This guy actually improved a lot.
Well, he got all the moves set now soooo.....
The first playthrough on Nephilim difficulty is tedious as hell. You don't have any powers unlocked until Mission 2, your attacks are ****, little health and do next to no damage on the enemies that are constantly coming in waves en masse. I went with the common strategy of launching and then pushing them off the ledge. I swear most of my ratings were D and C for my first playthrough.
Another thing to note is that Vergil does not have double jump, or demon/angel themed dodges but instead you can use something called 'trick' which is basically just teleporting. There are various usages for it and it takes a bit of practice to learn how to use them.
L1 is Trick upwards, R1 is trick downwards, any of the two while walking in any direction will make you 'trick' in that direction.
This can be used to get super double jumps by pressing jump first and then tricking upwards, gain extended hang time after Angel Boost ends, or teleport back towards the ground before the enemy fall to continue your combo streak.
You can also cancel Rapid Slash by tricking out of it.
Trick can be used several times in quick succession, but not in the same direction.
My favorite use is in mission 3 where you can jump, use trick upwards and then Angel Boost and trick forward to reach a platform you normally can't reach at that point in the mission, which allows you to eliminate certain battles.
Earlier in that same mission you must use trick on two occasions to reach a hidden lost soul and a cross fragment respectively.