I am a complete noob at fighting games, having essentially never

SFV is one of the easiest fighting games ever, start there

if you don't want to spend money on games you can just boot up fightcade, plenty of good games on it

>>37842141
Pic one with characters you like. Persona 4 arena was my first real fighting game.

First decide if you want to play a 2d like Streets or 3d fighter like tekken and then practice endlessly, there are plenty of guides out there to get you started but timing required for the more complex stuff is something that only comes with practice. Not all games in a franchise are the same though, the core mechanics are obviously very similar but there are enough differences that practicing super street fighter 4 is going to put you at a significant disadvantage if you intend to ultimately play SF 5. That said, sufficent familiarity with many fighting games will still make you better, just don't loose focus on your main game. Super Street Fighter II Turbo is a really good one if you want to play something older.
Oh, and you're gonna need a fightstick.

>>37842141
Start off with Street Fighter 5 or Marvel vs Capcom 3 (basically any fighting game you can button mash easily until you realize you won't improve like that). If you're a beginner and willing to learn, you have to endure getting your asshole kicked inside out online many times until you realize what you're doing wrong because fighting against a CPU and training room can only take you so far. Also another recommended advice is to use a all-around character (like Ryu from Street Fighter) to familiarize yourself with combos, frames, timing, zoning, footsies, etc.

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>>37842141
Smash Bros 4, unironically.
SFV is also a gateway game, but nobody thinks it's any good.

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Tekken 7 dropped not long ago, easy game to pick up and it's fairly popular

>>37842141
>>37842141
I'm just getting back into the fgc and am learning Blazblue right now. OP if you'd like to learn with me, get Central Fiction on Steam and join me!

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tekken 7 on pc, ps4

Pick up 3rd strike on fightcade and get gud.

>Choose a character which you find the coolest
>Git gud

Don't play as some character which you don't find appealing to look at.

>>37842599
I second this. Get fightcade and street fighter II. cant get anymore basic than that.

Skullgirls has a decent training mode that will help you understand the mechanics of fighting games (hit/hurt boxes, spacing, timing, etc) with a decent skill curve and easy combos. Guilty Gear isn't a bad intermediate choice, and from there you can move onto something competitive or popular depending on what your end goal is.