Oh, that’s weird and kind of a letdown.
Good luck with the lore. I have read a lot, too much, really, and I find it more internally consistent and satisfying than the Dark Souls lore, but not nearly so much as Demon’s Souls, although it is quite a bit more convoluted. It’s odd because the DLC provides (or rather could provide) a very nice and thematic explanation for where it all started, but they’d kind of painted themselves into a corner already by saying the church had found a healing medium in the labyrinth, which in retrospect comes a little bit out of left field and doesn’t make the most sense. I think lore-wise they were actually hampered somewhat by the inclusion of the chalice dungeons, which seem like an odd, tacked on mechanic that they didn’t necessarily have to justify in-game, but they sort of tried to and sort of didn’t.
EDIT: In retrospect…coolest fight: Mergo’s Wet Nurse. The visual effects in that fight were miles better than anything else in the game, none of which were bad! Truly cinematic.
EDIT 2: Hardest bosses: Orphan, Laurence, Gehrman, Ebrietas, Logarius, in descending order. I didn’t actually have much trouble with Ludwig or really anyone else, although I had to repeat most fights. Fights I did in one go…I think One Reborn, Living Failures, Amygdala, Darkbeast Paarl, maaaaaybe the Wet Nurse? I can’t remember, now. It’s all a big Orphan-shaped blur.
EDIT 3: Coolest area? Hmm, that’s a tough one. I actually wish they’d done more to differentiate environments from each other. Nothing ever really seemed that far removed from the initial “gothic London” vibe of Central Yarnham, and the Nightmare Frontier and Forbidden Woods were just a little boring. Maybe…Hemwick Charnel Lane? I think that was the gothic-est.