Friends of Mana probably isn't a title that many Western fans of the Seiken Densetsu/Mana series will be aware of.
Released in 2006 for Softbank-compatible feature phones (and for i-Mode and EZWeb services one year later in 2007), the network-based multiplayer RPG was never localized outside of Japan, meaning only the most dedicated members of the community are probably even aware of its existence. Nevertheless, it remains an intriguing part of the series's history, being the first mobile entry (predating games like Circle of Mana and Echoes of Mana) and one that has unfortunately found itself in somewhat of a precarious situation when it comes to the topic of preservation.
Previously, if you've fancied playing the game in the modern day, there's traditionally been no real way to actually access all of the title's features, with the servers having long been shut down, and the game's data being locked to rapidly aging hardware. It also seems like Square Enix doesn't intend on rereleasing the title anytime soon. That is, if they even still have any of the original data to begin with.
Because of this, we were excited to hear recently that some progress has been made in preserving the game, with the keitai preservationist RockmanCosmo taking to social media earlier this week to announce that the trial version of the game (which comprises the opening chapter) has now been archived by a user named Cuebus.
This is the individual who previously preserved the trial version of House of the Dead mobile, as well as the Hello Kitty game, Kitty Tennis; the Space Invaders' spin-off Cubic Invaders, and the train sim Densha de GO!: Going Round in Yamanote Line.
According to RockmanCosmo, the version preserved is a Yahoo! Keitai/Softbank version of the game that has been chip-dumped from an 811SH (one of the phones that included a pre-loaded version of the title).
It is available to play now in SoftBank's MEXA emulator (you can find instructions here), but as Cosmo notes, the game runs at a lower FPS than on original hardware. The rest of the game is sadly still missing in action.