminsul, the mythical tree at the center of Sumeru’s main story.
One other Redditor asked whether or not this animation was from a fan game, which prompted Colilite to reply that it may eventually segue into a full game in the future.
For those who are more interested in the present state of the game, Genshin Impact version 3.3 has just gone live. So, be sure to check out our coverage of the Genius Invokation TCG along with build guides for newcomers Wanderer and Faruzan to the anime hit.