Well, honestly, I've never been good at combo-centric or complex-entry fighters-- put me at the controls for Street Fighter III Third Strike and I do pretty well! Simple inputs to let me just think about what I'm doing, and not how to do what I want to do...
I'm a bit confused by this statement... as I've never found Soul Calibur to be nearly as combo-centric as Street Fighter.
Never the less, SC's basics are based on which direction you tap before pressing an attack. considering each button responds to a different type of move you usually know what's going to come out from each press. So tapping down and hitting any attack button will almost always be a low sweeping horizontal, vertical, or kick.
What I will admit makes it more complicated are the stances. Characters like Ivy and Siegfried have a bunch of different stances which offer new attack opportunities but are confusing for new players to get used to.
So the problem has just been in getting stuff unlocked.. I finally managed to complete arcade mode with Vader by totally cheesing it out-- The Apprentice is apparently dumb if you just keep spamming A+G as he gets up, and Algol I just lured to the edge and used the same throw to fling him out. That got me up to 20 honors, so 10 to go to unlock the rest of the gear you can get that way? As far as the Tower, I'm currently at 15-17, with a few unopened chests still behind.
Some honors are easy to get if you make a character specifically to get them. For example, the guard impact honors can be obtained by making a character with the skills "Auto Impact A" entering either story mode or the tower and just holding the defense. Then to get the 20 Just Impacts, just add "Master Impact" and do the same thing.
It's also easy to grind for Soul Crush and Critical Finish honors by creating a Yun-seong character and loading them up with powerful attack stats, the skill "Soul Gauge Damage A" and then spamming 6B,B. (Forward Triangle, Triangle on PS3)
Though, some of conditions for chests in the Tower of Lost Souls are so asinine that I didn't even bother. I just bought what I needed and was done with it. (Once you've got the right amount of honors all the equipment can be purchased, nothing is 'hidden' or only obtainable in the ToLS, save for one stage if I recall.)
And yeah, I've messed around in training mode quite a lot, but that doesn't really help.. everything just goes out the window once an actual match starts. As for suggesting a character, well I don't know if it helps any, but... in SF3 I played Remy-- AGGRESSIVELY, not silly Guile-turtle! I've had some success with some of the longer reach fighters like Siegfried and Kilik, and can obviously get through normal story mode with no problem (I'm pretty sure someone picking up the game for the first time and button mashing would be able to do that with a few continues).
I would also like to know more on whether I'm missing something about mobility... seems like the AI has a lot less problem moving around, while I can't dodge the slowest of vertical attacks. :slow:
It's not always about how much you practice but also how. To familiarize yourself with the moves you want to use, switch the training style from Free Style to VS CPU. With no stakes involved you'll likely learn a bit better.
More over, try new things while playing in the main modes. You should try controlled button mashing; that is, pressing a semi-random button and direction to see it's effects (ding the same command once or twice in a row will help you remember the move.) while doing this with a single character you'll start to learn more of their moves.
The 8-way run system can take some getting used to, specially for someone coming from a game like Street Fighter. Spend some time familiarizing yourself with it however and it should start to make sense.
Some characters are easier to pick up and play then others, Seigfried, even with his large number of stances, isn't a bad choice. Nightmare has fewer stances so can be a decent introduction if Seig isn't feeling right. Kilik is a pretty easy starting character as well, and the long range tends to give you breathing room.
Once you've found a style you like though, you're just gonna have to spend time learning the ins and outs of it. You don't have to memorize the move-list but finding key moves that fit your general play-style will certainly will make your fights easier.
I hope any of this helps.
