Thank you for all the replies! I will be looking into some of these (probably Juri/Vega mostly) and see what I like…
I am assuming the Vega move I should avoid is flying barcelona mostly?
@Edit
If I pick Ryu and intend on switching to another shoto character, what should I look to learn before I can make the switch? Just general footsies and anti-air?
Just general footsies/AA, playing with different attitudes (aggressive/defensive).
Yeah, walldive spam is the thing to avoid with Claw. Any experienced player will blow you up for it, newbies eat them like candy. (This is in the neutral game, of course. Some of Claw’s best combos incorporate EX FBA for example, and you absolutely should learn to use those.)
Awesome! Thank you once again 
I will be picking up the game tomorrow (will have some time off) and will come back in case I have any more questions!
Just make sure the version you get is Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, I see some people mess that up sometimes.
If the frustration was from the difficulty, then you might want to reconsider whether or not this genre is for you because other fighters won’t be any easier. In fact, SC tends to be easier to pick up and play because it doesn’t require precise inputs to execute most special moves. My advice is to try as many fighters as you can so you can get a feel for the genre, but don’t think that because a game is hard online that it’s not for you, because that’s just how the genre is.
Don’t just pick a character that looks cool. You will get destroyed like I did for the first month that I played SF online. I think that since you stated that you are new to the genre in general, it might be a good idea to pick a “charge” character.
These sorts of characters include Guile, Balrog, Blanka, E. Honda, Bison, Chun Li and others
What does “charge” mean?
Well, to pull of their special attacks you need to hold back (or charge) on the controller for about 2 seconds (sometimes you can get away with 1.5 seconds) and then usually push forward or up along with either a punch or kick button. Sound confusing? You might need to practice a little bit to get it right, but it doesn’t take long to get use to.
Luckily, holding down-left or down-right on the controller registers that as a charge, making it somewhat easier to prepare for these sorts of attacks without your opponent really being 100% certain.
Why “charge” characters instead of command?
The way I got to understand the game mechanics truly was by playing charge characters. Since you need to charge for more powerful attacks, it forces you to block against attacks and allows you to understand what can break blocks and when to time your own offensive. Command (non-charge characters, eg. Ryu, Ken etc.) are simple to learn however, I never felt that I was learning anything new from these characters, thus not allowing myself to become better at the game. You had stated that you became frustrated with games such as Soul Calibur for what I would to be these reasons, so I feel you would benefit the most from charge over command.
Once you get better at the game and understand the game mechanics, give command characters a shot.
Hope you enjoy SF
I think the frustration was probably due to the type of approach I had to the game…
I started by trying to memorize several combos for different characters which I didn’t even know when to use during the match. Within the first week or so I also tried playing online, needless to say I got wrecked without getting many, if any, blows through.
Seeing how many beginner (and I do mean beginner) friendly guides there are for SF out there I thought maybe it could be a better place to start.
Also, I don’t really like the whole team concept in some fighting games, I already have trouble with a single character as it is currently. Otherwise I’d be trying several other games such as skullgirls and kof 
I guess I might be going Vega first then. If not I will take a look at the other charge characters
Yes, I do think simple defense might be the first thing I will have to face. In SC I got punished endlessly and had no idea when I was supposed to defend and when I should punish someone, not to mention what to punish with.
Thank you very much for the input!
Is that the one that is available on steam? It only says Street Fighter IV :x
-Edit
I just did a little search, apparently SSFIV is region locked, meaning I can’t get it… 
Too bad I did not see that before. I guess I will be going for vanilla until Ultra comes out (hopefully it will not be locked)
This is what comes up when you search it on Steam, get the one that says Arcade Edition and released in 2011 because regular Street Fighter IV is really outdated and no one who plays seriously is on that
Sadly I cannot get SSF… I will have to go with the outdated version until a new version comes out that isn’t region locked…
I probably have quite a lot to learn with the CPUs before I can face anyone anyways
No, the CPU really won’t help you much with training and will probably teach you bad habits that would get blown up by a real person. If you can only get regular Street Fighter IV I would honestly just wait until you can get AE or if Ultra comes out for you. A lot of stuff that worked in Vanilla isn’t true anymore, especially with Ultra coming out soon and you wouldn’t have many people to practice with in regular Street Fighter IV other than the laggy macro Blankas that are probably the only people still on that verson.
I’m a relative beginner and I’m maining Juri mostly at the moment, and while I know I shouldn’t dive kick too much, it is such a fun move to do xD
Ohai.
I’m myself a beginner like OP, but I didn’t play any fighting game whatsoever. But I kinda got hooked up on watching SF streams since EVO, and the idea of picking the game up grew up on me. So I snapped a couple of weeks back, bought SSFIVAE and a good stick straight away. I’m not comfortable with a pad on anything but racing games anyway.
I have to admit that it’s much harder than I thought. But fun nonetheless. I’m working on my execution, my blocking, and hitting 2-3 hit combos like cmk-hadoken. Pretty basic stuff. As of now I’m playing Ken but I don’t really like this character. I’m much more interested in characters like Abel, Juri, Fei Long or Guy, but the character I really fell for and I want to learn above all is Ibuki. But for now I’m sticking with Ken to get those fundamentals going. Once I start to defend myself a bit more against my sparring partner who is a 3000pp Makoto, I’ll switch.
But I have a question though. Some dude online said I needed a game plan, even if it’s a very basic one. Can you tell me what he meant by that ?
Just a plan for what you want to do. These games unfold so fast you rarely have time for thinking consciously, so especially as a beginner having a simple plan for what you want to do can do a lot of good. It doesn’t need to be anything very hard - like, with Ken it could be “I’ll frustrate him with step kick => cr.mk pokes and DP him when he gets frustrated and jumps in”. Nothing complicated. Against someone like Dhalsim, the plan could be “walk forward to force him into the corner, some life loss is acceptable because Sim dies in the corner”.
Basically, have a goal, have a method that should achieve that goal (ideally using your comfort moves as discussed in the James Chen video and Airdash Academy Ep.1 - for Ken, medium Shoryuken, low medium kick, forward+medium kick and throw are a good set, IMO).
Then just look for what situations you have problems in and start trying to find answers to them. A character like Ken usually has some kind of out to defuse the situation entirely or make it less onerous to deal with.
Learning fundamentals with Ibuki is perfectly possible, by the way. It’s just that like Juri, she has a couple gimmicks that new players get in the habit of abusing and never really stop because they work against most people. But she really has a decent neutral game that’s getting buffed in Ultra (and some of those gimmicks are getting nerfed), so if you don’t mind practicing execution Ibuki can absolutely be a fine choice. If she’s what you really want to play and you have more fun playing her, play her.