I love love loved this drama. The acting was amazing, the costumes were pretty, the story was compelling, the romances were believable. But that ending left me like ?????? A lot of things were built up and not really resolved in my opinion. Where is Lian'er? What happened to their group of friends? Did the main couple die or not? And if they did die, what happened to kingdoms that now have no rulers? Where is Folian? I have so many questions.
The lead actress gets a lot of hate and I never understood why. Her actions in the drama fit the character's personality type and make sense for her as a character. The whole drama has some really excellent actors and they have great material to work with. It was really good at getting me to care about every character-even the minor characters were fleshed out enough to care about, which isn't something we always see in dramas. It has a good mix of romance, drama, comedy, and fantasy. Some say that it is a Goblin ripoff but honestly beyond a couple myth-related story elements it really is its own story. That being said, if you enjoyed the tone of Goblin you'd like Hwayugi.
I was apprehensive about watching this drama because everyone was telling me it was slow and boring. I'm so glad I gave it a chance. It may have been relatively slow up til episode 8 or 9, but everything that came after was well worth the wait. :)