Just play the ingame tutorial. It does an excellent job at explaining the mechanics and basic fighting game knowledge (take notes Capcom).
And I posted a link 3 posts up, I recommend you take a look at it. It might help you out a bit.
Hey Blazbluers
I like the look of this series but don’t know where to begin.
I hear the story is really good which suggests I should start at Calamity Trigger buuuuuuuuuuuuut I guess the latest and greatest (Continuum extend) will be more polished and better online-wise.
TL:DR
Will I miss out much by starting with Continuum shift?
Nope.
When you buy Extend you have 2 seperate story modes. Calamity Triggers story mode AND Continuum Shifts story mode.
I’m not sure if it’s as extensive compared to the original BB:CT, but it gets the point across (it did for me).
The Extend story mode is a “condensed” version of the CT story, apparently, with just a single story line that involves you playing multiple characters. I never played the original CT story mode, so I don’t know if anything is “lost in translation” or not, but it serves as a pretty decent explanation of events, at least.
Thamks OSD and Airk,
I’ll pick up extend then, If I desperately need to know something there’s always Youtube, wikis etc.
Just picked up BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND… God help me… Def NOT SF!!! Hitting the YouTubes after work.
Definitely NOT SF. 
Thoughts on what playstyle (if not character) you might like?
Well I picked up the game yesterday evening on my lunch break and with the whole “family life” I’ve only logged about an hour in. I have played as Ragna and Litchi. I think I will do some time in training and tutorials before I hit arcade, story and def online.
Is the online community for 360 still fairly active?
Ranked matches are a little dead sometimes, but player matches generally have some action, even at weird times.
If your PSR is at 0-99 (I don’t remember how the PSR settings go), there should still be a fair amount of beginners playing there.
Player matches are more tough though, since all players I see there have their PSR up to 450+.
Greetings Blazers of the Blue!
If one hasn’t Bought Continuum Shift, would you recommend just getting Extend instead? CS used is cheap at GS right now…
(already have CT LE)
I wouldn’t really recommend CS at this point unless you are:
A) ONLY interested in single player EVER
OR
B) Utterly impoverished, such that the difference in price between the two games is like, whether you eat tonight (Note: Looking up the games on Amazon, Extend and CS cost basically the same, with ‘vanilla’ CS actually being 18 cents more expensive).
So uh. Yeah. If you want the game at this point, Extend is the way to be, and pleasantly cheap.
Yeah get Extend, it’s more current, has more characters, and it should cost the same. Keep in mind the progression goes CS > CS2 > CSE, so you’d be two versions behind.
Not really, CS2 is a free update. (Except for the characters, that you’d have to buy, so yeah. More reason to get extend.)
Extend has always been a great entry point into the series, because it’s complete and has no “Required DLC”.
Mmm I guess you’re right about CS2. It seems I forgot that some companies provide massive free patches for their games instead of charging you for DLC from day 1.
Hello dead forum, I just got BB:CSEX a few days ago. I am well aware that this game isn’t as popular as it used to be, but I wanted to get a grasp of how this game works before CP drops (though I play on the xbox360 and I haven’t seen any confirmation that it’s coming out for that system) 
But regardless, I just needed a break from the other fighting games I play. Anyways, I have a few questions:
- Just to confirm, the only way to get out of a combo is to “Barrier Burst,” correct?
- When recovering in the air or on the ground after being hit by pressing a direction and a button, is it wise to mash or learn to time it?
- Can characters combo after a “Counter Assault?” If not, is it really worth it to spend 50% heat just to hit someone slightly away from you? (Perhaps I’m valuing heat too much)
Welp, here’s hoping someone sees this post within a reasonable time period.
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Yes, bursting is the only thing you can do while you’re being combo’d, but you can also mash a button to tech in case your opponent drops the combo. Be careful, though, smart players will occasionally drop their combo on purpose for a reset opportunity (especially towards the end).
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It really depends. Like I said, during a combo you pretty much have to mash it to get it out in time (although in P4A and BBCP, you can hold the button down instead). Off of random hits/the end of a combo, you usually want to tech as soon as possible since it lets you act quicker, but there are reasons to delay it since certain characters will have tech punish setups. I’m not really good at this aspect of the game either, but I guess I would say mashing is fine for a beginner. Just don’t get too predictable.
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Some characters can, but it prorates heavily, so you’re not going to get much damage if any. I don’t even worry about comboing from it, I use the time to get better positioning. The question of whether it’s worth meter depends on who you play: zoners benefit from the distance, but a character like Makoto is obviously much better off trying to block and looking for an opening. In Extend, meter gain is pretty ridiculous, so you should be able to afford one every now and then. I see BBCP players use it much less often because the meter gain has been significantly reduced. I’d say overall it’s safe to ignore the option unless you’re in danger of being guard crushed, you’re better off learning how to block properly.
Damn, didn’t expect that quick of a response! Thanks a lot.
There are plenty of us lurking here, we just don’t always have that much to discuss. 
Celerity pretty much covered questions 1 and 2, though I’ll expand a little bit on #3; Some characters can combo off it, but as mentioned, the proration is bad (though sometimes that doesn’t matter; I’ve been killed by a Valkenhayn player doing a CA to knock me into the corner and then following it up for like…1.5k or something, which is small potatoes damage, but sometimes all you need). Really though, the point of the Counter Assault is to shift momentum - in BB, lots of characters have fairly strong pressure, where once they get an offense going, it can be quite hard to get out. Counter Assaults allow you to get out, and are generally easier, if not strictly “safer” than doing a DP > Rapid Cancel, because you can do a Counter Assault WHILE you are in blockstun, whereas to DP out of pressure requires a gap in blockstun, which means mindgames. And, well, it’s a lot harder to mash out a DP for a small gap than it is to push towards+AB. Also, counter assaults are not created equal. They have varying ranges, startups, etc. (Noel’s does even have a hitbox, Arakune’s is a throw, so fails against jumping opponents.). And of course the value of a CA is relative to your other tools and options. If you’re playing Ragna or Mu and therefore have a strong DP, the value of a counter assault goes down. If you’re playing Tager and your counter assault is not very good, and your distortions are powerful, the value of a counter assault goes down. If you’re playing Tsubaki and your other uses for heat are relatively crappy, plus your DP is bad, the relative value of a counter assault goes up.