Hi. I really wanna get into running this game as I pretty much bought a 360 for this alone (as well as being able to play Ninja Gaiden Black) and basically fell in love with this game. At the moment, I'm thinking of just doing some RTAs for individual levels and then moving onto a few runs of the NG++ category (Acolyte) just to get a feel for it. Ultimately, I wanna move onto NG just because I feel it's a good run balancing action, essence & item management and going fast. Is this a good course of action in terms of getting myself acquainted with the game in a speedrunning sense?

Another question, and the main reason for this post, is what are the combos used with the dual katanas that drain bosses health like crazy? I've seen it used on numerous bosses like Alexei, Volf and particularly the final boss fight with the Archfiend. The combo I'm talking about can be seen on MIST's run here (on the final boss fight): http://www.speedrun.com/run/9medle8y

Hi and welcome! For ILs we go by IGT as each mission shows you the IGT after you complete them. That seems good to do NG++ first as you get a feel for the game and the glitches. With that I think you could do well with NG. Generally tho I would recommend watching MIST. With my runs I have copied a lot of what he does, but do my own things. Just because it works for me and the skill MIST has would be hard to master. For example he does this shuriken swallow jump at the start of the chapter after the water dragon boss. It's very precise and if you fail you lose so much time.

I guess what I'm saying is try to do as much as he can do and what works best for you and your skill. Because if you're not having fun doing the run then what's the point? You know what I mean?

MIST can help you with that as he's very skilled at the game. I do know for Volfe it's I believe forward Y being spammed. He can correct me if I'm wrong.