Love Game in Eastern Fantasy (2024)

A beautifully executed story on what it means to love others, and yourself

Love Game in Eastern Fantasy was a wild ride as we followed the female lead, Ling Miaomiao, on her quest to “capture” the male lead’s heart. Although it does have elements of a typical Xuanhuan, its character development, the caliber of acting, and attention to small details help it stand out from others in its genre. Objectively speaking, the drama did fall short as it neared the end. But this really depends on how you decide to interpret the ending. After spending some time watching close analyses of the ending and parts of the drama on Chinese social media, I have a much greater appreciation for why the drama ended the way it did. Subjectively speaking, this was a cute and emotional drama that filled my heart to the brim with warmth. You're in luck if you watched Moonlight and enjoyed Ding Yuxi and Yu Shuxin’s chemistry there.

Adapted from the extremely popular novel “The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus”, the female lead is whisked into the book of her favorite author after expressing her disappointment in it. The world is one home to both humans and demons, but demon hunters diminish the possibility of coexistence between these two species. Aside from her initial side quests, Ling Miaomiao’s main goal is to reach 100% affinity/love of the ML, Mu Ziqi’s heart. Ling Miaomiao’s personality is the polar opposite of Lin Yu, the character she becomes in the book. Lin Yu is the third female lead, cunning and in love with the book’s male lead, Liu Fuyi. Ling Miaomiao’s bubbly personality is what has drawn so many people into this drama, as with her cute and loving dynamics with Mu Ziqi. Originally only caring about his “A’jie” (older sister Mu Yao), Mu Ziqi develops a strong connection with Miaomiao, who changes his worldview that there are other people out in the world who care about him.

The romance between the leads is not an “in your face” love story, but shows such depth that allows their bond to develop organically over time. As Miaomiao and Ziqi face numerous challenges together, their connection strengthens with mutual respect, trust and compassion. I will warn you that there are no outright kiss scenes, and have noticed this to be a complaint of many viewers. While an additional kiss scene may have been favorable, I do understand this approach to romance. By not relying on overt physical expressions of love, LGIEF is able to focus more on emotional intimacy and the growth of the leads’ affection for one another. (If you do want to kiss scenes, though, go watch Moonlight!)

The casting for this drama could not have been better. In fact, I think it was perfect. When the casting for this drama was first announced, so many OG novel fans expressed their disappointment on Chinese social media, demanding a “better” casting. Many of these fans have taken back their words, and understandably so. Having read around 20 chapters of the novel, the drama surprisingly sticks to many elements of the original book, down to the costumes. As noted before, the attention to detail in this drama is remarkable (and I will create a list near the end of the review). Each character has their own distinct style that complements their personality. Ling Miaomiao’s hair is filled with cute little flowers and tassels, while Mu Yao’s simpler yet elegant hair supports her role as an older sister figure. The costumes are designed by Yi Xiaoya, who also worked on Love You Seven Times and LFBAD.

Yu Shuxin and Ding Yuxi really brought Ling Miaomiao and Mu Ziqi to life. Esther’s naturally bubbly personality shines through in Miaomiao’s character. The naturalness in Miaomiao’s cuteness showcases Yu Shuxin’s talent in bringing the character to life with authenticity and charm. Her portrayal of Miaomiao makes the FL very loveable and captures the essence of someone who radiates positivity without forcing it in her acting. On the other hand, there is absolutely no better actor than Ding Yuxi for Mu Sheng, who displayed a perfect balance between his aloofness and growing warmth. His embodiment of Ziqi (especially through his eyes, the emotions in his eyes!) really showcases the internal struggle of a character who begins as emotionally distant but slowly opens up to love and connecting with others. His overprotectiveness of his sister is a result of him being constantly suspicious of others’ intentions, and it’s so fun watching the relationship strengthen between him and Liu Fuyi. The chemistry between the leads is one of the strongest I have seen, and both leads exhibit so many emotions through their eyes alone. (And not to mention the eye candy) – There was a scene of Ziqi where it looked like he came straight out of a manga. As usual, Yu Shuxin dubbed her own character. I personally don’t have an issue with her voice, but as some do, I will put that caution out there. For me, Yu Shuxin’s voice perfectly embodies that of a bubbly girl. Ding Yuxi’s voice is dubbed by someone else, but for a specific reason that you’ll figure out at the very end.

I couldn’t feel the same level of chemistry with the second leads. Their relationship was cute but felt flat throughout a lot of the story. It would have been more preferable for a lot of viewers if more portions of the later episodes were allocated to the main leads instead of the second leads. However, I do appreciate the quality of Zhu Xudan’s acting. She’s been an amazing actress for years and is finally getting the recognition she deserves for her role as Mu Yao. Yang Shize did a great job portraying Liu Fuyi, a mysterious man who later proved to have a complicated backstory. As for the other supporting characters, their additions to the drama added much more nuance and excitement to the story. Cui Cui (bamboo demon) is the cutest kid ever, and displays both courage and loyalty as a young demon. Everyone’s acceptance of him into the “friend group” also helped Ziqi to eventually embrace his true identity. The backstory of Ziqi’s parents, a love story mixed with tragedy and devotion, also added depth to the person he became. We are given an “ending” to most of the characters, depending on how you define closure.

Additionally, the production of the drama was phenomenal and was one of the many reasons for its huge success. The CGI effects elevated the Xianxia experience, immersing the viewer into the otherworldly setting. The visual effects were seamlessly integrated into the many battle scenes, magical moments, and beautiful scenery. Even the little dust demons who made up each percentage of Ziqi’s affection towards Miaomiao were cute and visually appealing. The novel use of the pixelated background for the ending of each episode also led to the new Chinese trend of making Miaomiao and Ziqi out of “perler beads”. The drama team took viewers’ wishes into account during production, eventually buying the rights to the song “Moonlight Thoughts”, a song popularly used for historical reels on Chinese social media (and, to fans’ delight, created an MV with the leads and a few supporting cast!) And can we talk about the demons’ nails? They were breathtaking! Cheng Duling (Mirror Demon) had less than 20 minutes of screen time and only appeared in the first episode, but her outfit was stunning. She was actually the third most popular drama character according to Chinese polls, beating main leads of other airing dramas.

And then…we come to the ending. I echo the sentiments of many other viewers who expressed their disappointment in the abrupt ending, where we weren’t shown the physical reunion of the main leads. The message of the story is certainly out there, but could have been executed in a more straightforward manner. However, besides the very last two minutes of the drama, I believe that the last episode was executed beautifully. Here, the leads don’t solely demonstrate the beauty of loving one another, but the beauty of loving oneself first before loving others. This theme plays a pivotal role throughout the drama, as we witness the dramatic change in Mu Sheng’s attitude towards others and life in general. This is something that sets LGIEF apart from other Xianxia dramas. We follow the leads on their love journey, but this journey is also one where they discover and accept their own selves. The way this idea stretched throughout the drama was done beautifully, and it felt like a full circle in the end. (And it was like a giant revelation.) I won’t elaborate too much as to not give away any spoilers, but I’ll include some other thoughts and observations in a comment below this review.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the past few weeks of following this drama (the wait was painful, but you don’t need to wait for the episodes to air!). The character dynamics were fun to watch, the story was gripping, and we got to see Ziqi’s affection for Miaomiao increase from -200% (yes, negative) to 100%. It was also such a treat to watch Ding Yuxi and Yu Shuxin together as main leads again after Moonlight, and they both exhibited their exceptional acting skills, once again. Although an extra minute of the leads together at the very end would have perfectly sealed the story together, the last episode ties the entire drama together very well.

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A non traditional “happy” open ended (self) love story

There’s so much that I have already said in the comments section below about this drama that I feel like a review is in order…

If you are someone who needs a drama with a satisfying ending/closure… I would still recommend watching the main leads Miao Miao and ZiQi’s highlight reels online but as for the actual drama itself skip it and go watch their previous drama Moonlight or if you must…watch LGIEF before watching/rewatching Moonlight for satisfaction

The cast was AMAZING, CGI and soundtrack was a 10/10!

Now for hard truths?

Miao Miao’s pre warning of the ending being a total scam to viewers before being sucked into game is very much true for the ending of the drama..

Yes it’s an unsatisfying “happy” open ending for the leads and yes I can understand China’s censorship of dramas is a contributing factor and I could make up excuses such as a lack of self worth and the story being written by a teenage ZiQi’s point of view as a reason for zero kiss scenes between the leads other than a forehead kiss ( does the rolling credits kiss count)

This story was masked as a traditional “Love Story” but it was definitely a story of “Self Love” which I don’t have any issues with but wished they had titled it so e.g “Self Love in Eastern Fantasy” ?

In terms of the ending.. you have to remember a few things to find any forms of satisfaction from it..

1. Chinas censorship limitations for the ending
2. The book was written by a teenage ZiQi
3. The ending is not supposed to be thought as an “ending” but a beginning
4. Miao Miao had already pre warned viewers/readers through her online review of the book that we were scammed for the ending..
5. The main leads ending is a constant full circle ⭕️ promise? between them. ZiQi promises to always find Miao Miao and never leave her behind and Miao Miao will forever choose and support ZiQi

Her waking up and thinking everything was a dream and trying to remember who she loved ( full circle ⭕️ ) and her going to the book signing to support him (full circle ⭕️) and ZiQi calling her name despite but not being seen (full circle ⭕️)

I love this couple and will definitely be rewatching their previous drama for closure and more romantic interactions… hoping for a 3rd collaboration between this pair in the future!!

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BEST DRAMA OF THE YEAR

Yu shuxin as ling miaomiao is my fav I love this novel nd when xixin nd xiaoding as miaomiao nd mu Sheng looks so perfect.
After a very long I love sone drama nd this is my best cdrama I'm 2024
I watched every Esther drama so far I love lbfd nd I watched so many times nd now this love game in eastern fantasy my fav I watched episodes in. Repeat
Love how miaomiao nd her father bond she missed her father who dead in real world but she got to meet him in virtual world nd their bond are sweetest
Love how to see mu Sheng love meter goes -200 to 20
Nd if ling miaomiao ignore him it's goes high
How xin dies in every move in 1 ep
After watching to many dark story series this is so much refresh nd love to watch
Nd its my fav jouner fantasy when we love this manhua it's so great to see xixin in our fav character ling miaomiao ??

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A really perfect first half, that makes up for second half's shortcomings

A solid fun filled drama, with an underlying mesage of self love and romantic love in its purest form.

This drama tells the story of Ling MiaoMiao, who was suddenly dropped into a parallel game universe of the novel of her favourite author Fu Zhou, as the vicious SFL. In this historical game world, she needs to complete two major tasks which include, helping to defeat the villain and winning the heart of the hostile SML, set up in the novel as MuSheng.

This drama starts strong, the beginning episodes were incredible! The comedy and romance had me giggling. The directors knew the audience short attention span, a key advantage in this period, where we have so many cdrama being released; so it does a great job of hooking the viewers from the start. Being dropped right in the middle of an action scene with little to no explanation, but a FL running around trying to figure her way out and dying multiple times during the game "trial" period was quite funny and kept me glued to the screen. You'd think it's a short length series with the way it began and how fast paced and enlightening the story was set up. To make it even better, Episode 7 is a defining moment, that ultimately makes the viewer to never let go of the drama (you have to watch up to that episode to understand what I mean).

OK let's move to the Pros and Cons.

PROS :
• Main Leads - The story set up such entertaining leads that everyone comes to love. ML might come off too antagonistic in the beginning which might be offensive to some, but that's just how his character was created in the game. HOWEVER, within a few episodes he will turn out to be one of the MLs you will cherish in drama land. Both leads were deeper than they seemed, you will find yourself rooting for them in their journey. We also have 2 other leads and a cutie little bamboo shoot CuiCui, who stole the heart of not just the viewers, but the leads themselves.
• Acting - Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi are good actors, and they gave their all in this script. Esther's cuteness, great comedic timing and relatable bubbly vibe held it down effortlessly. For Ryan, when it comes to delivering different emotional scenes, as well as looking as if he is head over heels for the FL, he nails this and even goes the extra mile! He was a definition of "the eyes speak louder than words." Then, there was CuiCui who was also good as a child actor.
• The comedy was gold.
• Favorability score - It was one of my favourite things in the show as it intensified the romance - The roller coaster of having it go up and down, with the main excitement being how one could already feel the tough cookie ML was in love with the FL even at a low percentage.
• The chemistry was insane! It will have you kicking your legs in the air with excitement. Esther and Ryan have acted previously in the romance drama 'moonlight', therefore, reuniting again meant the chemistry will be taken up a notch. As mentioned above, even when the favorability score was low the chemistry was already too thick.
• Great premise and plot - I might be a bit biased here, but I really love this kind of plot, even in short length dramas. So I was glad to see this plot in a full length drama.
• The drama breaks all the nonsensical character tropes we normally see; for eg No FL and SFL rivalry, we had a beautiful sismance with both ladies very protective and supportive of each other.

No triangle (I hate triangles)! The supposed love rivals got the hint and moved on and in turn the FLs were all about supporting and not being cruel to other ladies. We also got sort of a bromance. One of the love rivals, the Marquis was a nice guy who genuinely liked the FL and never manipulated or forced any situation on her as we do see in some tropes. Finally, we had the perfect balance of ML (Green flag and grey).
• Cinematography, visuals and styling on point. I must commend the makeup team for the beautiful work they did for the 4 leads! The MUA especially for Lin MiaoMiao was chef kiss, this is hands down my favourite look of Esther and Ryan.


CONS (aka the second-half shortcomings):
• Too many side plots were crammed into the second half and we had multiple themes such as "end of the world--revengeful woman--consort dowager--half brother--demon reveal--amnesia--modern day plot--CuiCui grandpa--Fuyi's background--mother's friend'' and every other imaginable side plot all at once. Then, totally neglecting the romance, which was not supposed to be, as the name of the drama is titled 'love game' in eastern fanatsy.
• Editing and too many cuts - If a drama episodes are reduced, it's only right to reduce the number of plots as well or at least space them out. Rather some scenes were cut and we were left with some unresolved matter, and this was glided over as if nothing happened (Yes, I'm mainly speaking about that damned bracelet, legit the most hated item)!
• Thinking the second leads were like npcs, but in the second half they gave us too much of their scenes with almost zero romance for the leads. Unfortunately, the second leads' situation didn't really hook me, I wasn't buying what they were selling.
• The FL was not well utilised in the second half that I started missing her vibe. In the first half she brought the comedy, drove the plot with others etc. However, in the second half she was put a bit in the background.
• The romance was watered down so much between the leads in the second half. In the first half, we literally started with a favorability score and I was anticipating how passionate their romance will be when the score gets high. Also, the ML is very intense in everything he does. So, I expected when he falls in love to be even more intense, cause at 50% we already saw it and at close to 100%, I expected more fire from their relationship. But they glided over their relationship,  and all focus was on the multiple side plots.

Finale :
I love that the transmigration setup was much more deeper than what we normally see. The message passed across showed this was definitely not a simple fluff and more about self love in its pure form. My only annoyance with the finale is how they never showed Fu Zhou even for a second in the last minutes of the ending. [SPOILER ALERT, DON'T READ] - He was under a life threatening situation the last time he was showed, and as self love was one of the main theme for the drama, wouldn't it have made more sense to show him, so that viewers can jubilate alongside that he got healed? Yes, I know its his book signing and it's obvious that he is fine as we hear him call out her name from a distance, however, seeing him healthy and smiling would have gone a long way in making an impact, and reuniting our leads.

In general,  I enjoyed this drama and I do recommend it, even if you get annoyed with second half, you will always have a smile on your face when you remember the first half. Btw it has a high rewatch value! OK I should stop repeating first and second half atp..

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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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Drama that had potential at the start but really died at the end

I got into this drama late, but joined in because this drama had an ongoing battle with the pearl girl drama next door so I wanted to check if this drama really was better than the other one. (because in terms of ratings it was beating the other drama domestically, and the leads here have a better costume than the other one and camera overall)

I managed to watch quite a few episodes at the start which really got me hooked on it and waiting for every new episode (up to ep 13 i think). The story was moving quick, fast without any fillers in content or useless standing around and talking. Only when it got to about I think ep23 onwards, then I really felt that unnecessary dialogue was coming into play and that it was getting a bit dragggy (ngl, it could also have been because I didn't care much about the ML's parents love story). It felt like the drama was trying to throw in plot twists but really I did not see it come into play. The ending was overall disappointing and majorly cliched for what it was, like you did not have to throw in a good ending unnecessarily, a sad ending could work as well. Because the ending felt super forced, I felt upset that it just became a boring idol costume drama again. SO, I'm really warning you cos this could end in u feeling really really like ANTI CLIMATIC.

However, I need to complement their PR team for putting effort in drama promotions and the costume department for making costumes aesthetically pleasing to our eyes so that not everyone else is in white like they are in some funeral. I also thought that the drama at least did not completely ruin the original setting of the book, and if edited, did so well for drama adaptation.

The acting how do I say, not particularly outstanding but watchable for the eyes. let's just put it there.

i would rant if this drama had major plot holes and logic failures but since this is a fantasy drama, there can be some exceptions tho I absolutely hate those. my one major rant has to do with the ending, like BRO WHY SO SAPPY??????? LIKE CAN WE STOP THE STARE INTO EACH OTHER'S EYES WHILE ROTATING IN SOME WEIRD OMBRE BACKGROUND and cry and go "dont do this" like fr. stop it. its not romantic. its like a killkoy.

ok that's it. like it really went from yayyyyyy to uuuuuummmm to ugggggghhhh to plain disappointment.

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Feels like we've seen something like this before???

Coming directly to the point, the gist of the PLOT we've already seen or heard of before. While the plot may seem familiar, the way it's portrayed is fresh and captivating. The magical spells and the intense battles between Demon Catchers and Demons are particularly engaging. The performances, especially by Ding Yu Xi and Esther Yu, really stand out. Their acting is one of the main reasons I kept watching the drama, and they certainly didn’t disappoint. Though I initially wished they had used the actors' original voices, I eventually got used to it and still found the experience enjoyable.

Esther Yu’s portrayal of "cute" moments doesn’t always align with the situation, but she somehow manages to make it work in a way that only she can. Her ability to balance light-heartedness with intense emotional scenes is truly impressive. She continues to surprise me, especially with the heart-wrenching ending of Episode 7. Both Ding Yu Xi and Esther Yu completely stole my heart with their performances in that episode.

At first, I wasn’t fond of the second couple, but once their backstory unfolded, I grew to like them a lot. Ah Jie, in particular, left a lasting impression—especially the scene where she protects Ah Sheng from Fu Yi’s master’s sword. The fight scenes and visuals were well-executed, and I was hooked. Initially, I thought this would just be another typical drama, but it was the "Moonlight Couple" (Ding Yu Xi and Esther Yu) that kept me watching. As the story progressed, I found myself more and more invested.

One character that truly stood out to me was Roushi. Despite his limited screen time, he brought a sense of charm and sincerity that was hard to ignore. His unwavering determination, honesty, and innocence made him a standout character. It’s a shame that neither the princess nor Miaomiao could end up with him—I really hope he finds happiness in the future.

Ratings:

Story: 9.5/10 (The plot isn’t entirely unique, hence the slight deduction)
Acting: 9.5/10 (The score goes entirely to Ding Yu Xi and Esther Yu; the supporting cast could’ve done more)
Music: 9/10 (The OST fits the drama well, but it hasn’t stuck with me enough)
Rewatch Value: 9/10 (Not a drama I’d rewatch on repeat, but still highly enjoyable)

PS - This is not your average wuxia drama—it has a solid and engaging storyline that’s worth watching!

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