Alright, so after replaying this game again recently, I can honestly say that I enjoyed it a lot more this time around, then again, I actually knew where everything was this time around and was able to plan things out a bit better this time around, as well.
Manus was a pain in the ass for me the first time I played, but was significantly easier for me to beat this time around, thanks to the pendant that I found that blocks his dark magic attacks, I did die once, but once I got back, I was able to dodge his attacks perfectly and get in attacks when I needed to, yes, I GOT GUD.
Last half of the game does fall short, but it doesn't ruin my experience at all, except for the Bed of Chaos, fuck that boss, I died once I killed it and had nothing, but anxiety when I went to get my souls back and trying not to die to the Titanite Demon that stands in the pathway, thankfully, I did retrieve my souls and didn't end up losing them.
I also killed Havel this time and got his armor, something that I didn't do the first time I played and that made things (the Four Kings) a bit easier for me.
As for my favorite boss, I think I'll have to go with Artorias, he's such a cool boss and is quite challenging, with Gwyn being my second favorite.
And this time, I went with the Dark Lord ending, since I already linked the fire the first time and honestly, I can see why people like that ending, it is really cool and unlike Dark Souls 3, you don't have to do anything tedious in order to get it.
But yeah, all in all, this game really is a masterpiece, flawed, but still a masterpiece.

I did rather enjoy finally getting around to finishing this game, even if some of the last few bosses made me lose it, but that's the norm for these games, right?
However, I will say, the formula has definitely improved a lot in the future titles, like actually being able to fast travel between all of the bonfires from the very beginning in 2 and 3, insted of having to unlock it later on and only being able to travel between specific bonfires, that's kinda frustrating, but they did balance it out a bit by allowing you to level up at bonfires and buy tools to be able to reinforce and repair your weapons and armor at bonfires.
And the bosses are also quite amazing like Gwyn, Artorias, and Sif to name a few, but then there's bosses like the Bed of Chaos, seriously fuck that boss, it's not even hard, but she can just swipe you into a hole and you have to run all the way back to her, it's incredibly annoying.
Finished this game as a pyromancer, and shit, Pyromancy was very OP in this game, huh?
All in all, a pretty good game, I still prefer Dark Souls 3 overall, but I did like seeing all of the stuff that they brought back from this game into Dark Souls 3, that was nice.
Now I just need to finish Demon's Souls and I will have completed every FromSoft title.