we've been playing this since before thanksgiving. I skimmed the thread for questions, I'll pay more attention frlm now on to answer stuff if people have specific questions. else I just say go to gamefaqs =P
Pretty fun game.
you have to unlock characters in a certain order. Go to the shop and look for an icon thats blue with like a shadow profile picture thingy. Those are your characters to unlock. the top most icons that are red with a knife across them are game mode. Everythign else is prettty much useless from the shops.
Not everything that you have the ability to buy shows up at the shop all at thee same time. So like if you buy a character, then leave the shop, then re-enter there is very good chances there is now a new cahracter for you to buy. Thats why I said you have to unlock the characters in a specific order.
blocking is the weakest aspect of this game. There is no blocking, everyone has auto-block with no way to turn it off. If you don't press anything, you block all attacks. Also note that autoblocking has a brief moment before it 'turns on' which is why I hate it so much. So if someone appears behind you and you turn around and want to block you just get smacked in the face.
3v3 matches are KOF style, however, there is a 4 player mode where all 4 people are playing simult. The combat is very Tales of Symphonia esque in that its 3d but you target someone and then move in a 2d plane. 2v2 can them be done so that all 4 people are playing simult in this mode.