Royal Stone on Game Gear: the Japan-Only Sequel to Crystal Warriors, and the Map That Completes a Copy

Royal Stone — in full ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉, roughly “Royal Stone: The Door of Time, Opened” — went on sale in Japan on 24 February 1995 as a Game Gear cartridge at 4,800円 before tax. It is a turn-based strategy RPG, and it is the follow-up to Crystal Warriors, one of the Game Gear games Sega did take to North America and Europe. This one never left Japan. It has no official English title: the Japanese title is katakana for “Royal Stone”, and that is the name we use here.

This is an entry in a series about games that never got a second part, and this entry comes at that idea from the other side: it is a second part. Crystal Warriors got its sequel. The sequel got nothing, and the line stopped with it.

It is also the entry where the numbers behave. Four sources agree on the price, the catalogue number finds the game in a shop again after Sylvan Tale broke that rule, and the full Japanese title returns nothing but this game at both shops we checked.

• Japanese title: ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉 (the Media Arts Database and Sega Retro write it with a middle dot, ロイアル・ストーン). Developed by Sega CS5, published by Sega
• Game Gear cartridge: 24 February 1995 · 4,800円 before tax · 4 megabits · one player
• Catalogue number: G-3425, from Sega’s own software list and Sega Retro. The Media Arts Database row has no product code
• The lineage: the sequel to Crystal Warriors (1991), with original character designs credited to 九月姫 (Kugatsuhime), who designed the first game’s characters
• Japan only: Crystal Warriors was released in North America and Europe; Royal Stone was not released anywhere else
• Re-releases: Crystal Warriors came back on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2013. Royal Stone never had a standalone re-release — only a slot on the black Game Gear Micro in 2020
• Buying it: search the full title ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉 at both shops. On 21 September 2026 Suruga-ya had one copy in stock, in near-mint condition, at ￥5,900, and seventeen marketplace copies from ￥4,540

What is Royal Stone, and how does it relate to Crystal Warriors?

Start with the first game. Crystal Warriors — アーリエル クリスタル伝説 in Japan — came out on 13 December 1991 there and in 1992 in North America and Europe. Japanese Wikipedia describes it as a turn-based strategy game with role-playing elements between stages: you recruit allies and buy equipment after each fight. You play Princess Eris of the kingdom of Ariel (Princess Iris of Arliel in the Western release), facing the Gark Empire’s wizard Gram (the Jyn and Emperor Grym in the Western release), who is after the fourth crystal. Every unit has an element, and every element has a weakness. English Wikipedia compares it to Fire Emblem and Shining Force.

Royal Stone is the same kind of game. Sega’s own software list files both titles under シミュレーション, and Sega Retro calls Royal Stone “a turn-based strategy/RPG” and “a sequel to Crystal Warriors”. English Wikipedia’s Crystal Warriors article says the same thing in one line: “A Japan-only sequel Royal Stone was published in 1995.”

The clearest thread between the two is the artist. Royal Stone’s in-game credits, as transcribed by Sega Retro, end with “Original Character Design by: Kugatsuhime” — and 九月姫 is the character designer Japanese Wikipedia credits for Crystal Warriors. Same genre, same designer, same console, three years apart.

What it is not is a continuation you can document. The title carries no number and no Ariel in it. The lead is different: Sega Retro describes Royal Stone’s hero as Eva, a disgraced knight convicted of a crime she did not commit and banished from the kingdom she served, who makes allies along the way and tries to clear her name. That is not Eris (or Iris). None of the sources we read ties the two stories together, so treat it as a sequel by lineage rather than a Part 2 of the same plot.

One more name in those credits is worth a look. The director is Katsuhiro Hasegawa, and English Wikipedia lists a Katsuhiro Hasegawa as one of the two directors of Sylvan Tale, the previous game in this series. Both games are Sega CS5 productions, and they came out four weeks apart: Sylvan Tale on 27 January 1995, Royal Stone on 24 February.

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

There is one release, and this time it has one number.

Sega’s own Game Gear software list gives the row 2月24日 | ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉 | シミュレーション | 4,800円 | G-3425 | 4M, and Sega Retro’s release table gives G-3425 for Japan with the same date and price. That is two independent listings of the same code.

The Media Arts Database has the cartridge as row M758903, with the date, the publisher and 4800円 (税抜), but no schema:productID and no barcode. So the government record, which is where the Kataban catalog comes from, does not carry the code at all. We added G-3425 to the Kataban catalog on 21 September 2026 from the two sources above.

One oddity in Sega’s list: the numbers in this block were not handed out in release order. G-3425 went to Royal Stone in February 1995, but G-3426 went to Sylvan Tale, which came out a month earlier. Further up, G-3424 (魔導物語 Ⅲ 究極女王様) came out on 25 November 1994, three weeks before G-3423 (魔法騎士レイアース). If you see the codes out of date order, that is Sega’s numbering, not a typo.

The good news, after Sylvan Tale: Suruga-ya indexes this cartridge under its catalogue number. Searching G3425 there returns this game — the one copy in stock — and, with sold-out items shown, eight listings, five of which are this game. The other three are a 東京フレンドパークII, an SDガンダム外伝 IV and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles manual. So the code works, but it drags in noise, and the title does not.

The middle dot does not matter in practice. Sega’s list writes ロイアルストーン without it, the Media Arts Database and Sega Retro write ロイアル・ストーン, and both shops and Kataban return the game either way.

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

Four sources say the same thing: the Media Arts Database records 4800円 (税抜), Sega’s software list prints 4,800円, Sega Retro gives ¥4,800, and Suruga-ya’s 定価 field reads ￥5,280 — which is 4,800円 plus today’s 10% tax. So the list price is 4,800円 before tax.

If that ￥5,280 looks familiar, it is because it turned up in the wrong place last time: Suruga-ya shows the same figure on Sylvan Tale’s page, where it does not fit. Here, on the game it belongs to, it does.

Now the market. On 21 September 2026 Suruga-ya had one copy in stock:

• Near-mint condition (美品): ￥5,900
• And a marketplace line at ￥4,540 across seventeen used copies

Every other entry was sold out. That puts it right next to Sylvan Tale, whose complete copy was ￥6,000 on 21 September 2026, so the two Sega CS5 games from early 1995 are also priced almost the same today. The marketplace is the cheaper route by about ￥1,400; the shop’s own copy is the one graded near-mint.

What is the map, and why does it matter for a complete copy?

This is the collector’s detail for this game. Royal Stone shipped with a paper map in the box, and a complete copy is not really complete without it.

You can see it in how the shop grades copies. One of Suruga-ya’s eight entries is …(状態：MAP欠品) — “condition: map missing”. The shop treats the missing map as a condition defect of its own, separate from a damaged box or manual. Sellers know it too: on Buyee, one listing advertises 箱説マップはがきつき — box, manual, map and postcard included.

We cannot tell you how much less a copy without the map sells for. The map-missing entry was sold out on the day we looked, and the shop shows no price for sold-out items. What we can tell you is what to look for. On a Japanese listing, check the text or the photos for マップ or MAP before you bid. If the listing only says 箱説 (box and manual), assume the map is not there.

Why was there never a sequel?

Nothing in the record explains it. English Wikipedia’s Crystal Warriors article names Royal Stone as the sequel and nothing after it. The Media Arts Database has exactly one row for Royal Stone: the 1995 cartridge. Crystal Warriors, by contrast, has a second row for its 2013 Nintendo 3DS release, and Sega’s own software list marks it ▶3DS. Royal Stone has no such mark.

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. Neither full title list contains Royal, Stone, Ariel or Warriors. The only Crystal in them is Dragon Crystal, a different game.

What did happen is the same small thing that happened to Sylvan Tale. On 6 October 2020 Sega released the Game Gear Micro, a keyring-sized console sold in four colours with four games each, and Royal Stone is one of the four on the black model, next to Sonic the Hedgehog, Puyo Puyo Tsu and Out Run. Japanese Wikipedia says the line-up was chosen mainly by Sega’s Yosuke Okunari, using sales at the time, magazine rankings and the response to earlier Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console releases. The result is a small reversal: Crystal Warriors, which had a 3DS release, is not on any of the four models, and its sequel, which never had one, is.

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

Yes. Suruga-ya holds eight separate entries once you show sold-out items, and one was in stock (prices as of 21 September 2026):

• ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉（美品） — near-mint, in stock at ￥5,900, with seventeen marketplace copies from ￥4,540
• …(箱説なし) — cartridge only. Sold out
• …(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：説明書状態難) — complete, poor manual. Sold out
• …(状態：MAP欠品) — complete except for the map. 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. Sold out

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.

On Buyee, the search for the full title showed results on 21 September 2026: 4 (copies of the game: 4; breakdown on 21 September 2026: 2 with box, manual and postcard, 1 with the manual only, and 1 that listed no extras).

There is no overseas-version problem. The game was never released outside Japan, so there is no Western cartridge to filter out, and nothing a Japanese-title search returns is the wrong region.

How do you search each shop for it?

Both shops get the same words: the full title, ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉.

Suruga-ya: the title, and it is forgiving. The full title returns one listing in stock and eight with sold-out items shown, and all eight are this game. The short title ロイアルストーン returns the same eight. The shop also absorbs the most likely misspelling: ロイヤルストーン, with the ordinary ヤ, returns the same eight too. The catalogue number is the second-best route, as covered above — G3425 finds five of the eight among three unrelated items. The hyphenated G-3425 is useless: it returns a flood of unrelated games, from ドンキーコングGB to Raidou Remastered. The English title returns zero.

Buyee: the full title is the clean one. The search for ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉 showed results: 4 (this game: 4). The short title ロイアルストーン showed results: 15 (copies of this game: 6; black Game Gear Micro: 1); the rest are mostly clothing from a brand called ROIAL, and gemstones. Written with the middle dot, ロイアル・ストーン showed results: 7 (copies of this game: 6; Game Gear Micro: 1). With the platform word added, ロイアルストーン ゲームギア showed results: 6 (copies of this game or the console: 6).

Buyee does not absorb the misspelling. ロイヤルストーン returns 6,226 listings of royal-blue sapphires and moonstones — and, buried among them, one copy of this game whose seller spelled it that way. That copy never appears under the correct spelling. If you are patient, it is worth one search with ヤ as well.

Neither the code nor the English title works on Buyee. The search for G-3425 showed results: 9 (this game: 1; other items: 8); the other items include car air fresheners and a Pokémon strategy guide. G3425 returns 396, and none of the first thirty is the game. Royal Stone returns 6,489 listings of rings, bracelets and a set of cups actually named “Royal Stone” — and none of the first thirty is the game.

Why search Kataban for this one?

Because it is the one place where the Japanese title, with or without its middle dot, and the catalogue number both land on this cartridge and nothing else.

Checked in a desktop browser on 21 September 2026: ロイアルストーン, ロイアル・ストーン and the full title each return the cartridge. So do G-3425 and G3425 — one result each, with none of the noise the code drags in at Suruga-ya — 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. One thing does not work, and it is worth stating plainly: Royal Stone returns nothing, because the catalog row has no English title. On a Japanese shop shelf the kana to look under is ロ.

Royal Stone · ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉 · Game Gear, 24 February 1995 (G-3425) · Sega CS5 / Sega

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp — the full title (ロイアルストーン 開かれし時の扉) · Buyee — the same full title
See it on Kataban →

What about Crystal Warriors?

It is the easier game to play today, and it sits outside this buying guide, but it would be strange not to mention it.

Crystal Warriors had an English release in 1992 and came back on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2013. The original cartridge is the other route: the Japanese one, アーリエル クリスタル伝説, is catalogue number G-3403 in Sega’s list, where it is also the entry marked ▶3DS.

If you want the pair on a shelf, that is two Japanese cartridges three years apart, drawn by the same artist. Only the first one ever spoke English.

One Japan-only strategy RPG, the sequel to a game that did go West, drawn by the same artist and directed by a name that also appears on Sylvan Tale. It got no sequel of its own, no port and no localisation — just one of the four games built into the black Game Gear Micro, twenty-five years later. If you buy one, make sure the map is in the box.