I never liked any traditional fighting games (liked Super Smash Bros., but doesn't count) until Skullgirls as of two weeks ago. I also fell in love with Eliza and everything about her, but I find myself struggling to input combos at all.
I've looked up guides and other helpful information, but to be honest long reads aren't my strong suit, and yet I can't find any sort of video thing. Is there any short-ish version of what can help a newbie out?
From the beginning, play trough the tutorial mode of the game.
Then look this thread:
Beginner Resources Thread.
I'm going to assume that you already did that since you said you looked up guides, etc.
So, my next tip, is something that you'll see people giving advice in games like street fighter, where the execution is heavier in some aspects.
Since you are struggling with inputs. Try learning the basic normals and specials, don't try to do combos yet. Just the specials, and repeat them, over and over, until they become natural for you.
You'll spend some time in training mode, is kinda boring, but playing trough story mode (even on easy), or arcade, might help on the fun factor.
Once you get like "okay, i can do all of Eliza's moves without having to think, no problem".
Then you might start learning combos.
This is some advice that doesn't work that well with me, but it seems that is effective with most people.
You'll see that Skullgirls combos can be quite long, so, the ideal, is to learn them in parts. like, if a combo envolves 9 inputs (they envolve more, just an example here), learn in 3 parts of 3 inputs, and once you got them down, put them together.
Another thing on execution, is important to remember that you'll need to be able to do the move in both directions, so practice that.
Now, about reads, this is only with raw experience, you'll learn to see what the oponent is trying to do and counter that in some way, but it will take some time.
But, friendly advice here, don't try to fight against people now, first, understand eliza (or any character you want to play), fight against the cpu a lot, until you become confortable with the game.
Here is the thing, if you play against people now, you'll lose, which is not bad, but you'll not be able to understand why you lost, what went wrong, what he was doing.
Another advice, this one more personal, watch a lot of videos, tournament, people playing, everything, pay attention to what is said, and try to learn.
