Newbie seeking tips and advice

Ok, I'm probably what you'd call an extreme newbie. I've never played any of the previous VF games, as I've never been big into fighting games. The last one I got was Soul Calibur, and while I did get pretty good at it, I didn't even come close to mastering a character. I just got this game about a week ago and so far I'm loving it. I've reached 3rd dan, but alot of the kumite fighters now are really giving me beatings. Any general, newbie tips that apply for all characters that you could give me? I'm using Lei-Fei, so if you have any specific tips for him that would also be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Good Lei-Fei stuff here

Use the search function as well as the Lei-Fei page (accessible from the home page)

 

At the risk of being self-serving, please take whatever you can from my "How to stick with a character" post on Junky's forum. Search for 'stick with jeffry' and please let me know how it turns out.

 

Thanks for the help guys. I printed out the Dojo and read a good bit of it also. And an interesting read raoulduke, but don't worry, I won't be abandoning Lei any time soon.

 

If you're on the PS2 and not an arcade machine (which Im assuming), take advantage of the Replay functions too. Save your fights and replay them so you can see where you lose momentum and where you are gaining the upper hand. This helped me alot in pinpointing the skills I was falling back on (namely throw escapes, option select defenses and a tendency to tech roll and attack while rising TOO MUCH).
If you have the space on your memory card keep your old saves too. It's a gratifying way to see how you are improving and is a nice reminder not to repeat old mistakes.

 

Also you can dowload these bitchin' Lei Fei movies , which can give you something to aspire too. Check where it says download.

Try to learn which moves go into which stances. That's what I'm focusing on.