I guess to compare, it's basically squid game but a watered-down version. No, I think it would be more similar to Alice in Borderland.

The story at the beginning was really, really good. It's hype, it's intense, and the stakes are high. But after you get past episode 10, that's where it goes downhill. I'm not the type who reads comments when I'm currently watching the show, just to avoid poisoning my own judgment and enjoyment of the media, but when I was still probably in the first 5 episodes, I couldn't help but read a few just to see what's up because I'm liking it! It had a strong start! And some people said, "Ohh, fell off in 2nd half, fell off after the 3rd death game," and yeah, I can kinda see why. I didn't fall off after episode 10 like other people. I fell off around 17-18, and that's when I started watching this show at 2x speed just so I could move on to the next show.

Here's why: I think the main problem is that the writer has overwritten the side characters too much. I get that they want to make the viewers get invested with the side characters too, and it worked, but they did too much, to the point that it made the show draggy. The writers know that, of course, ML and FL are going to stand out; they're strong and smart, people are gonna like them, but they didn't want them to be the only main stars of the show; they didn't want them to overshadow the others. So to offset that, they tried to give more screentime to the side characters by giving them a lot of exploration, but I didn't like it sometimes, especially when it comes to 'Zhang Tian Qiang' This guy is introduced clearly to be the asshole of the show, but they showed some vulnerable moments of him too. At first, I liked it because it gave balance to his character, but when they kept repeating it over and over, is where it starts to get annoying. Like we barely got any exploration for ML; we did, but personally, I feel like that was just the tip of the iceberg. I had a lot of curiosity towards him. With FL it was fine since we got some, but it got confusing a little bit because of the twists and turns. I can also see why the romance aspect got in the way of the show; at first, I liked the subtleness of it, and I wished for it to develop even further, but when it did become obvious, I don't know... there's just something about it that made me feel like "Naaah... can we just go back to making it open for interpretation?"

The games in this show were good; they gave each character a chance to shine and show their strengths. The CGI was alright, nothing to complain about, but I couldn't wrap my head around that dungeon space that they've introduced, where the people who died in-game are just trapped there and can still live normally like in real life. Like "Yeah sure, while your real-life body is barely living off of dextrose." And I feel like there could've been other sci-fi ways to realize the vision for that part. I don't know if it's culturally rooted or not, but I liked the 2nd game, where they listen to a song and guess which symbol they're gonna insert through the door. And I don't know about you guys, but I was so annoyed that they kept being mysterious about how these people were entering a VR game without a helmet (I'm so dumb!!! That's why it's a mystery!!). But when they did explain it, I was still dissatisfied because the one thing that made me question it was, how did these people not feel the sting when the chip was injected into their head? Because it was revealed that it was injected in real time when they were testing out the helmet. So you're telling me, you can feel the mosquito biting into you, but you can't feel a chip being injected deep into your brain? That sounds like crap.

As for the characters, since I've said my piece regarding the side characters being overwritten, no one really stood out to me like he/she is my favorite character, so I'm just gonna try to comment on each one.

For FL, it's more about her actress Sun Qian, and probably an unpopular opinion, but this is what I've been meaning for her. I've watched 3 works of hers at this point with 'All These Years' and 'A Robot in the Orange Orchard' being the others. From what I can gather, I think her strength lies in characters where she's not required to act cutesy. Now, I still need to watch her other cutesy character dramas to confirm it, but that's how I feel currently. She's rocking this tomboy concept by the way.

For ML, This is my first drama of him, and I love it when he speaks very low, ghaaad!! I can feel it deep in my eardrums, and he's a great actor. If Sun Qian and Wei Zhe Ming get paired again, I hope it's a romance drama because I liked the spark of chemistry that I felt from them.

For Yang Ba Wan, my ghad! I hate him so much; he's such a cringe character. He's the type of person who would get bullied a lot in real life for being such a dork and cringe, but because of his development throughout the show, he's become somewhat okay, like whatever.

Nan Xiao Qing, I think she's okay, but I didn't liked her romantic development with Bawan. I was like "No, No, No! I do not approve this relationship!" But they have a good dynamic together later on. As for the actress Rachel Wang, I was amazed by her look. At first, I was shocked, but I think she rocked it.

Zhang Tian Qiang, bro, it would've been fine for me after the scene of you caring for your bros who are in a coma, but after it kept repeating like it became annoying to me because they would show a scene, then he would fumble the next episode. And you pair him with Bawan, It's like a match made in heaven of Annoying and Cringe. I can also feel his actor being 200% into this character.

Qing You, girl, I feel what it's like when your bff is being stolen by other people, but there was something about it to me that didn't look smooth as it was being built up.

For the rest, they are all okay. I laughed when the CEO antagonist chased after FL after some sad family drama happened to her and just casually asked "Please help us finish this death game project." like what????... Yeah, sure Mr. CEO even though it will cost us our lives. lmao.

Overall, it's alright. started strong, but slowly dwindled because of the over-written side characters. This could've been shorter if you cut all the draggy scenes. I wouldn't recommend it personally.