Overview:
I hesitated to watch this drama for a whole month after seen parts of season two. However, now that I'm done with season one, I'm obligated to watch the second season. But in the meanwhile, here are my (mixed) thoughts about the first season!
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WARNING: THE FOLLOWING REVIEW MAY HAVE LITTLE SPOILERS ABOUT SPECIFIC SCENES. I DON'T GIVE THE FULL CONTEXT OF THE SCENE BUT JUST ENOUGH FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M SAYING. READ UPON THIS ADVISING!!!!

Story (6/10):
At first, I was really confused why dramalist had the first season split up into two parts but in total there are 24 episodes.
First of all, the storyline of the female lead entering a gaming/historical realm has been pretty common in the C-drama field. For example, the drama "To Get Her". Other similar dramas where the female lead enters a historical period are "Eternal Love" (all 3 seasons) and "The Romance of Tiger and Rose". For this particular story, the female leads sign-ups for an online game where she is able to experience "love". Since the female lead is a "nerd" and doesn't want to find love in the real world, she decides to go on this adventure to find love in an online world. To her surprise, she had more options than she could imagine. A mystery heroic swordsman, a hot-bod imperial guard, a sweet rich young master, and a hot temper royal prince. Who shall she choose?
Personally, this story set-up was promising but cringy. I didn't know what to expect. There were times I was just so done with the plot that I had to take a break from the drama and recover from my traumatic experience watching the drama. Usually, whenever I'm dedicated to a drama, I finish it within at least 3-4 days. However, this drama took me over a week to actually finish. I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy parts of the drama, but the storyline was definitely not my favorite part of the drama. It could've done better with the creative side of the plot but it fell flat mid-way through the drama. The only thing that is keeping me from rating the storyline from lower than a six are all the male lead characters' involvement in the plot. Not only did they save the girl from dying multiple times, but they also saved the storyline from going downhill.
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Acting/Cast (7/10):
First of all, the cast for the female lead Luo Jing. She's gorgeous and has a bright smile, but her character just made me want to pull out my hair for 90% of the show. I feel like, with Asian dramas in general, the trend is to always have a female lead that is quirky and "different" from every other girl out there in the world. The same can be applied to Luo Jing, but a bit worse since her character was not well developed. Since she came from the modern-day, she is naturally going to act a bit differently due to cultural differences. For example, when she had to dance for the king, she wore a very short black dress. In my head, I went, "OMG...she did not just do that." I just had to skip over that entire scene due since it was too overbearing to watch (Don't worry, this is episode three so not too big of a spoiler). She spoke a lot of English and was veryyyyyy outspoken for a girl in ancient times. However, over time, I did see that she adjusted more to the historical-cultural aspect of the game and it was less hard to watch. For Jade who played as Luo Jing, her acting was subpar. Since this is one of her first dramas, she has a long way to go to hone her acting skills. Overall, I can't really blame Jade for her acting when she's given a very under-developed character to start out with.

Next up in line, we have the male lead, Wu Mei. I have very mixed feelings about this boy. Just to give you a short description of him, he's hot-tempered, overly emotional, argumentative, hard to get along with, and a bit of a jerk. But IT'S OKAY because he's rich and hot (insert eye-roll). It was just soooooo hard for me to like him in the beginning because he just rubbed off of me wrong. If he wasn't rich and hot (and a prince), he would just be known as the jerk in any typical Asian drama. Like okay, he's got mommy issues and brother issues and that is the reason why his character is like that. Okay, cool. He seems like someone I wouldn't try to typically associate myself with. However, throughout the drama, seeing him soft at times really got me (that's how you know I'm easy). But when I started to notice he was caring and selfless when it came to the female lead, I started to warm up to his character a bit. I started to root for him more often up until the last few episodes when I was kind of done with his character too. For Simon who plays as Wu Mei, he's a good-looking guy. His acting was a bit better than Jade but it still lacked in some scenes. But overall, I personally like Simon as an actor.

Next, we have the three second-main lead. Yes, three of them. Xiu Wen as the imperial bodyguard, Xuan Yu as the mysterious swordsman, and Jin Chen as the rich master. In total, I personally felt like these guys had a better character setup than the two main leads. Xiu Wen had to constantly battle whether he stays loyal to his feelings for Luo Jiang or loyal to his country that desperately needs him. Xuan Yu was a mystery until the end where you were finally able to understand his regrets and undying love for Luo Jiang. Jin Chen was selfless and always there to support Luo Jiang during her weakest time. Like girl, why settle for Wu Mei when you can settle for these three better options? But then again, dramas don't do that. Dramas like tsundere characters. For example, in "To All The Boys (P.S. I Still Love You)", Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky were totally made for each other but we all know deep in our hearts that John Ambrose was obviously the better choice. Same thing here. But it's okay, these three guys deserve more than just a sad unrequited love. All of the actors who played them were pretty good. After watching season two, I'm definitely going to go check on their other works. These three guys are the reason I rated this section a 7. Without them, I'll probably give this section somewhere between a 5 and 6.

Finally, we have the side characters such as Luo Jiang's maid Xi Que, the Flower Queen Ying Yun, Wu Mei's guard, the Wet Nurse, the Prime Minister, the king and his wife, and so on. They all definitely did a good job with their roles. My favorite characters would have to be Luo Jiang's maid Xi Que. She is like Luo Jiang's ride or die. It's sad that in most Chinese dramas, we have these selfless maids that have undying love and loyalty towards their master but then that's it for them. We don't get to see the other sides of them. But that's the main purpose of having them in the script, they are there to just support the lead characters and help clear up misunderstanding for them. Then whoosh, they disappear until they are needed again. I wouldn't mind seeing a love story for her maid (possibly with Wu Mei's guard) since she had such a lovely character. The evil characters were so manipulative and gave me chills at the end. I'm so looking forward to seeing the chaos they pursue in the next season.
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Music (8.5/10):
The OST and background music was something I appreciated. Like any other historical dramas, the sad songs during those sad scenes always hit hard. This one didn't hit as hard but the songs were beautiful. I'll probably add them to my study and sleep playlist.
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Rewatch Value (5/10):
Will I rewatch this drama again? I don't know, maybe sometimes done the road when I'm feeling bored. This drama was okay. It's not up high on my rewatch list but if I ever just think of this drama sometimes in the future, I think I'll probably skip to the last 10 episodes to do so. Otherwise, I think I'll stick to rewatching "Ten Miles of Peach Blossom" and "True Beauty".
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Overall (6.5/10):
I think this is the lowest I ever rated a drama since I only usually write reviews for dramas I personally enjoy a lot, but this drama is an exception. I'm usually pretty generous with rating a drama by overlooking the plot holes and under-developed characters. However, this drama was so mentally draining due to second-hand embarrassment that I just couldn't rate it any higher. To end off on a good note, I'll list some of the things I actually liked about the story in general. The chemistry was there, but I was just confused how a few near-face touching, close-up looks made them fall in love. Maybe my brain just skipped those parts but after you overlook how they fell in love, you start to appreciate their chemistry a little bit. The cast was actually pretty good. They weren't all overly good-looking (minus the main leads) or too awkward with their acting. It was comfortable to watch them and be enjoy looking at them (especially the side male leads).
Well, now it's time to move onto season two. See you guys in the next review!