The friendly meter is actually called Affection. It stands for how mucha certain player likes you. It ranges from 0 to 255, you can increase that player's Affection by giving them items and bringing them along on quests.
Example: Giving Blackrose a health potion might increase her affection by 1 or 2, but if you give her a rare weapon or armor that she can use, it might increase by 20 or higher. Also certain characters will like it when they receive certain items, if you give Mia some Aroma Grass, you will receive a major bonus to the Affection.
You can view the affection of the players from one of the Ryu Books.
what does the ryu book VIII do? i got I-VII. and how do u get them exactly? is it a certain amount of data drains? like 5 for book I, 10 for book II and stuff?
I've let all of these pass, but for the love of some diety or another, will you quit it with the game questions? --;;;; This isn't your personal QA session, and we've asked previously that people not ask questions like this.