On the official weibo site of this drama, the production crew boasted that this series will model after the official historical account to the era. Except there was nothing of the sort. White became black and black became white. Good guys turned bad, and bad guys turned heroic. Dialogues were oft-times anachronistic, and special effects were substandard at best. I've seen better CG from amaetur works than what was in this show. While the show was impressive early on, it gradually revealed to be an expensive disrespect to the Ming Dynasty.

The personal costumes also left much to be desired. While not as inadequate as prior incarnations from shows depicting the same era, it was certainly nowhere near as painstakingly researched as the Longest Day in Chang'An. Not to mention the rubber armor worn by Ming and Nomadic warriors. Soldiers didn't look like soldiers, and amor didn't look like armor. Nomadic characters had it the worst, as their costumes were all over the place, including some that obviously looked like fantasy cosplay pieces purchased on a budget. Additionally, Nomadic characters behaved in a way that Chinese people thought they behaved, but not how they might have actually behaved.

Then came the war scenes, which were absolutely atrocious. Some scenes & dialogues were blatant ripoffs from existing movies, such as Lord of the Rings and Gladiator. This, coupled with bad costumes, made the war scenes prime candidate for the fast-forward button. Also, why the hell were the 'foreign' mercenaries all speaking English?

The only merit of this series came from the acting prowess of Wang Xueqi, who convincingly interpreted the third Ming Emperor, Zhu Di. In addition, the Emperor's interactions with his sons & grandson were the highlight of the show. Unfortunately, once he left the scene, the show dimmed significantly.

Overall, a terrible show with too many inprobilities that cannot be redeemed, with mediocre acting amidst some of the worst dialogues I can remember. Not something I'd recommend.