Pleased to announced that I did not go Hollow.
I have beaten Dark Souls. Got both endings.
Very, very disappointed in the endings. I hate how the endings in Soulsborne games are 10 seconds long. I'm sorry but after a long journey, I've got the oldschool mindset that a ending should be a reward. Could you imagine if the ending to FFVI or VII was 10 seconds long? I'm not saying it needs to be a 20 minute ending like FFVI, but holy shit the ending, after all that build up and all you've been through, should at the very least be as long as the intro cutscene, which is a whopping 3 minutes long.
Let me get this straight. I go through all this, and light the first fire, which has built up the ENTIRE GAME, and the only scene I get is the room going on fire? FUCK THAT. I didn't even get to see more Gyndolin titty.
At least the dark ending is badass.
As for the actual game? The game is a classic. I'm very happy to have finally beaten it after all these years. It has flaws that ruin it post-AL so right now I don't find it to be a masterpiece, but it's definitely a fantastic game and a modern classic.
I ended up beating Asylum Demon without running away and got his hammer. lmao So maybe post-AL stuff is much better with prior knowledge.