(Last review of a 2024 show) A man transmigrates from the modern world into a fantasy game where using modern techniques he unravels mysteries and solves cases. He goes from a bumbling, arrogant hot blooded doofus though with smarts to a powerful, super intelligent man with the love of/and for family, amazing friends, boss, sidekicks, and even a tactless princess. Though he appeared lucky, the dark side was always lurking around him and at the end of what we hope to be season one the dark evil took all that away from him in a very well written cliffhanger (there's a scene after the ending credits folks, don't miss it!), leaving everyone going what in the Dafeng?

Pros: I have only ever seen Dylan in a very poorly written modern drama, so wanted to see him in something with a good storyline and characterization. Glad I stuck around even when the beginning was driving me batty. This was one of the those few dramas where it actually got better as the episodes progressed. Dylan as XQA knew just how how to blend emotions and thoughts (albeit I still wished he didn't have to do the over dramatic ones), like comedy, intelligence, being one or two steps ahead of just about everyone but Lord Wei and of course the Supervisor. His love for his super extra family was evident. His best acting was in the final arc of Chuzhu city and the atrocities done there and then what happened with Mr. Zheng. The emotions of sadness, rage, injustice that he felt, just melted from the screen and you became him. You wanted revenge in the worst possible way and he got it. Very impressive.

My other favorite characters were LW as he did such a great job as a protagonist this time. I was used to him playing antagonists all the time so this was quite refreshing and he did a wonderful job as the surrogate father and boss to XQA. His death saddened me at the end but I hope he can come back to life in season 2 (again please let there be a season 2, with the same cast and not in 5 years)! The entire Xu family though could be very extra in the over dramatic sense, loved XQA very much and had his back as much as possible. The Scooby gang as I called his friends/sidekicks at the bureau, realm, and guardian places were the best. Those 4 guys especially were indispensable to him and they were a part of him as much as the realm sect folks were. I liked the supervisor as well. He saved people, didn't murder them and he was quite upset by what happened in the last arc and Mr. Zheng's torture and death. Even the monk in XQA was of great help.

I don't believe for one moment anything that came out of dark robe dude's aka XQA's biological father's (Luke, I am your father moment) mouth about the supervisor being the one who wanted the destiny inside XQA because if that was the case, he would have taken it for himself 12 years ago instead of the dark robe dude stealing it and implanting it into his own child while he himself killed hundreds of thousands and aligned with smaller villains (like the asswipe emperor, his brother, having a corrupt court) to play a constant game of chess with the supervisor. If he was such a good guy, he wouldn't have erased everyone's memories of XQA leaving him truly alone in the world (though apparently the supervisor knew since he was also the creator of the game in the real world). XQA figured it out and I don't think he will side with the evil monster just because of that and the secret of the destiny. For all that, he is a good antagonist and I hope he loses miserably in season 2.

Originally, I had thought that I was going to be very depressed when everyone forgot about XQA, but when looking from a writer's standpoint, it actually wasn't that bad. Sad yes, but it was part of what a cliffhanger ending is about. You leave parts unfinished to make sure people don't forget what they watched and want more. Just like the scene after the credits; it's to leave us wanting more and fast. But most loose ends were tied which is also rare in dramas unless they are to be continued.

Costumes, OSTs (especially the opening hip hop one, I never missed), sets, and fight scenes with magic were all great. My sincere hope for season 2 is that, XQA upon knowing the whole truth still doesn't team up with his bastard father, but sticks with the supervisor, everyone gets their memories back, bring back LW, and are able to fight the forces or force of evil together. That would be ideal. I guess we'll see if and when it happens.

Cons: I'm sure many are wondering why I didn't put FL in the pros and that's because I didn't like her very much (the character not the actress); I felt romance here was quite unnecessary. Thankfully, that genre wasn't all that important and we saw only bits and pieces of it. She did grow on me towards the end a bit but I think that part could have been just left alone. There were just too many moving pieces and things going on that didn't require her at all. Though I will say that the two kisses the characters had were well done.

Initially, I was thinking that my rating was going to be in the 8s somewhere because of how lackluster and slapstick it started and that's just not for me. Also many plot points were talked through instead of shown and it would have been better if we understood that through seeing it or not having it sped through like the whole duchess abduction thing and rescue; I literally had to rewatch it twice before I understood what happened. Also XQA becoming a silver gong was just explained and several missions were just thrown around through speech. Show us, don't just tell us! We're not reading the book, we're viewers. How the 4 Scooby gang guys were stuck on a boat in the middle of the ocean somewhere and only reunited with XQA for a short time at the end. At least their experience was shown in form of a puppet play.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. What brought the score up to a 9 was when things turned serious and comedy landed properly and that entire ending arc with Dylan's wonderful portrayal. This is a show no one knew how it would do but boy did they show everyone. Season 2 is an absolute must with the same cast. Definitely one I'm glad I kept watching.