Deep Fear on Sega Saturn: Sega’s Undersea Horror Game That Skipped North America, and How to Find GS-9189

Deep Fear is Sega’s own Saturn survival horror game: a rescue worker trapped in an undersea base, where an infection turns the crew into monsters and every gunshot uses up the air. Sega released it in Japan on 16 July 1998, on two discs.

It came out in Japan and Europe only. A North American release was rumoured and never happened, and the European release was the last Saturn game sold there. So for most players outside Europe, the Japanese disc is the one to find.

• The disc set: DEEP FEAR (ディープフィアー), Sega Saturn, Sega, 16 July 1998, 6,800円 before tax, two discs
• Product code: GS-9189 (the Kataban catalog also lists 670-13087); barcode 4974365091897
• Other versions: Europe only, in 1998; no North American release
• Region: the Saturn is region-locked, so a Japanese disc needs a Japanese console or a converter cartridge
• Buying it: search the product code GS-9189, with the Japanese title as a backup

What is Deep Fear?

You play John Mayor, a rescue worker on the Big Table, an undersea supply base in the Pacific. English Wikipedia describes it as a survival horror game in which an unknown infection turns the staff into mutants while John looks for a way out. Its own idea is air: each area has a limited supply that runs down over time and faster when you fire, and you refill it at Air System terminals or with a breathing mask under water.

It was made by System Sacom with Sega CS2, with Rieko Kodama as co-producer, Kenji Kawai on music and Yasushi Nirasawa designing the monsters. English Wikipedia says it was designed as a science-fiction take on the Japanese “Mansion Mystery” genre, and reviewers often compared it to Resident Evil.

Why was it never released in North America?

Because the Saturn was nearly over by then. English Wikipedia says a North American release was rumoured to be part of a “final batch” of Saturn titles before the Dreamcast, but it never came. The European release, with its PAL conversion handled by ISCO, followed the Japanese one in 1998, and it was the final Saturn game released in Europe. Kodama said in a 2018 interview that the game was “buried” by its late release in the Saturn’s life.

The sources disagree on the European date: Japanese Wikipedia gives the European release as 30 June 1998, English Wikipedia as 18 September. We give only the year.

Can you play it without reading Japanese?

The voices are not the problem. Japanese Wikipedia credits the in-game voices to Samuel Rose (John Mayor), Karen Kennedy, Tom West and Monty DiPietro; Japanese actors such as 中原茂 voiced the separate audio-drama CDs, not the game. English-language reviewers commented on that voice acting — most panned it, while GameSpot’s James Mielke called it better than the first two Resident Evil games.

We could not confirm what language the Japanese disc uses for its on-screen text and menus, so we leave that open. If you want a version made for Western players, the European release is the only one.

Which disc is the Japanese one?

GS-9189 is the code in Sega’s own Saturn software list and on Suruga-ya’s trade-in page for the game, with the barcode 4974365091897. The Media Arts Database records it as two discs at 6800円 before tax. The European release is a PAL disc for European consoles; a Japanese disc will not start on a Western Saturn. As Sega Retro puts it, the Saturn “is region-locked, meaning that games can only be played on hardware from the same region”.

Look out for two things that share the name: promotional movie discs, marked 非売品 or “Promotion Disc”, and two Japanese guidebooks, ビッグテーブルからの生還 and a パーフェクトガイド. In the Japanese shops, the guidebooks turn up more often than the game.

Where can you buy it today?

On 14 October 2026 the product code GS-9189 found 1 copy on Buyee, and the Japanese title found 7 copies of the game among 21 listings.

Deep Fear · DEEP FEAR · Sega Saturn, 16 July 1998 (GS-9189) · Sega

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp — code (GS-9189) · Buyee — title (ディープフィアー セガサターン) · eBay — Deep Fear saturn NTSC-J

Search Kataban: Deep Fear → · ディープフィアー → · GS-9189 →

Holding a boxed copy? Scan the barcode on the back of the case with Kataban’s scanner, and it finds the game.

Why search Kataban for this one?

Because the shops spell it three ways. The box says DEEP FEAR, the catalogue reading is ディープフィアー, and Suruga-ya files it as ディープ・フィアー, with a dot. Kataban finds the game with all three, and with Deep Fear, GS-9189, 670-13087 or the barcode.

An undersea base, a running air supply and a release that came too late for America: Deep Fear is easy to miss. Its code is not.