Progression[edit]
Throughout the game, you will alternate between a Journey portion of the stage and the Tournaments portion of the stage. Each section is laid out in greater detail in their individual sections. Ultimately, there are five different stages. You will only encounter the Training stage on your first play through the game, but not on subsequent plays. Each Tournament section contains three opponent fighters, except for the World Tournament stage which includes 6.
Mandala[edit]
Throughout the game, you will collect items which compose your Mandala (referred to in game as a Mandara). The Mandala is composed of three kinds of items: 5 seals, 6 scrolls, and 4 crystal balls. You will not be able to collect any crystal balls until you have successfully played through the game once and defeated the fake Dargon. Only when you begin to play through the game a second time will you be able to find one crystal ball in each Journey section. Seals are awarded for every successful completion of a Journey (you will automatically start with one seal for the skipped Training Journey on your second play through). Scrolls are won by successfully revealing and defeating particular opponents who are secret members of the Tusk Soldier Army. Only by completing the Mandala will you be given a chance to face off against the true Dargon and earn the real ending to the game.
Increasing your power[edit]
In each Tournament section of the game, there is at least one opponent who is secretly a member of the Tusk Soldier Army. In many cases, you must perform a particular set of actions in order to make the opponent reveal himself to use as a Tusk Soldier, although in a few cases, no special action is necessary. Once a Tusk Soldier is revealed, they will use the set of martial arts common to each other and to you, and not the fighting style that they originally began the fight with. You will also gain the ability to use the Crescent Wave attack against them if you have a full KO gauge, which is something you cannot perform against an ordinary opponent. Once a Tusk Soldier is defeated, you will collect one of the five stolen scrolls (you begin the game with the sixth scroll.)
In order to learn how to reveal a hidden Tusk Soldier, you should attempt to find any of the Juan panels hidden about during the Journey portion of the stage. If you reveal two Juan panels, you will be given a clue as to how to reveal each Soldier before you face him. You will always be shown your Mandala after a fight with a Tusk Soldier whether you properly reveal him or not. If you see a Mandala after a Tournament fight, but did not fight against a Tusk Soldier, then you may have missed an opportunity. If you have collected a "?" Panel from the Journey portion of the stage, you can force a rematch by pressing 
+
after the fight has completed.