From what I've read in forums talking about this game I don't think anybody ever measured the time difference. There is a quite noticeable difference though if you simply compare some loading screens from Leo_Chans run on the board to mine. Xbox One is obviously and not surprisingly faster. I actually considered to split the leaderboards into 360 and One version but since there are only a few runners and nobody ever brought it up I didn't do it yet. Another thing is that we most likely have more than only 2 versions when it comes to loading times. Knowing from the Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts community the loading times for the Xbox 360 physical copy installed version is slower than the Xbox 360 digital download version, and of course the not installed physical copy is the slowest. Xbox One is faster there as well, but also the Xbox One X loads even faster, and as we recently found out the loadings on Xbox One X can be sped up even more by using a Solid State Drive. That makes 6 versions alone, and we don't even know if the Rare Replay version is faster/slower on Xbox One (X) than the regular backward compatible version. The lucky thing about Nuts and Bolts: We have a very accurate in-game timer that is consistent across the different versions and doesn't include loading times. We use the in-game times to rank our runs. Sadly Kameo isn't that sophisticated. We have the elapsed time on the file page (which might or might not be a consistent in-game timer) but the developers decided to only show us hours and minutes, so we can't use that for ranking obviously. We can split the leaderboards into 360 and One anytime we want, but imho it wouldn't be reasonable unless somebody does the investigation and proves that at least the loading times between Xbox 360 physical installed and digital download version are the same.

Yes, the route is straightforward (there is only one sequence break: early Snow Temple by skipping Shrine Defense). There is 2 main reasons for that:

A: The developers did a ridiculously good job on preventing you from skipping areas or reaching spots early that you aren't supposed to reach. Just 2 examples: In Snow Temple it would be easily possible to skip the section with the big Walrus by performing skilled rush jumps with Major Ruin. But invisible walls prevent you from doing that. They disappear once the Walrus did its job on the bridge. Another example at Mountain Rise on the second Stone Troll. Once you defeat him he forms a stone ramp. But you actually don't need that ramp to get up the next section, so I tried to skip fighting him. But guess what. The devs put freaking boulders into the metal pipes above you so that you can't progress – they will explode or magically disappear once you defeat the Stone Troll. I actually managed to get past the metal pipes by performing very difficult jumps with Major Ruin just to realize at the top of Mountain Rise there is an extra big boulder waiting for you blocking the exit tunnel – and there is no way around that one, so you have to fight the Stone Troll in the intended way. And I wouldn't be surprised if, even if you get past that boulder, there is an invisible wall behind it that stops you anyway.

B: Progressing in the game requires Warrior abilities. Let's think it through: How to pass the Lava in Thorns Pass without Thermit? How to access Swamp without Chilla or Snare? Not a single ramp section is doable without Major Ruin. Water Temple without Deep Blue? How to light torches without Ash? How to enter Forest Temple without Rubble? Etc..

The 100% route is simply built around the Any% route in the fastest way I could think of. As I said the only real skip I found is early Snow Temple because the invisible wall is so close to the entrance hit box so that you can touch the loading zone by rushing into the invisible wall.

General tips for beginners aside from learning the route and play the game alot? No. As you say pretty much everything is obvious from watching my PB. There is one thing I wanna point out though: Learn the Shadow Troll patterns by watching my PB (where and how long they appear and what attacks they do). If you learn how they act these fights get alot easier. If you don't know whats going on they can loose you alot of time.

Parts of the run most likely improvable? Route choises you've considered but haven't fully explored? Well, the only way the route could be improved is if other skips like the Shrine Defense skip for Snow Temple are found. I'm gonna list here what one could look into who is dedicated:

• any other possible cutscene skips like in the beginning and after every Shadow Troll?
• There is an OOB glitch on youtube where Kameo swims in the air. I always wondered how to do that purposely and how to make use of it in a speedrun maybe?
• Can you skip Forest Shrine? Can you get past the guards guarding the ramp to Mountain Rise?
• Can you skip Water Shrine? Can you get past the guards at Snow Top village? I actually got past the ones in front of the ice ramp down the ice wall, but directly in front of the Sulfur Cave entrance there are 3 more. And an invisible wall of course. Couldn't get in.
• Final boulder atop Mountain Rise I talked about
• Play around at Snow Temple bridge (Walrus section). Play around with Major Ruin jumps and explore the invisible walls.

What do you consider the most difficult parts of the run? What are run killers? Clearly Ogre Swamp. It's RNG where the fruits pop out, and sometimes the Ogre bonks his head on a branch above him or the shape of a tree even though the way seems clear. That section can loose you a bunch of time if you get unlucky. Other than that I would say Thorns Pass. Falling into the Lava is instant death and also the Boss fight there is the hardest imo.