Holy Diver on Famicom: Irem’s 1989 Japan-Only Action Game, Its Code IF-12, and How to Tell It From the 2018 Reissues

Holy Diver went on sale in Japan on 28 April 1989 as a Famicom cartridge from Irem, at 5,500円 before tax, with ホーリー・ダイヴァー on the label. It is an action game, scrolling both across and up, in which a young wizard fights his way through six stages with magic he collects from each boss, and its names are lifted almost wholesale from heavy metal.

This is an entry in a series about games that never got a second part. Holy Diver got no sequel, no spin-off and no follow-up of any kind — and it did not leave Japan in its own time either.

What it did get, twenty-nine years later, was two licensed reissues under the same name. That is the trap for anyone buying it now. Search the title in a Japanese shop and the 1989 cartridge comes back mixed with the 2018 editions, and the listings say which is which only in Japanese.

• Japanese title: ホーリー・ダイヴァー, published by Irem
• Famicom cartridge: 28 April 1989 · 5,500円 before tax according to the Media Arts Database · 2 megabits
• Catalogue number: IF-12 — confirmed two ways, because the Media Arts Database does not record one
• Japan only: a North American release was previewed in 1989 but never happened
• No second part: no sequel, spin-off or side story. The 2018 releases are reissues of the same game, not new ones
• Two 2018 reissues: a Japanese cartridge for Famicom-compatible consoles, and a Retro-Bit NES edition in English
• Buying it: search IF12 at Suruga-ya, which returns only the original. On Buyee, about half of what comes back is something else

What is Holy Diver, and how does it play?

Famitsu’s own summary is short: an action game that scrolls both vertically and horizontally, where the magic you pick up after each stage is how you get through the next, and the goal is to defeat a demon lord and bring back peace. English Wikipedia fills in the frame. The Crimson Kingdom is falling to the Black Slayer; Randy, the young heir, has to recover the Five Crimson Emblem Seals — Twin Fire, Blizzard, Rock Breaker, Overdrive and Thunder — and use them to reach him. Along the way he also collects equipment that makes him stronger and harder to kill.

Wikipedia describes the rest of the kit. Randy has an unlimited supply of fireballs, and each boss he defeats teaches him a new spell — one of them freezes lava so he can cross it. The equipment is a bracelet, jump boots, a wizard’s staff and a cape of protection. The status bar is laid out like the one in Zelda II, and one stage has sprites and graphics similar to Contra’s — Wikipedia says the final boss is very similar as well. These details are from Wikipedia only; we have not played through the game to check them.

The names are the point. The game’s title is that of Dio’s 1983 album, the emperor is Ronnie, the brothers are Randy and Zakk, their guardian is Ozzy, and the kingdom and the villain borrow King Crimson and Slayer. None of it was licensed. Kerrang! put it plainly in 2018: there is no official connection between the game and Ronnie James Dio or anyone else it references.

The comparison every reviewer reached for was Castlevania. Famitsu’s cross review had four reviewers, who gave it 22 out of 40 between them. The magazine’s game page shows excerpts from three of their comments, and two of those name 悪魔城ドラキュラ outright. One of the three also found it not especially hard. That is worth knowing, because the game’s reputation abroad runs the other way: English Wikipedia calls it widely considered the most difficult game on the NES. That claim comes from Wikipedia alone, and the 1989 review did not share it.

Was Holy Diver ever released outside Japan?

Not in 1989. Three sources we read say the same thing in different words. GameSpot, reporting Retro-Bit’s announcement in January 2018, wrote that the original Famicom game never got an official release outside Japan. Den Faminico Gamer, covering the same announcement in Japanese, described it as a Famicom game released only in Japan in 1989. Kerrang! lists it as released only in Japan.

It came close. English Wikipedia says a North American release was scheduled for the same year and that Electronic Gaming Monthly previewed it in September 1989. We have not seen that issue, so treat the preview as a single-source detail. Whatever the plan was, no NES cartridge came out, and the only way to own Holy Diver until 2018 was the Japanese Famicom one — which does not fit an NES without an adapter.

That made the Japanese cartridge a collector’s item abroad. Den Faminico Gamer reported in January 2018 that the original was selling on eBay for more than $75 as a bare cartridge and more than $200 complete. The same article says unlicensed reproductions had been made and sold, and English Wikipedia repeats both points, citing that article. So treat them as one source. They matter for one reason: a cheap “Holy Diver” that is neither the 1989 cartridge nor a 2018 reissue is possible, and nothing in this guide tells you how to spot one.

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

The Media Arts Database has the cartridge as row M878395: ホーリー・ダイヴァー, Famicom, published 1989-04-28 by アイレム, two megabits, 5500円 (税抜). What it does not have is a catalogue number — no schema:productID, no schema:gtin.

So we recovered it from two places that do record one. Suruga-ya indexes catalogue numbers as a field, and searching IF12 there returns this game and nothing else. The numbers on either side fit Irem’s release order: IF11 is ブルートレイン殺人事件 and IF13 is メジャーリーグ, both 1989. The NES Cart Database lists Holy Diver with the catalogue ID IF-12. The code on the Japanese cartridge is IF-12.

On the cartridge itself it is printed without the hyphen, as IF above a large 12, in the top-left corner of the front label and again in the top-left corner of the label on the back. We checked that on the NES Cart Database’s scans and on a seller’s photos of a loose cartridge. We did not find the code on the box or the manual in the photos we looked at, so we do not say it is there.

The list price is 5,500円 before tax. That is the Media Arts Database figure, and Famitsu’s game page prints the same 5500円 [税抜] next to the same release date. Suruga-ya shows 定価：￥6,050, which is that price with today’s 10% consumption tax added: 5,500 × 1.1 = 6,050.

Why was there never a Holy Diver 2?

We could not find a reason, and we are not going to invent one. What we can say is what does not exist. The Media Arts Database has one row with ダイヴァー in it, and it is this cartridge. Neither English nor Japanese Wikipedia mentions a sequel, and English Wikipedia’s list of Irem games has Holy Diver once, in 1989, with nothing after it that carries the name.

The 2018 releases do not change that. Both are the 1989 game put back on sale — one for Japanese Famicom-compatible consoles, one translated for the NES. Neither adds stages or story. For this series they count as reissues, and Holy Diver stays a game with no second part.

What were the 2018 reissues?

The Japanese one is the ホーリー・ダイヴァー 8ビットゲームカートリッジ (“8-bit game cartridge”), sold by JNNEX as part of its Retro-Bit range. Japanese Wikipedia and Suruga-ya both date it to 23 August 2018. AKIBA PC Hotline! photographed it in an Akihabara shop two days later at 税抜き3,480円 (3,480 yen before tax); that price is from this one source. Irem licensed it, but Nintendo did not, and JNNEX sold it as a cartridge for the Retro Duo and other Famicom-compatible consoles with no guarantee for every machine. AKIBA PC Hotline! called it Famicom software, and Suruga-ya files it under ファミコンソフト next to the original. This is the one that mixes into your search results.

The North American one is Retro-Bit’s NES edition, translated into English. GameSpot reported the announced prices in January 2018: $35 for the standard edition and $60 for a collector’s edition with a special box, pins and stickers. Nintendo Life put the collector’s edition at $59.99 and reported that it was limited to 2,900 copies. The 2,900 figure comes from that one report, and it refers to the collector’s edition, not the standard one. Hardcore Gamer reported on 1 September 2018 that Retro-Bit had started shipping. Suruga-ya lists these copies as 北米版 with the note 国内版本体動作不可: they will not run on a Japanese Famicom.

How do you tell the original from the 2018 reissue?

By reading a few Japanese words in the listing title. You do not need to read Japanese to do it: copy these, look for them, and treat a match as a reason to stop and check.

If the listing says any of these, it is a 2018 edition, not the 1989 cartridge:

• 互換 — “compatible”, as in made for compatible consoles
• 再販 — “reissue” or “re-release”
• 復刻 — “revival” or “reproduction” edition
• FC互換機用 — “for Famicom-compatible consoles”
• レトロビット — “Retro-Bit”, written in Japanese script

Two more phrases point the same way. 8ビットゲームカートリッジ, or 8-BIT GAME CARTRIDGE, is the product name of the Japanese reissue. Den Faminico Gamer explains why licensed reissues are named like that: they cannot use the Famicom trademark, so they fall back on terms such as “8-bit cartridge” and a cartridge design of their own. That is from one source, but it is why the word ファミコン alone does not tell you which copy a listing is. 海外版 (“overseas version”) and 北米版 (“North American version”) mean the Retro-Bit NES edition.

On Suruga-ya there is a second tell: the maker in square brackets under the title. The original reads [アイレム] (Irem); the Japanese reissue reads [レトロビット], and the NES edition [retro-bit] or [Retro-Bit]. Suruga-ya also writes the reissue’s title with a middle dot, ホーリー・ダイヴァー(FC/FC互換機用), and the original without one, ホーリーダイヴァー. And each entry shows a release date: [発売日：1989/04/28] is the original, [発売日：2018/08/23] the reissue.

Two things in the results are not the game at all. レトロビット ジェネレーション本体 is a Retro-Bit console — 本体 means “console”. And ディオ is Dio: CDs, records and live DVDs called Holy Diver.

The absence of these words is not proof. Some sellers write only ホーリーダイヴァー and 箱説なし (“no box or manual”), and from the title alone you cannot tell which cartridge that is. Look at the photos, or ask.

And these words only separate the 1989 cartridge from the licensed 2018 editions. They say nothing about unlicensed reproductions, which do not label themselves. If the price looks far below the others in the same search, read that as a warning, not a bargain. A shop that grades what it sells, such as Suruga-ya, is the safer place to buy an expensive copy.

If you are buying in person in Japan, you can show this line to the staff: これは1989年のオリジナル版ですか？ — “Is this the original 1989 version?”

How do you search each shop for it?

Suruga-ya: the code without the hyphen. IF12 showed results: 3 in the default view and 7 with sold-out items shown, all of them the 1989 cartridge. No reissue gets in. The title searches do let them in: with sold-out items shown, ホーリーダイヴァー showed results: 23, mixing the original and parts of it (a loose box or manual) with the Japanese reissue, the NES edition and the Retro-Bit console (breakdown in the sources). IF-12 with the hyphen does not work — results with sold-out shown: 89, none of them this game — because Suruga-ya splits the code at the hyphen. Holy Diver returns nothing in stock and, with sold-out shown, only NES copies (results: 4). The one thing IF12 misses is the box-only and manual-only entries, which are filed without a code.

Buyee: the title plus the word for Famicom. ホーリーダイヴァー ファミコン returned 22 listings: the 1989 original mixed with cartridge-only listings we could not place, 2018 editions, a Retro-Bit console and unrelated listings (breakdown in the sources). That is the best Buyee can do, and still only about half of it is clearly the original, so use the list of words above on every result before you bid. The title alone is worse (results: 30, with Dio albums and live DVDs in the mix). The code is useless on Buyee: IF12 returned 315 listings and IF-12 315, and none of those we checked was this game, and the title with IF-12 added returned nothing.

eBay: the English title works, if you add Famicom. Holy Diver famicom showed exact matches: 28 (Japanese original: 19; compatible cartridges such as Retro-Bit’s: 2; other Famicom and Super Famicom games or mixed lots: 7). The NES edition appeared only below eBay’s “fewer words” line. Holy Diver on its own is all Dio — more than 1,500 results, the first dozen of them records, shirts and a patch. So we link the English title on eBay, but not on Suruga-ya or Buyee, where it returns the NES edition or Dio.

Why search Kataban for this one?

Because the code and the English title are the two things the Japanese shops handle worst, and on Kataban both work. Search IF-12 or Holy Diver and you get this cartridge — with or without the hyphen, and with the Japanese title shown next to it so you can copy it into a shop. In second-hand game shops in Japan, such as Book-Off, Famicom games are often shelved in Japanese syllabary order, so the section to look in is ホ.

Holy Diver · ホーリー・ダイヴァー · Famicom, 28 April 1989 (IF-12) · Irem

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp — the code (IF12) · Buyee — the title plus Famicom (ホーリーダイヴァー ファミコン) · eBay — Famicom
See it on Kataban →

On 25 September 2026 Suruga-ya’s main entry for the cartridge showed shop stock from ￥6,900 to ￥34,400 across conditions, and 18 used copies on its marketplace from ￥5,300. The cheapest price in that range is not necessarily the best copy; open the entry and read the condition of each one.

A game named after a heavy metal album, with a cast named after metal musicians, never got a second part and never left Japan in its own time. It came back once, in 2018, as itself. If you want the one from 1989, the cartridge label carries IF 12 in its top-left corner, the maker is アイレム, and the listing does not say 互換, 再販 or 復刻.