Sylvan Tale on Game Gear: Sega’s Japan-Only Action RPG, and the Cartridge With Two Different Product Codes

Sylvan Tale went on sale in Japan on 27 January 1995 as a Game Gear cartridge at 5,500円 before tax, and it never left. No North American release, no European release, no Virtual Console. For thirty-one years the only legitimate way to play it has been the Japanese cartridge, and the only other way has been a plastic keyring Sega sold in 2020.

This is an entry in a series about games that never got a second part, and it is the easiest one to buy that we have covered. On the day we looked, Suruga-ya had two copies in stock at once and fifteen more on its marketplace. After Vampire: Master of Darkness at ￥25,900 (price as of 21 September 2026), that is a relief.

It is also the entry where the catalogue number stops behaving. This cartridge has two product codes in circulation, both real, and the one printed in Sega’s own records is the one that does not work in a shop.

• Japanese title: シルヴァンテイル, developed and published by Sega (Sega CS5)
• Game Gear cartridge: 27 January 1995 · 5,500円 before tax · 4 megabits · one player
• Catalogue number: G-3426 in Sega’s records — but Suruga-ya files it under 670-6072, and searching G-3426 there returns nothing
• The hook: a sword called the Seed that turns you into five different beast forms, each with its own way through a dungeon
• Japan only: no official release anywhere else, ever
• One re-release, sort of: a pre-installed game on the blue Game Gear Micro in 2020. No standalone port, no sequel
• Buying it: both shops want シルヴァンテイル. On 21 September 2026 Suruga-ya had a complete copy at ￥6,000, a cartridge-only at ￥5,710, and fifteen marketplace copies from ￥3,860

What is Sylvan Tale, and how does it play?

You are Zetts, summoned into another world. Japanese Wikipedia sets it out: Zetts travels the three lands of Sylvalant — the Land of Grass, the Land of Flowers and the Land of Forest — to defeat the armies of three invaders who have taken it, and give Sylvalant its green back.

English Wikipedia describes the frame as standard for its genre: solve puzzles, fight enemies, talk to people, collect the power or item that opens the next area. What it adds is that the progression is “essentially linear”, because each area only opens once you hold a specific thing from the last one. Sega Retro makes the same point and calls it unusual for an action RPG of its time — the game is tied far more tightly to your current inventory than its contemporaries were.

The thing that inventory is built around is the Seed. Normally it is a sword, and Zetts fights with it. Take the power of the stone tablets scattered across Sylvalant, and the Seed instead turns him into one of five beast forms. While transformed he cannot use the Seed as a sword, so his attack drops — what he gets instead is a specific ability:

• Turtle — heavy and very slow, which is itself the solution to some mechanisms. Withdraws into the shell to block all damage, and a shell charge gets across spike floors
• Mole — claws through cracked doors and rocks, and drills down through the floor to the level below. Some characters will only talk to the mole
• Mouse — a dagger, a small hitbox and the fastest movement in the game, faster than the human form’s dash
• Merman — the water form
• Bird — flies, and has no attack at all

The human form keeps the useful ordinary things: pushing and pulling objects, a dash, and two special attacks learned as you go — a rapid multi-hit that also cuts through doors covered in leaves and vines, and a charged slash that breaks the masks on certain enemies. And one detail that tells you what kind of game this is: villagers will only speak to you in human form. Walk into town as a mole and nobody understands a word.

The music is by Saori Kobayashi, who later scored Panzer Dragoon Saga and Panzer Dragoon Orta. The graphics and package illustration are by 中村哲也 (Tetsuya Nakamura).

And the script is by 照井啓司 (Keiji Terui). Sega Retro states that Terui wrote for anime including Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball, and for earlier Famicom games including The Legend of Zelda, Yuuyuki and Time Twist. We could not confirm that filmography in a second source — Japanese Wikipedia credits him with this game’s scenario but has no article about him — so treat the Zelda line as Sega Retro’s claim rather than an established one.

Which release is the Japanese cartridge, and what is its code?

There is one cartridge, and it has two numbers.

The one in Sega’s records is G-3426. Sega’s own Game Gear software list gives the row 1月27日 | シルヴァンテイル | ロールプレイング | 5,500円 | G-3426 | 4M, and Sega Retro’s release table gives G-3426 for Japan. The G-342x block around it is clean — no duplicates, unlike the G-3306 that Sega’s list hands to both Ax Battler and a Donald Duck game.

The Media Arts Database has the cartridge as row M749413 with the date, the publisher and 5500円 (税抜), but no schema:productID and no barcode. We added G-3426 to the Kataban catalog on 21 September 2026 from the two sources above.

Then there is the number the shop actually uses. Suruga-ya’s 型番 field for this cartridge reads 670-6072, which is not a catalogue number at all but a Sega part number — the same family as the 670-7238 that the Media Arts Database records alongside GS-9041 for the Saturn Golden Axe: The Duel. Neither number is wrong. They are two different numbering systems for the same object, and the shop happened to index the other one.

You can watch this happen. Searching Suruga-ya’s catalogue-number index across the block:

• G3424 returns 魔導物語3 究極女王様 — matches Sega’s list
• G3425 returns ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉 — matches
• G3426 returns a digital mixer, a Retro Freak, a Switch pouch and an SD Gundam game — and not one copy of Sylvan Tale
• G3427 returns 女神転生外伝 ラストバイブルスペシャル — matches
• G3428 returns シャイニングフォース FINAL CONFLICT 外伝 — matches

Every neighbour agrees with Sega’s list. This one game does not, and 6706072 is why: it returns four listings and all four are this game. But it is not a replacement, because only four of the shop’s eight entries carry that number. Search the part number and you miss half the stock, including the complete copy that is actually in stock.

So the practical rule for this cartridge is simple, and it is the opposite of what a catalogue number is for: type the title.

What was the list price, and what does it cost now?

Three sources say 5,500円 before tax: the Media Arts Database records 5500円 (税抜), Sega’s software list prints 5,500円, and Sega Retro gives ¥5,500. That is the figure to quote.

Suruga-ya disagrees, and it is worth knowing why the shop page will not match. Its 定価 field reads ￥5,280, which is 4,800円 plus today’s 10% tax — not 5,500円, which would give ￥6,050. And 4,800円 is exactly the list price of Royal Stone, the game one catalogue number below this one, whose Suruga-ya page shows the same ￥5,280. Three sources against one, with a plausible explanation for the one: we use 5,500円.

Now the good news. On 21 September 2026 Suruga-ya had two copies in stock at the same time:

• Complete: ￥6,000
• Cartridge only (箱説なし): ￥5,710
• And a marketplace line at ￥3,860 across fifteen used copies

Two things stand out. First, this is the only game in this series where the shop had more than one copy on the shelf at once. Second, look at the gap between them: the complete copy is ￥290 more than the loose cartridge. For Ax Battler the marketplace was a quarter of the shop price; here the box and manual cost less than a coffee. If you want a complete copy of anything in this series, this is the one to buy.

The marketplace is still cheaper — ￥3,860 against ￥6,000 — but for once the shop’s own price is not in a different league.

Why was there never a sequel?

Nothing in the record explains it. Neither Wikipedia article names a sequel or a successor. The Media Arts Database has exactly one row for this title: the 1995 cartridge. There is no Virtual Console row beside it, which sets it apart from Dragon Crystal, Defenders of Oasis and Vampire: Master of Darkness, all of which came back on the Nintendo 3DS in 2012 or 2013.

We checked the two Sega download services where older properties were quietly kept alive — Sonic Cafe, the i-mode subscription service from 2001, and Game Toshokan, the Mega Modem service that distributed thirty-nine titles from November 1990. Searching both full title lists for Sylvan, Tale and Silva returns nothing in either.

What did happen is smaller than a port. On 6 October 2020 Sega released the Game Gear Micro, a keyring-sized console sold in four colours with four games each, and Sylvan Tale is one of the four on the blue model. That is the only way Sega has reissued this game in thirty-one years, and you cannot buy it on its own.

Can you buy it today, and which copy should you buy?

Yes, more easily than anything else in this series. Suruga-ya holds eight separate entries once you show sold-out items — the widest range of conditions we have seen — and two of them were in stock (prices as of 21 September 2026):

• シルヴァンテイル — complete, in stock at ￥6,000, with fifteen marketplace copies from ￥3,860
• …(箱説なし) — cartridge only, in stock at ￥5,710
• …(状態：ROMカセットのみ、ROMカセット状態難) — a rough loose cartridge. Sold out
• …(状態：箱(内箱含む)状態難) — complete, poor box. Sold out
• …(状態：箱(内箱含む)・説明書状態難) — complete, poor box and manual. Sold out
• ランクB)… — the shop’s B grade. Sold out
• [説明書のみ]… — the manual on its own. Sold out
• [外箱のみ]… — the outer box on its own, with a marketplace copy at ￥1,800. Sold out at the shop

The last two are not games. The bracket at the front is the tell: 説明書のみ is a manual, 外箱のみ is a box. Note that the box on its own is going for ￥1,800 while the complete game is ￥6,000 — which is another way of saying the complete copy is well priced.

There is no overseas-hardware problem here at all. The game was never released outside Japan, so there is no Master System version to filter out as there is with Dragon Crystal, and no 海外版 listings to read past as there are with Vampire: Master of Darkness. Everything a Japanese-title search returns is the thing you are looking for.

How do you search each shop for it?

Both shops want the same words: シルヴァンテイル.

Suruga-ya: the title, and it is forgiving. シルヴァンテイル returns three listings in stock and eight with sold-out items shown, and all eight are this game. The shop also absorbs the ヴ/バ difference: the older spelling シルバンテイル returns the same eight.

Buyee: the same title, and nothing added. The search for シルヴァンテイル showed results: 9, with nothing unrelated among them (single copies of the game: 4; other items from this game’s world: 5). Adding the platform word gains nothing — the search for シルヴァンテイル ゲームギア showed results: 8 (single copies: 3). And Buyee does not absorb the ヴ/バ difference the way Suruga-ya does: シルバンテイル returns zero.

The items that are not the cartridge on its own still belong to this game’s world — this search can bring up a Game Gear Micro with this game built in, lots and bundles that include it, and Sega promotional literature. Nothing off-topic, but read the titles before you bid.

Neither shop wants the catalogue number. G-3426 returns nothing relevant at Suruga-ya, as covered above, and on Buyee it is worse than useless: G-3426 returns twenty listings and G3426 returns 545, and none of them is the game — G3426 is a Sony Xperia XA1 Plus model number, so you get replacement batteries and LCD panels.

The English title almost works, for the first time in this series. Sylvan Tale on Buyee returns exactly one listing, and it is the game (a boxed copy with the postcard). After four straight games where the Western name found nothing or found the wrong object, that is a genuine first. One listing is not a buying route, though, so we still link the Japanese title. At Suruga-ya the English title returns zero.

Why search Kataban for this one?

Because it is the one place where both of this cartridge’s identities work, plus the English name.

Checked in a desktop browser on 21 September 2026: シルヴァンテイル returns the cartridge, and so does Sylvan Tale — the catalog row carries the English title, so the Western name reaches the Japanese cartridge even though it returns almost nothing in the shops. G-3426 and G3426 each return it too, because we added the code from Sega’s list on 21 September 2026; before that both returned nothing, since the Media Arts Database has no product code for this row.

Two things do not work, and both are worth stating plainly. 670-6072 returns nothing — the catalog holds Sega’s catalogue number, not the shop’s part number. And the barcode, 4974365134266, returns nothing either: the catalog stores it but does not search on it, which is true of every barcode in the database, not just this one. On a Japanese shop shelf the kana to look under is シ.

Sylvan Tale · シルヴァンテイル · Game Gear, 27 January 1995 (G-3426) · Sega CS5 / Sega

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp — the title (シルヴァンテイル) · Buyee — the same title, no platform word
See it on Kataban →

What about the fan translation?

It exists, it is well known, and it is not something you can buy — so it sits outside the buying guide above, but it would be strange not to mention it.

Because Sylvan Tale never left Japan, an English patch was made by Aeon Genesis in 2001. It ships as two IPS files: SYLVANTL.IPS, the translation itself, and STMUSIC.IPS, which swaps the menu music. Gideon Zhi later worked with z80gaiden on a revision with an improved script, a variable-width font, two-line item names and translated map graphics. The patches are distributed through Romhacking.net and Zophar’s Domain.

A patch is not a product. You still need a cartridge or a dump of one, nobody sells it, and it has no catalogue number. It is worth knowing about precisely because this game has no official English version and never will — but the thing this guide helps you buy is the 1995 cartridge.

One Japan-only action RPG, scored by the composer who would go on to Panzer Dragoon Saga, with a sword that turns you into a mole so you can dig through the floor. It got no sequel, no port and no localisation — just one of the four games built into the blue Game Gear Micro, twenty-five years later. It was also the cheapest complete cartridge in this entire series (prices as of 21 September 2026).