I'm focusing on XI now as it feels closest to XIII to me. I've owned it for years but I'm just now getting around to seriously playing it. My only complaint is that I wish I could set C+D to be the blowback rather than having it be E. Otherwise, it's a great game. The team I'm leaning toward is Kyo (leader), King and Vanessa.
agree on the E rant, a seriously stupid choice... C+D was fine and there isn't any other command binded with that combination of button now, so silly. And that change a lot of configuration screwing the four button setup (on custom stick more than other).
by the way, congrats for joining us \o/
Kyo is a great overall character, the leader sucks a little about the damage but ensure deadly mixup with the command throw. imho in the future you will change towards something more "impressive" to land.
King is good, really nice zooning and some strong option, like the trap at the right spacing connect pretty well and it's almost safe on block, good overhead too.
Vanessa i don't have to much hint about her :\ sorry, the only thing i remember (and it's like a common thing lol) is to cancel almost everything into the swing = better recover.