Rockman DASH: Great Adventure on 5 Islands English Translation Patch Released

Hey Mega Man fans! I’m RockmanCosmo, a game preservationist dedicated to saving lost games from Japanese feature phones. A little over one year ago, SciLab Secrets preserved Rockman DASH: Great Adventure on 5 Islands, a previously-lost entry in the Mega Man Legends series released for Japanese feature phones. Today, I’m happy to announce that 5 Islands has an English patch, courtesy of a one Mega Alex! Read on for more details and how you can play it right now! 

What is Great Adventure on 5 Islands?

Released episodically for i-mode phones in 2008, Rockman DASH 5 Islands is an ambitious Mega Man Legends spinoff set between the first two main games. It features five islands, each with seven missions, and an original story with surprising ties to Legends, including a major role for Denise Marmalade from The Misadventures of Tron Bonne. The game faithfully replicates Legends gameplay in 3D, with lock-on targeting, circle-strafing, special weapons crafting, NPC interactions, and sidequests—delivering a full Legends experience despite its limitations.

After Capcom delisted their i-mode games in 2018, Rockman DASH 5 Islands became unavailable for purchase and was effectively lost—only surviving on existing Japanese i-mode phones. After years of effort, the SciLab Secrets team successfully obtained and preserved a complete copy. Read more about their work here.

Is this 15-year-old Japanese flip phone game worth playing? After experiencing it with Mega Alex’s English patch, I’d say absolutely—especially for Legends fans! While developer credits are unknown, the writing nails the series' style and characters, making it feel like reuniting with old friends. The story isn’t groundbreaking but offers one last adventure with a real sense of finality, especially on the fifth island. Gameplay has some i-mode jank, and shop prices can be absurd (2500 Zenny for Jet Skates!), but given the hardware, 5 Islands is a special experience.

How Was the Patch Made?

Ten years ago, Midori translated 5 Islands’ cutscene script. When the game was preserved last year, Mega Alex built an English patch, using Midori’s work as a base while translating menus and NPC dialogue from scratch.

Editing the files was incredibly challenging. While some data was in simple .csv files, cutscene dialogue was locked in proprietary formats, forcing Mega Alex to edit them byte by byte in a hex editor. Even a single misplaced digit could crash the game. Space limitations added another hurdle, but preservationist Yuvi stepped in to modify string lengths for longer text. After seven months of painstaking work, Mega Alex completed the patch.

 As the patch drew closer to completion, I commissioned artists Cargodin and SprinqGueen to create promotional artwork and a logo, respectively. It’s safe to say both did an absolutely outstanding job – this could be official!

How Can I Play the Game in English? 

You can play the patch through the newly released Keitai World Launcher, developed by preservationist Yuvi.  We recommend using Windows 10 or higher; older versions may run into bugs. 

After you download the launcher, we highly recommend extracting it to your C:// drive. Avoid folders with spaces or special characters to prevent errors. Run the program as an administrator on first launch. Otherwise, four pop-ups will request registry modification—approve them and restart the program. If Java is missing, the launcher will provide a download link. When starting the launcher for the first time, it may take a minute as it will carry out additional downloads in the background. Once inside the program, search for 5 Islands in the search bar. Mega Alex created two versions of the patch, which use different names for characters: delocalized (Rockman, Kobun) and localized (MegaMan, Servbot). The versions contain no differences beyond the name changes. Once you select an English patch, you're ready to go!

Below are some gameplay tips to get you started. Please enjoy this piece of previously lost Mega Man Legends history!

Patch Credits

• Programming: Mega Alex

• Translation: Midori, Mega Alex

• Programming Assistance: Yuvi

• Promotional Artwork: Cargodin

• English 5 Islands Logo: SprinqGueen

Gameplay Tips & Bug Fixes

• Use a Controller: Yuvi’s launcher includes a gamepad mapper (Key2Pad) for easy key binding. The game also allows remapping to phone keys. Here’s a sample keypad layout from Mega Alex that you can load into the game.  Do not close the Key2Pad configurator after setting your bindings – minimize the application (App → Hide).

• Fix Audio Bugs: If the sound stutters, access the options menu via the map screen to reset the background music.

• Under the ShaderGlass option, there is a drop-down menu where you can resize the game screen up to 4x (2x is the default).

• Talk to NPCs Often: Their dialogue changes after each mission, and some sidequests require speaking to them at specific times. Some ruin items are meant to be given to NPCs!

• Breakable Walls: There are two types, each requiring a different special weapon to destroy.

• Backtracking is Possible: You can return to previous islands via the menu (the one with Roll). This is useful for certain sidequests.