When you press Start to pause the game, you'll be treated to a few choices, as well as a view of Tatsuya. The four kanji pointing to him are (in order) Head, Torso, Arms, and Legs. As you take damage in these areas, they'll begin to take a red hue to show how injured they are. At critical levels, they'll flash red and white. There's no need to memorize these kanji, because they're listed in the same order everywhere in the game. In order, the stats below him are: Level, Health, Injury Level, and Experience Points. I'll go over each option in detail.

• Item - As expected, this is where you go to use items on Tatsuya. The health and injury stats remain, as well as the body part indicators. You should look up what each item does via translation, or the item section of this guide. Press Circle to use the item, Triangle to discard the item, and Cross to go back to the pause menu. You can also check your valuables by pressing Square. These are key items that can't be used or discarded. If you're wondering how to equip that gear/ring in your pockets, don't worry. You already have! Equipment is automatically active just be having it on your person. Yes, that means you can have a whopping 12 pieces of equipment on.
• Status - Your all-important stats. In clockwise order from the top, these stats are Heat, Kick, Stamina, Grab, and Punch. Beneath Tatsuya you'll see Health and Injury, but also a look at how much more EXP he needs to level up. There's nothing to do here but look, or press Cross to return.
• Battle - This is actually two screens in one, with the second screen being accessed by pressing Square. The first is your Style screen, which is info about your current fighting style. On the top left, you'll see your current style, and on the right is the passive effects that style is giving you. These are explained in more detail in the Style section. Below this is shows how much EXP you need to level up the style. Underneath this is every level of your current style. You can browse these by pressing left and right to check some other styles. You'll generally want to be at the highest level of your style, but there are some niche uses for downgrading. Pick your style with the Circle button.
  • Here are the styles, listed in the order they appear in the menu. I've spoiler-tagged them in case you want to learn about them on your own, but if you're serious about unlocking them all, you should probably bite the bullet and head to the Fighting Styles section to learn how.
    • Street Fighting / 喧嘩
    • Boxing / ボクシング
    • Muay Thai / ムエタイ
    • Karate / 空手
    • Jiu Jitsu / 柔術
    • Wrestling / プロレス
    • Lucha / ルチャ
    • Traditional Martial Arts / 古武術
    • Fighting Kung Fu / 格闘武術
    • Mixed Martial Arts / 総合格闘技
    • Bajiquan / 八極拳
    • Weapon Mania / 武器マニア
    • Chinese Kenpo / 中国拳法
    • Extreme Hard Arm / 剛腕の極み
    • Extreme God Leg / 神脚の極み
    • Extreme Flexibility / 柔剛の極み
    • Extreme Awakening / 覚醒の極み
    • Extreme Tenacity / 不屈の極み
    • Extreme Vigor / 乱舞の極み
    • Extreme Being / 極めし者
  • By pressing Square here, you get a list of your special techniques. The first page is for punch techniques, while the second is for kicks. You can only have one of each equipped. Once again, I'll describe these in detail in the Techniques section.
• Mail - A collection of your text messages. They're sorted into main and Cabaret messages. I'll cover each text message as you get them, so this menu won't be of much use for you.
• Story - This will show you a blurb detailing what's going on in the main story. What's far more useful is the Substory list you can access by pressing Square. You can see if a substory is completed by the "完" at the side.
• Options - This is the same options menu on the title screen, with the addition of a "Return to Title" button as the third option.