The characters...
BB's characters were pretty much focused on appealing to some kind of anime cliché. Before people start complaining about anime styling in games, just remember that Street Fighter has the lone warrior wandering around the world in a martial arts gi and Tekken has at least 2 asian schoolgirls. (Giggity giggity)
I'll give out some basic combos you can use to start out with each character. These are by no means your most damaging combos, but they'll get you started and give you a feel for the game. Once you're comfortable with them, feel free to experiment with something more damaging! I won't bother giving a full move list for each character, you can check those out in the command list in the game itself!
Here's a little rundown of all the characters and what they play like.
Tough guy with dark past yadda yadda yadda. Ragna is the ideal characer for a someone who is totally new to this style of game. His standard combos aren't too hard to set up and are pretty easy to perform. Your goal when playing with Ragna is essentially to rush in and beat the opponent up, simple as that! No setting traps, no catch attacks, just get close and punch them really hard in the face.
His Drive moves are attacks that, when they connect (either on hit or on block) will restore some of your life bar. Ragna has relatively low health, so landing a combo is a great way to recover from some of those hits you've taken along the way!
Starter combo: 5B 5C 5D (2 hits) 214B 214D
Weirdo brother of Ragna's, a bit psycho. Jin is also a good beginner character but requires a slightly bit more work than Ragna. Much like his brother, Jin is best played aggressively. He does have fireballs (well, ice swords) but they aren't very good and can't be used in the same way as fireballs in the Street Fighter games. Get up close and pressure your opponent into making a mistake. His throw freezes the opponent so you can go into his standard combo off the back if it if you know what to do.
Jin's Drive involves freezing their opponent in order to extend combos. If you land any of Jin's D moves, the opponent gets surrounded by ice and can't move or block. They can get out of this faster by waggling the joystick, but there is a minimum time limit to this so Jin has some perfect combos that will freeze them and then keep going before they get any chance to escape.
Starter combo: 5B 5C 2C 214B
Member of the same army as Jin, surprisingly underdressed for a shy girl. Noel feels at first like a good beginner character, and in some ways she is. However, the jump between beginner and intermediate is a lot more jarring than it is for some other characters. Again, very much a rushdown character. She has high/low moves that can be hard to predict and can combo into her super off almost anything.
Her Drive puts her into "Chain Revolver", a mode where simple button presses will make her perform complex moves with high/low/crossups. The temptation is there to just mash D and spin the stick around (play online and you'll know what I mean!) but it's best to combo into her Drive rather than just throw it out.
Starter combo: 5D 6B 5C 6B 5C 236D
The big hulking brute, he's a robot or something. Tager's the closest you'll get to a grappler in this style of game. He has similar options to Zangief (a 360 grab, 720 super, a move for walking through projectiles, etc.) but relies on combos a lot more than you might expect. Not bad for new players but you need to have patience.
Tager Drive will magnetise your opponent. When magnetised, they will have some static over their sprite and will be drawn in towards you during certain attacks. For example, you can do a super grab from mid screen and, if they're magnetised, they'll be sucked straight into your loving embrace!
Starter combo: Throw 236B 2B 2C 623C
Goth loli vampire "she's actually 10,000 years old so it's totally legal Mr. FBI Man!" character. A rather tricky to learn trap-setting character. She can place lightning rods on the ground that you can activate at will, as well as summoning her frog "George XIII" which will hop towards the enemy and electrocute them if it gets too close. You can play Rachel either as an ultra aggressive character with some very fast overheads, or full-screen keepaway by firing out traps to keep your opponent at bay.
Rachel's Drive controls the wind. This will affect yourself, your opponent, and some of the traps you throw out. Her pumpkin is only active while being blown about, and you can extend combos by blowing yourself back into an opponent that you would have otherwise knocked too far away.
Starter combo: 6A 5B j.B j.C dj.B dj.C dj.236A
Catgirl with a creepy smile. Taokaka is ultra fast and buzzes around the screen like a mosquito. The hardest part about trying to fight against Tao is just catching her in the first place! Use your speed to your advantage and hit your opponent before they can even work out where you are. Her 2A is very fast and can lead into some big combos. Not a bad character for beginners, she'll be great practise for your combo execution once you move on to more advanced techniques.
Taokaka's Drive propels her across the screen in a huge diving attack. These can be cancelled by pressing A, B or C during the dive (even after they've already hit the opponent). Pressing A will stop Tao dead, pressing B will make her rush to the other side of the opponent if you're close, and C will stop her and make her jump up in the air a little.
Starter combo: 2A 2A 5B 5C 236AAAAAA
Chinese doctor with bountiful bazongas. Litchi can be a very complicated character and so I'd be hesitant to recommend her to new players. However, if you put the time in and get good with her it really pays off. She can keep your opponent under a lot of pressure using her staff and can combo from one edge of the stage to the corner, keeping them locked in the corner with no escape.
Her Drive controls her staff, which can be placed on the ground or fired to the opponent while you are holding it, and can launch remote attacks with it while you're not. With this, nowhere on the screen is safe from your attacks!
Starter combo: 5B 5C 2C 623D (need to be holding the rod for this combo)
Blob monster with a circle for a face. Arakune's goal is to curse you, your family, your friends and everyone you have ever loved. He does this with bees. Arakune is very floaty in the air, but has several teleports making it quite easy to run away from the opponent with him. Beginner friendly to an extent, but you need a firm grasp of the game to make the jump to pro.
Arakune's Drive is a curse which, when it hits the opponent, will let you summon a bug every time you let go of a button. For example, if you press and hold B, you will do your normal attack, but whenever you let go, a little projectile will fire across the screen. His most complex combos may involve a little bit of finger-gymnastics but the payoff is huge.
Starter combo: 6C 5C 2C
Burning justice not-very-stealthy ninja. Bang is all about the rushdown. If you can't see the whites of their eyes, you're doing it wrong. He has a triple jump and a limited supply of shurikens that he can launch at you for different effects. A good character to start with if you don't want to think too hard about defence.
His Drive are auto-guard moves that, if they hit, will light up a symbol near your super bar. When all 4 of this are lit up, you can perform one of Bang's supers (usually just called Bang Install) which will put him into a super powered mode for the rest of the round (and change the background music on the console version!). In this mode you can zip around the screen to no end, but you can't block.
Starter combo: 5B 2B 2C 6D
A little boy and his robot sister - goddamnit Japan. Carl has low health and you have to keep track of both him and his robot at all times, so beginners beware! Carl's most effective combos involve either sandwiching the opponent between him and Nirvana (the robot), or putting them into an infinite loop with Nirvana's clap attack. You need nimble fingers and good awareness of where everything is on screen if you want to win with Carl.
Carl's Drive controls Nirvana. Holding D and a direction will move the robot left or right, and letting go of D while holding a direction will make her perform an attack. You can use Nirvana as a shield to get in close, but be careful as if she takes too many hits she'll be out of commission for quite a long time.
Starter combo: 2A 5B 6C 623C
Masked samurai that the creator drew while he was still in high-school. Hakumen may be slow, but he hits hard. You can do some pretty severe damage without even needing to combo, just land the odd C attack here and there your opponent will be hurting bad. Hakumen has a unique super bar, building up little stars instead of regular super meter. All of his specials cost at least one star to use, but your super meter builds up on its own - although it builds up faster if you're attacking. He's not a bad character for inexperienced players as you can get by without worrying about complex combos, but you may have a hard time getting those hits in as other characters will generally be faster with their pokes.
His Drive is a catch move. Hakumen will pose for a moment and a shield will appear in front of them. If your opponent attacks you while the shield is active, you will catch them and perform a counter attack. If you're good at reading your opponent, this can be a great way to get out of a bad situation.
Starter combo: Throw 236A 6C
(pronounced "Nu")
Lycra-clad robot girl with split personality. Nu is amazing at keeping your opponent at bay. She has all the tools you need to make your the enemy doesn't get close. That's not to discount her melee game, though, as she has some very fast short-range attacks that can easily be combo'd from for huge damage. So long as you resist the urge to just mash on D, Nu can be a very strong character for new players.
Her Drive summons projectile blades that are active very quickly and can generally lead into combos, even from nearly full-screen! If you catch your opponent in the air with one of these, you can keep them juggled for a long time and eat up huge chunks of their health.
Starter combo: 5DD 4DD 236D
Tier list...
Here's a more or less generally accepted tier-list for BBCT (the B-tier can vary a little depending on the list). Don't let this put you off playing a character you like just because they're considered "low-tier". Just watch any Mike Z video to see that you can be awesome no matter who you pick!
S-tier
Nu
Rachel
ArakuneA-tier
Jin
CarlB-tier
Ragna
Noel
Litchi
TaokakaC-tier
Hakumen
Bang
Tager
Why should I play the game now when the sequel is just around the corner?
To be ahead of the curve, if nothing else. Do all the arcade players of a game suddenly stop if the console port is coming in a few months' time? No - so why should console players not start/keep learning in the run up to the sequel? If you start now, you'll have a firmer grasp of your character and how the game in general plays than someone who waits. You'll have invested in a fantastic game and shown Arc System Works that there is an interest in releasing these games in Europe, so we might get the sequel without a 10-month delay this time around!
It's a really fun game and buying it now means that you'll get to have fun for longer than if you decide to wait.
