This post is directly inspired by ET Land’s video on playing Suika Game on a Miyoo Mini. Check it out!
Note that this will help you install the Suica Game Pico-8 Demake, and not the official Android version.
Installing Retroarch
The first step is to download the 32-bit RetroArch Android APK directly from RetroArch’s website. Both 32-bit and 64-bit can run on SH-01J, but only the 32-bit one will run the core needed to play Pico-8.
You’ll need to install the APK through adb commands. I recommend Chewyro’s guide on how to do this.
When you run RetroArch for the first time, the button bindings might be incorrect, making it impossible to navigate the menu. To fix this, download scrcpy to access the phone’s screen through your PC. You can then navigate the RetroArch menu with mouse and keyboard, letting you set up custom bindings.
Installing Fake-8
The pre-installed Pico-8 core for RetroArch (Retro8) cannot run Suika game, so you will need to install the RetroArch core Fake-8. This core cannot be downloaded directly through RetroArch, so you will need to install it yourself.
First, download the Android-Libretro.zip release here. Then, while your phone is connected to PC, go to RetroArch/Downloads and copy over the contents from the Android-Libretro folder.
The next step is very important. Go into the /libs folder and rename the file libfake08-arm32.so to fake08_libretro.so. The file should have the same name as fake08_libretro.info.
On Retroarch, go to Settings/Core/Manage Cores/Install or Restore a Core. Select fake08_libretro.so. This will install the core.
Launching the Pico-8 Game
RetroArch will sometimes have trouble launching Pico-8 games directly because they are read as .png files with the media browser. Go to Settings/User Interface/File Browser and deselect Use Built-in Media Player.
At this point you should be able to run the game! Can you make it to Suika?