Welcome to my first review! I enjoyed this drama so much I have to recommend it to other viewers. I was skeptical because I found a lot of things I didn't enjoy about Love O2O, another drama based on gaming. I decided to give it a try after reading other reviews that said it was not the same and was not a romance. I like romance sometimes. This drama is great without it. I don't want to beat up on Love O2O too much. However if you were drawn to that program with certain expectations because it was about gaming and you felt let down, The King's Avatar won't suddenly disappoint you halfway through the episodes.

That's not to say that The King's Avatar is only about gaming. The gaming aspect will tie some people's interests to the show but it is still about the characters and their struggles to find themselves. The characters are the most compelling aspect of the drama. No one is out and out evil although many start out unlikable. Nothing is painted in black and white and even the most unlikable people begin to learn and grow. I especially like that there isn't a focus on romance because the three central female characters deserve to be portrayed as people who are trying to find their destinies just as much as the male characters. They don't turn into props for the male characters. They stand on their own. This is only the second drama that has left me wanting to see more seasons. I can't wait to see how these characters are further developed.

The only aspect of the drama that I found off-putting was the very beginning. We stopped watching in the middle of the first episode because we worried that the competition aspect was going to be over the top cheesy. Luckily we came back to it because it was worth watching once we got past the beginning. I don't know that they could have begun any other way and it was more balanced and made sense as we watched further into the episodes.

The game play was not realistic but I didn't see this as a problem. I felt like it was represented in a way that maintained the development of the story without being too distracting. The notions of game play such as strategy, strengths and weaknesses of different fighter classes, finding the right equipment and team work were all very realistic. The time spent playing the game over the course of the drama is significant enough that the story would have suffered if they hadn't animated it to reveal the emotions of the players behind the game characters. They made it work extremely well.