Love Game in Eastern Fantasy

The plot got lost in the woods...

It started off so good great cast, great chemistry, lots of humour without becoming over the top and no secound hand emberessmant for as far as the eye could see....

Watching the female elad die and come back, die and come back, die and come back could have felt boring and repetetive but they managed to keep it fun as well as added a whole lot of fun spice to it all...

Cold, bickery, sisterhood, found family, disorsion of good and evil.... misunderstandings all were done well really well so for the first half I am willing to give a strong 9,5 or even a 10.

But then came the filler episodes, the repetitiveness, the attempts to give us new twists that just ended up lost somewhere far away in the woods... making it hard to follow, hard to relate , hard to concentrate and just plain boring at times. While the last couple of episodes did attempt to tie it all nicely I cant ignore the episodes in between making me lower the score.

Honestly, I think the best way to watch this is to start with the first 15 episodes or so and once you start getting bored then just skip to the last 2 episodes and make upp the plot in between I am sure you as a viewer can come up with a better plot in your mind.

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It Grows On You

I picked this up for the two male leads as they have both impressed me with their characters in several previous series. The story line was also kind of different so was curious about it. I will say that I dropped it twice before just jumping to episode 5 and fast forwarding until 7 when the plot actually picked up. But it did grow on me.

Pros: I really liked the group dynamic and how they were--once formed--very "leave no man behind" no matter what the situation is. Because this was a transmigration into a book thing, the characters could be reborn or healed by unlocking certain elements of the game. Both ML and SML played their parts well and I was happy to see more differences and versatility from them. When they were together with the two female leads (both of whom had their own strengths and abilities plus evolution) and the kid, they really were a force to be reckoned with. I like the different mysteries that they solved on the path of eliminating an evil woman; this was another drama where demons were often misunderstood and way better than humans.

The ML was half demon and actually the author of the novel as well as a series of books which the FL was a fan of and followed but when this novel came out, it was really bad as it was his first book that he wrote when he was a teenager and diagnosed with a disease that could only be treated when he was an adult and his parents fought all the time so he was writing from a place of anger and dejection. So both he and the FL were thrown into the book with her determined to rewrite the ending and him not knowing anything really or pretending not to until the very end. To make it more predestined, they had actually met in middle school where he developed a crush on her (but his first book ended the way it did was also around the time that the FL left the school due to the loss of her father) and as he grew up he basically wrote all of the books for her. As he saw her comments online which encouraged him, he grew to love her even more and after going in for surgery decided to revise that first novel. It was while he was in surgery that his trip happened while for her it was an overnight dream.

Costumes fit each character accordingly, as do the OSTs, sets, and CGI.

Cons: Though it did grow on me; the fact that I couldn't watch the first 5-7 episodes without dropping or fast forwarding due to the beyond ridiculous slapstick humor that didn't land from the FL and the plot not going anywhere was hard. Dramas need to hook you from the beginning and this one just didn't. If it wasn't for the people I really wanted to see in different roles, I probably wouldn't have stuck around though it got a lot better with more episodes.

That ending was a total mess. It's being questioned whether or not it's an HE or OE on Weibo by fans. What were the editors thinking? Did they unscrew their brains for a day or something? The ML filmed the actual ending as he calls the FL's name; he was there! Yet they cut that part and had just his voice say her name and her stare beyond the camera in shock and then smiled as the paparazzi behind her all called his name and said that he was coming. What in the what? They had the kid and his grandpa in the real world selling ice cream at the event location, but they couldn't show the ML coming over to her and at least hugging her or holding her hands? Plus what happened to the second couple? They don't get roles in the real world? They were just left without proper closure creating that ladder to heaven and that's it? Someone help me out here? It's ridiculous! I was very displeased with that and it knocked .5 off my rating automatically. Endings are as important as beginnings; so if they're screwed up, the drama will take a hit.

Would I recommend it? Honestly, this is a good drama if you need something to tie you over between something anticipated or if you're a fan of any of the actors, then sure. All in all, a decent watch.

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Very strong start, lackluster ending.

The story started off so well and strong but alas towards the end it lacked a lot of the magic that it had in the beginning. The ending, like most cdramas, struggled to give its characters a proper send off. We don't even see the second leads towards the end of the last episode.. they just dissappear without any proper farewells.

If I were to rate the show without the last 10 episodes it would have been a 10. Still a worthy watch but the whole entire "it's just a game" aspect of the show sort of dissappeared at the end. If you want a more satisfying ending with almost the exact same cast and enjoy the world of publishing I'd recommend "Moonlight" that came out a few years ago.

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The heartwarming story struggles with its delivery, lacking clear direction

The drama’s main storyline is revealed episode by episode, which makes it difficult for a cohesive narrative arc of suspense to develop. It relies on the audience's attachment to the characters and their growing relationship, only to ultimately leave these elements underdeveloped. Unfortunately, the main relationship never fully blossoms into a love story—at least not on screen. The anticipated emotional revelations and romantic moments are more implied than explicitly shown, which I find to be a very odd creative choice. Even the dramatic revelations about Mu Shengs real identity, Liu Fuyi's guilt and Mu Yao's possession barely have any emotional impact. The rest of the plot simply isn’t strong enough to carry the series on its own, so as the finale approaches, the show regrettably becomes increasingly dull (but is still rather sweet).
The chemistry between the main cast is decent and effectively supports both comedic and dramatic scenes. Despite its flaws, this is the first drama in a while that I’ve actually managed to finish!

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Mr. Grumpy meets Miss Sunshine in a novel/game setting

This drama is about the female lead who is sucked into a demon hunting novel and assigned to play the vicious second female lead. In a game style setting, she must complete her mission of making the grumpy male lead fall in love with her, in order to go back to her reality.

The best thing about this drama is hands down the relationship dynamic between the main leads. I can’t even explain my obsession with these two. They just made me FEEL everything. It’s the humour and teasing between them, the angry looks and fights, the way the male lead gazed secretly at her, and all the times the female lead did little things to heal his inner pain. It was like watching the love story between soulmates. Their relationship felt real and progressed so naturally, so I couldn’t help but love them.

The worst thing about this drama is the fact that the romance and game style was totally sidelined in the second half. In fact, I truly felt like someone else had written ep 1-20 compared to ep 21-30 because of the stark difference. Ep 1-20 were absolutely fantastic in terms of romance, comedy and game plot. They made me obsessed like no other and these episodes deserve 100/10 points. However the second half lost its charm completely. The writers decided to turn the drama into a typical xianxia. Suddenly we were introduced to tons of side characters and side plots/backstories that nobody cared about. It didn’t help that the main leads had less screen time and their hot romance completely died down.

POSITIVE:
- Top tier romance: off the charts chemistry with natural and fiery on-screen presence. The main leads MADE the drama.
- Top notch comedy. The humour was brilliantly woven into the game plot.
- Game style: the set up was executed brilliantly. Hilarious and accurate to real life playing.
- Flawless transmigration: relatable female lead (hating her job and spending all her time reading fantasy novels) + the perfect twist in the end for the genre.
- Stunning visuals + OST: the CGI, costumes, setting, everything was dazzling and beautiful.
- Enemies to lovers + grumpy x sunshine trope.
- Male lead: the hottest tsundere character. His progress of initially being harsh and a total red flag to gradually revealing his warmer nature was chef’s kiss. A flawed character, he is a hurt young boy who’s deeply loyal to his family and friends.
- Female lead: the cutest character that might initially be mistaken for a typical brainless girl but is in fact a tough cookie, brave and empathic soul.
- Heartfelt relationships: sis-mas, brother-sister, daughter-father and a tiny bit of bromance.
- Ending episode: it touched me deeply as it had a very meaningful message.
- Ryan Ding and Esther Yu: stole the spotlight with their brilliant on-screen presence. I loved the microexpressions during Ryan Ding’s emotional and angst scenes. He embodied his character to perfection and his demon form was beyond sexy to look at. Esther Yu on the other hand had the perfect comedy timing where she shined bright. No cringe, only cuteness overload.

NEGATIVE:
- Ending: the last minute of the episode pissed me off. I blame censorship but still…
- Second half: lost its magic. As mentioned above, the romance and game plot pretty much disappeared. Instead we suddenly got a typical xianxia that nobody cared about. I couldn't emotionally invest in the plot of “the world is ending” when I knew the world was just a virtual game. I also felt overwhelmed with info dumping of like 100 new side characters, side plots and backstories.
- Wooden second couple: they were dry as the Sahara desert and I felt zero emotional connection. Which is a shame as the actors had such great chemistry in Fox Spirit Matchmaker.
- Boring second female lead: she had nothing going for her aside from her siblings' plot line with the male lead.
- NPC second male lead: he literally had zero personality. Some might argue that he was supposed to feel like an NPC but that to me is just boring. The writers in fact tried to give him some backstory towards the end but it felt pointless.
- No kiss scene. It made sense why but it’s still a crime.

OVERALL:
I have mixed feelings about this drama. The first half is a total masterpiece in terms of romance, comedy and game plot. It made me love and obsessed over the main leads like no other. However the second half deviated from that path and the delivery was a snooze fest. The ending was strong, meaningful and deeply touched me but also that last minute flaw pissed me off so much. In conclusion, I still recommend this drama if you want an adorable grumpy x sunshine trope with lots of comedy and stunning visuals (and you don’t mind skipping some boring stuff in the second half). It’s worth mentioning that during airing time, the drama debuted with a solid 7.6 with over 100k+ votes, which made it the highest rated costume fantasy on Douban this year.

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A Moderately Enjoyable Show That Fell Short

This drama started out good but became increasingly bland as it went on. By the last episode, it was a complete 'wht the fuck?'.

To mention the good parts, the costumes are beautiful, graphics are ok ( comparatively), and the acting was, well, tolerable. The ml is the highlight of the show but the fl was just there for me. The second couple held no inerest for me whatsoever, I didn't care whether they got together or not.
Plot was interesting at the beginning. Nothing life changing but it was enjoyable enough to have an escape from the horrors of real life. But the execution and dialogues were mediocre at best.
Some side plots were there, which are also mildly enjoyable. There was so much talk and buildup to the final showdown with the resentful woman but it was all just wrapped up in a very anti climatic way. By then the story was so sappy, I actively wished for the catastrophe of heaven to actually happen, just to the story would end.

If you value plot complexity, good execution and well developed characters, this one might not be for you. When I watched this I was just laying on my bed exhausted from work, so I needed something 'adequate' to set my mind on. I don't think I would've stuck with this under different circumstances. Still a pretty enjoyable drama with a lackluster ending.

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Boring and ordinary

I saw this on Netflix and the teaser got me interested.
The first few episodes were interesting but somehow as the story progressed it just got boring.
The writers tried to showcase the friendship and the romance within the friendship, their loyalty to each other but somehow I couldn't connect with any of it. It was all superficial and rushed.
The romance between the ML and FL as well as the 2Ls were meh. It was poorly developed. Perhaps if they added a few more longing glances and soft hand touches it might have helped, at least to strengthen the romance between the characters. Nuances of facial expressions and body languages are important to a story to capture and communicate with the audience. Unfortunately, the story lack such nuances to captivate the audience, well to me at least.
Maybe if they had developed the ML's demon side plot it would've been more interesting. Why did the ML choose to stay as a half human, hiding his demon side? Why didn't he choose his demon half as that character looked interesting?
The plot and the story didn't make sense.
I like the acting of the ML. That's one plus points for me here.
Also Cui Cui was so cute. Other than that, nothing really fantastic here.

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Drama that made me purchase WeTV VIP and express pass after a year of boring Cdramas

**If LBFAD, New Life Begin, and Fangs of Fortune had a Baby — Love Game in Eastern Fantasy**

The last full length Cdrama that I watched completely was Love You Seven Times which I forced myself to watch because I loved the universe of LBFAD. My legit last foray into full length drama was My Journey To You because again I like Esther Yu in a different role and Zhang Linghe was ok in LBFAD but alas I got bored because even though MJTY was gorgeous it was just too dark and brooding for me. What turned me off from Cdramas is the very formulaic storyline that gets repeated for the nth time with different cast, crew, and production team. But after reigniting my fondness for Esther Yu, and watching the clips, I was finally able to go back to watching Cdrama through LGEF and yes I bought WeTV VIP and Express pass after a year of Cdrama hiatus.

**Love that Heals and Comforts**

LGEF may not be about some heroic love of the couple against the world like in LBFAD. Heck even Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi never kissed or had any passionate hugs in the whole 32 episodes, but their chemistry is just there — something warm, fuzzy, and comforting. In general I felt like the main theme of the drama is about Love that heals and comforts — love between romantic partners, friends, family members, even love for humanity in general has the ability to heal wounds and can comfort the most jaded people. The story also touched on self love which LBFAD barely went into. Every episode was unique in showing different types of love even the obsessive type.

** Story on rollercoaster with multiple savepoints**

This aspect of the drama is both its strength and weakness. Strength in that every episode is exciting even without the need to watch out for the skinship between Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi, because every episode have something that will make you cry or feel the feels. Even though the story is a bit predictable, but the dialogues and the way the characters showed their connections and relationships just made sense and made you relate to them giving justice to the Ensemble cast. There is also several mini “stories” in the drama with the first 24 episodes (if cut can be a story on its own) having a sensible overarching plot. The added episodes and plot points just added to the extensive world building in the drama connecting the book and real life. Even the songs in some episodes are neatly tide back to the beginning/end.

The con for this is that because there was a lot of exciting plot points per episode/arc, we kind of lost focus on the OTP which is Miaomiao and Ziqi. So if you’re expecting something similar to LBFAD or LYST, you will be disappointed. Even the supporting couple had more skin ship and more concrete “labelling” of their relationship than the main couple. Likewise, in the later part of the drama, the multiple save points and resets were becoming a bit too taxing. Because one moments you already cried and is happy that finally they have their happy ending and then the story then says booyah we still have a problem and then the cycle of grief and exhilaration repeats. The final ending is expected but I think the best explained one among all the book/game to real world transmigration story there is.

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Only when you love yourself first can you truly love another.

I wish I could write a coherent review for this series. Truly one of the most heart-warming shows I've watched in a long time, which I didn't expect at all, considering how the story's concept didn't seem all that serious in the beginning.

[Some vague or random spoilers ahead, but spoilers nonetheless.]

Ling Miaomiao, the female lead, get sucked in to this book world with a game-like system, into the body of the book's supporting character but also villain, Lin Yu, when she writes a hate post about the said book's plot and crappy ending. Right away, she's thrown beginner tasks after beginner tasks which proceeds to show one of the most hilarious first three episodes of a cdrama I've ever watched. I don't remember laughing out loud as much as I have during the first three episodes of this show. Miaomiao also has the funniest voiceovers, thinking out loud the viewers' thoughts - criticising plot loopholes, admiring handsome characters, wondering about the CGI budget, etc. and I would say these voiceovers were the life of the first third of the show.

Miaomiao survives her hellish trial period in the game and it is revealed what she actually has to do to leave the game - defeat the book world's main villain - the Resentful Woman, and make the novel's male supporting lead, Mu Sheng, fall in love with her a.k.a. have positive 100% favorability towards her. Which is practically the same as having a snowball's chance in hell since Mu Sheng hates her guts a.k.a. views her with -250% hostility.

But Miaomiao, armed with her knowledge about the book world's fate, begins to change not only the main characters' trajectory but also the even lesser supporting ones. The arc with her book father is one of most moving subplots in this show and it made me tear up (happy tears!).

How the drama then proceeds to show the transition from the horrendous -250% to the humble 55% was very "kilig"-inducing. Episodes 7-10 must be my favorite episodes aside from episode 20 and the last episode. Episodes 7-10 are really where the magic happens and I got to know more about Mu Sheng or Ziqi, as Miaomiao calls him. Ziqi's book character is cruel, manipulative and only cares about his adopted sister, Mu Yao - the book's main female lead. But then Miaomiao comes along and she slowly but surely tiptoes her way to his heart. And when inside, you can bet Ziqi's eyes are practically glued to her.

Other than the main leads, all the side characters gets their own mini storyline (without taking anything away from the major storyline) rather it elevates the storytelling even more with a rich world and characters. The writer really shows everyone is the hero of their own world and story. Even the minor demons that they encountered along the way all had touching backstories.

I really liked how everything, the demons' stories included, was linked to love. To love and be loved. The extent of one's love. How love changes you. How you gain strength because of love. How you become whole first in order to truly love someone else. This was the theme of the show.

Even Ziqi's parents had such a touching love story and I like how it was revealed [spoilers!!!] that they weren't separated by external forces as what I had initially been led to believe, but rather it was their choice, as it was the best choice for everyone they loved at that time. The most beautiful love doesn't always have to be kept. Sometimes it is let go, and only then will it take root and spread to others (in this case, it was in the form of Ziqi who survived because of his parents' sacrifice).

And now the ending, which I absolutely love!

[MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD].

When the end came, the reveal about Ziqi's real self and modern background story was everything. It turns out Ziqi (yes in the real world his name is Ziqi) is actually the author Fu Zhou (his pen name) and he was born with a disease that made his life, his family's circumstances and his growing up very difficult. But Miaomiao, like how she became the sun to book Ziqi's world, was actually originally real-life Ziqi's sun in the real world. She inspired him and that's how he started writing stories. Every story he wrote was for her, every beautiful ending he crafted was for her. But he had always stayed afar. And when his disease caught up to him (the same time Miaomiao is experiencing the book world's ending), he makes a choice in the real world to bravely undergo surgery. And in the book world, book Ziqi, after experiencing the predetermined catastrophe of the book's ending, realized he was Fu Zhou all along. He lets Miaomiao know he has always liked her and he has always wished she would know. With the strength that Miaomiao gives him, Ziqi saves the book world and in the real world, Fu Zhou goes under the knife, his last thought being his three wishes, the last of which was running to Miaomiao and telling her how he feels. And that's exactly how it ends. Miaomiao wakes up with only a vague recollection of her time in the book world and she remembers she had loved someone. She attends Fu Zhou's book signing event and sees two people (who resembles two characters in the book - Cui Cui and his grandpa) which makes her pause as if remembering something. Then Ziqi calls her name~ at first she's surprised but at she looks at him (we're not shown Ziqi unfortunately), she slowly smiles!

The closing line is one of the best ending lines ever. Watch it yourself but the summary is the title of this review.

To me, it's a clear happy ending, not an open ending. The book Ziqi that Miaomiao has fallen in love with is the same Ziqi she meets in the real world as he, through his pen name Fu Zhou, wrote himself and his circumstances into the book. Miaomiao's feelings are real. And Ziqi has always liked Miaomiao since the beginning. The impact she had on his life actually made me tear up. She's the source of his inspiration, his sun. His wishes were to survive and let Miaomiao know how he feels. And that's practically what the ending has set up.

Real-life Ziqi is already in love with Miaomiao. And Miaomiao transmigrated into the book to learn and figure out just how much. And she does! "All my novels were written for you," book Ziqi had said when he realized he was Fu Zhou. Honestly, there couldn't have been a sweeter confession than this, especially to a fan from the author she has admired for years. So even though we aren't shown, I'm 100% sure they will catch up with each other, get to know each other more and Miaomiao will recall her time in the book world slowly or even vaguely and they will spend lots of time recounting to each other her experience in the book as opposed to what Ziqi/Fu Zhou wrote. It's a clear happy ending!

Bonus favorite parts of this show: Yu Shuxin as Miaomiao and Ding Yuxi as Ziqi. I couldn't imagine anyone else playing their roles. Esther was everything adorable in this world and Ryan had the most soul wrenching eye acting ever.

Thank you for a very wonderful two weeks, Love Game In Eastern Fantasy! You will be missed and will be rewatched from time to time!

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