Castlevania Development History, Part 3: One Title, Two Codes, and the N64 Pair the Code Cannot Separate

In Part 2, the Japanese title was the ambiguous field and the product code was the one that resolved it. The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 era inverts that on one platform and repeats it on the other. On PlayStation, 悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 was issued more than once under one Japanese title, and two of those issues carry different product codes. On the Nintendo 64, Konami released two separate games in the same year, and the Japanese title of the second one contains the Japanese title of the first — while neither of their product codes returns anything at all when you search a Japanese shop with it.

• 悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 shipped on PlayStation in 1997 under product code SLPM86023, and again in 1998 under SLPM86073
• Four rows in the Kataban catalog carry the title 月下の夜想曲: the 1997 PlayStation disc, the 1998 PlayStation re-release, a 2003 PlayStation row and a 1998 Sega Saturn row — the last two carry no product code
• The two working codes separate editions the title does not: SLPM86023 returns three listings of the original, SLPM86073 returns one listing labelled [Best版]
• Konami's two Nintendo 64 entries are 悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録 (RZ008-J1, 1999) and 悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録外伝 LEGEND OF CORNELL (RZ031-J1, 1999)
• Both N64 codes return HTTP 404 and zero results on Suruga-ya; the Japanese title returns six listings that mix the two games and include one manual-only lot — the measurements are below

Why Does One PlayStation Game Have Two Product Codes?

悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 shipped for the PlayStation on 20 March 1997, under the product code SLPM86023. Konami then issued the game on the PlayStation the Best budget label on 19 March 1998, and again on the PS one Books label on 20 November 2003. The Kataban catalog holds three PlayStation rows to match: 1997 with code SLPM86023 and JAN 4988602008111, 1998 with code SLPM86073 and JAN 4988602426502, and a 2003 row with no product code at all. Nothing in the title field separates them.

One thing to be precise about: no source consulted for this article ties the code SLPM86073 to the PlayStation the Best label directly. What is measured is that SLPM86073 returns exactly one Suruga-ya listing and that listing is labelled [Best版], that the catalog row for that code carries the year 1998, and that the documented PlayStation the Best re-release is dated 19 March 1998. Those three line up; they are not the same thing as a citation.

Both catalog rows store the code as a compound value — SLPM86023;VX010-J1 and SLPM86073;VX010-J2 — with two codes joined by a semicolon. The first segment is the one that works. Searching Suruga-ya for VX010-J1 on its own returns HTTP 404 and zero results. So the code to copy off a catalog row is the part before the semicolon, and that is the code used in the buy link at the bottom of this article.

What Turns Up Under the Same Japanese Title?

Searching Suruga-ya for 悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 returns six listings. All six are the right game, and they are not the same product:

• 悪魔城ドラキュラX ～月下の夜想曲～
• 悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 — the same title, written without the wave dashes (～)
• 悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲[Best版] — the Best re-release
• 悪魔城ドラキュラX～月下の夜想曲～(PSoneBooks) — a later budget line
• 悪魔城ドラキュラX ～月下の夜想曲～(状態：ゲームディスクのみ) — game disc only
• 悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲(状態：説明書欠け) — manual missing

Three separate editions are in that list, and they correspond to the three documented PlayStation issues: the 1997 original, the 1998 PlayStation the Best re-release, and the 2003 PS one Books one. Searching SLPM86023 instead returns three of the six: the plain 悪魔城ドラキュラX ～月下の夜想曲～ listing, the disc-only one, and the one missing its manual. Searching SLPM86073 returns exactly one, the [Best版]. The code is what sorts the 1997 disc from the later ones; the title is what shows you everything that exists.

Two of the shop's condition labels are worth reading before you buy. 説明書欠け means the manual is not included. ゲームディスクのみ means the game disc alone — and on this game the disc was not all the package held: the Japanese retail package was put out with an art book containing a short manga based on the game, and a soundtrack disc compiled from most of the previous Castlevania games. When this search was first measured on 9 September 2026, one listing was labelled 音楽CD欠品 — that soundtrack disc missing. A copy without it is still the same product code. None of these labels changes SLPM86023, so a code search alone will not warn you which listing is complete.

The fourth catalog row with this title is a Sega Saturn one, dated 1998 and carrying no product code. The Saturn version shipped in Japan on 25 June 1998 and stayed there. It is not a straight copy of the PlayStation disc: Maria Renard is playable as a full character, Richter is available from the start, two areas that do not exist on the PlayStation (the Cursed Prison and the Underground Garden) are included with their own bosses, and the soundtrack carries remixes of music from earlier Castlevania games. It also loads more often and for longer than the PlayStation version, replaces transparency effects such as mist and waterfalls with dithering because the Saturn's hardware transparency support is limited, and stretches its graphics to fill the screen rather than using the Saturn's higher resolution, which distorts some sprites. Same Japanese title, different platform, no code on the row to search with.

Two later routes to this game exist, and neither of them is SLPM86023. Konami included it in the PSP compilation 悪魔城ドラキュラ Xクロニクル, released in Japan on 8 November 2007, which the catalog holds as its own row under its own code (ULJM 05287). And the PlayStation version was distributed on Game Archives from 16 December 2010, a download with no product code and no second-hand copy to look for. The code in the buy link below finds the 1997 disc, and only that.

What Did Konami Put on the Nintendo 64?

Two games, both in 1999, both Konami, both catalogued on NINTENDO 64. 悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録 carries the product code RZ008-J1 and JAN 4988602386820. 悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録外伝 レジェンドオブコーネル carries RZ031-J1 and JAN 4988602687958. Nintendo's own list of every Nintendo 64 title released in 1999 dates the first to 11 March 1999 and the second to 25 December 1999, both from Konami, both at 7,800 yen before tax. They are two separate releases with two separate codes, nine months apart.

The second one is not a re-issue of the first and not an unrelated game either. It is a prequel and an expanded version: it contains a revision of the original game with improved graphics, added villains and alternate versions of some levels, and the quests of the first game's two characters, Reinhardt and Carrie, are unlocked only after the two new characters' quests are finished. So one cartridge contains a form of the other game, and the two cartridges have different codes.

Their Western releases do not line up with the Japanese ones either. 黙示録 went out in North America on 26 January 1999 — six weeks before the Japanese release — and in Europe on 14 May 1999, under the title Castlevania. 黙示録外伝 went out in North America on 8 December 1999 and in Europe on 3 March 2000, as Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness. So the pair that shares a Japanese stem does not share an English one, and the English name of the first is a name three catalog rows already use.

Why Does the English Name Not Help Here?

Three rows in the Kataban catalog carry the exact English title Castlevania: the 1993 Famicom cartridge (RV003) from Part 1, this 1999 Nintendo 64 game (RZ008-J1), and a 2004 Game Boy Advance release (AGB-FADJ-JPN). Three platforms, three decades' worth of hardware, one English name.

Part 2 found eight rows sharing the Japanese title 悪魔城ドラキュラ. This is the same collision seen from the other side: on the Nintendo 64, the Japanese title is the specific one and the English title is the ambiguous one.

Which Product Codes Actually Work When You Search?

These are measured results on Suruga-ya, not assumptions.

SLPM86023 returns three listings, all of them 月下の夜想曲. SLPM86073 returns one, the [Best版]. VX010-J1, the second segment of the 1997 compound code, returns HTTP 404 and zero results.

RZ008-J1 returns HTTP 404 and zero results. So does RZ031-J1. So does RZ008, with the -J1 suffix removed. This is the same failure mode as SHVC-P-AZJ in Part 2: the code is correct, and the shop's search does not index it.

For the two Nintendo 64 games the working query is the Japanese title. 悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録 returns six listings: three of 黙示録 and three of 黙示録外伝, because the title of the second game contains the title of the first. One of the six is labelled [説明書のみ] — the manual only, no game. Here the listing name is the field that tells you what you are buying, and the code is the field that cannot.

One field to watch when you copy a title across: the Kataban catalog writes the subtitle of the second game in Latin letters, 悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録外伝 LEGEND OF CORNELL, while Nintendo's list and the shop's listings write it in katakana, レジェンドオブコーネル. Searching the stem 悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録外伝 returns three listings, all of them the right game and all of them spelling the subtitle in katakana. Searching LEGEND OF CORNELL returns HTTP 404 and zero results.

So the advice this site usually gives — search by product code — holds on the PlayStation half of this era and fails on the Nintendo 64 half. That is the reason the buy link below points at the PlayStation disc.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night · 悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 · PlayStation · 1997 · Konami · product code SLPM86023

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp (by product code) · Suruga-ya.jp (by Japanese title) · Buyee

This is Part 3 of a five-part series on Castlevania's development history, running through the release of the new game on October 15. Part 1 and Part 2 are already up. Part 4 arrives on 8 October 2026.