The Battle of Olympus is getting a PC remake from its original creators

The official Steam page for The Battle of Olympus is live, confirming that the 1988 NES action-RPG is getting a full remake. Original developer INFINITY Co.,Ltd. Is targeting a January 2027 Early Access launch on PC.

The project reunites the original husband-and-wife development duo, Yukio Horimoto and Reiko Oshida. They built the Famicom original entirely on their own almost forty years ago. Now they are rebuilding it from scratch with modern quality-of-life updates and redrawn 16-bit pixel art.

Early prototype footage of this remake surfaced online around 2021, showing basic movement tests. The launch of the Steam page is the first concrete step toward a commercial release. The updated art style gives enemies like the Cyclops and Cerberus much more detail than their original 8-bit sprites allowed, leaning closer to early Super Nintendo titles in visual density.

Zelda II, but Greek

The original game launched in Japan in 1988 before Brøderbund brought it to North America in 1989. It follows Orpheus as he travels across ancient Greece to rescue his wife Helene from Hades. The gameplay borrows heavily from Nintendo's Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, utilizing a similar side-scrolling combat system and non-linear exploration structure.

The Greek mythology setting gave the cryptic NPC dialogue a bit more flavor, and Kazuo Sawa's soundtrack remains one of the best on the console. The password system was completely unforgiving, so I am hoping the remake relies on standard save files.

The Battle of Olympus is a prime example of a proto-Metroidvania. Orpheus starts with a basic club and gradually acquires items like the Harp of Apollo to summon Pegasus, or the Sandals of Hermes to walk on ceilings. These tools open up previous areas of Arcadia and Crete. The remake promises to keep this exact progression path while updating the user interface to make inventory management less of a chore.

Early Access in 2027

INFINITY plans to launch the remake in Early Access next January. The initial release will include the complete storyline from start to finish. The developers want to use the Early Access period to gather player feedback on the controls, balance, and visual presentation before committing to a 1.0 release.

The Steam page notes that the game will stay in Early Access as they tune the combat responsiveness. The original NES hitboxes were notoriously strict, and translating that feel to a modern engine requires adjustment.

The new version replaces the 8-bit sprites with a handcrafted aesthetic. The stage layouts and core balance remain intact, but the underlying code is entirely new. It is a rare chance to see classic developers revisit their own work decades later without a massive publisher dictating the terms.

Currently, the remake is only announced for PC. A console port would make sense given the game's history on Nintendo hardware, but the two-person team is focusing entirely on the Steam release for now.