Alright. I have just this second ordered the game and it should be coming through my mailbox by tomorrow.
Before I go into my set of questions I would just like to give a short introduction. The first real fighter that I ever played was SFIV. It was also this game that sparked my interest for fighting games in general. It wasn't long before I also started dabbling in other games of the capcom franchise like 3rd Strike, Alpha and Turbo (my personal favorite). I never really wanted to become competitive, but I took it quite seriously and would sometimes spend most of my day playing (if work or school didn't intervene). I would never consider myself 'good' at any of them, but I definitely grasped most of the fundamentals. Lately however I don't have as much time as I would like for playing games, uni, work, social life and what have you.
Because of my lack of time, I am really wanting to know how I can most efficiently spend my time learning the game. This doesn't mean that I'm asking for help regarding what character to play. I have already found out that there generally isn't a 'best' character to play when starting out with a new fighter. All I want to know is, when I have decided which characters I want to play, which skills are regarded the most important to have so I can finally start playing against other opponents. Obviously it'll consist out of a hitconfirming, BNB's, meter usage and anti-airing. But because KoF is so radically different from anything I have ever played before (heavy emphasis on being on the offensive), I'm not quite sure how to approach it. What would be the best way of going about to learn the game? It's not that I'm looking for some sort of miracle solution (it'll require hours of gametime regardless), but it's just that I don't want to go learning anything that isn't really required at a starting level. And seeing as there is so much to learn, the chance of me doing just that is very big.
I hope I'm not being too vague.. Anyway, any input is greatly appreciated!