What are the effects of the different styles of melee training?
Golly, that’s a broad question. Let’s narrow it up a bit.
a) Melee Weapon Training: start with a Style that focuses on making weapons Better. Eskrima and Pentjak Silat both focus on taking otherwise less-desirable weapons such as sticks, clubs, and knives and making them much deadlier, whilst Fencing takes a very limited selection of Western sword types and makes them rock big stone bells.
b) Martial Arts Training: start with a “lower tier” MA style, which currently is NOT compatible with weapons. You can find the style manuals for all 5 options in-game, as they can spawn in dojos, so this trait currently isn’t very valuable.
c) Self-Defense Classes: start with a mid-tier MA style. Ninjutsu and Krav Maga can provide minor benefits to weapon use, Muay Thai confers pretty effective benefits but can (rarely) show up in a boxing-gym, and the others are situational. MT is the only one available in-game, at the moment.
d) Shaolin/Venom: these start you with a kung fu form. KF is currently incompatible with weapons, but is generally considered the top tier of MA. Tiger, Dragon, and Centipede styles are generally popular; Scorpion has its moments and Toad may be interesting.
Hoping that helps.
Yeah, regarding that, two requests:
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Can it be made possible to leave the selection Menu of the combat style whithout starting the game? Not that the descriptions are incredibly helpful, which leads to
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is it somehow possible to let the player see which weapons are going to be supported by his melee-style, before he starts the game with that?
Apart from that, the weapons for Eskrima and Pentjak Silats seem somewhat random and in no way the player may see in advance if that combat style will benefit him, when starting as a baseball player wielding a baseball bat.
Sorry, if that sounded harsh, I love this game, and you really should keep up the good work! 
Eventually the selection menu should get a rework to allow for some possible weapon viewing, as well as maybe what potential skills you might gain and other informative cleanups. Right now it’s very basic.
Okay, that’s great to hear.
I found fencing to be not that incredibly useful.
Yet, after trying both Tiger and Scorpion Style both seem to work well, especially Tiger.
Fencing is awesome. 
Out of curiosity, are Broadswords and Firebrands compatible with fencing?
[quote author=Solusphere link=topic=7307.msg166056#msg166056 date=1406678924]
Out of curiosity, are Broadswords and Firebrands compatible with fencing?
[/quote
Yes to all, including the lit Firebrand.