Wow Rugal, what a rollercoaster of emotions this was.

I'll be the first to admit that this is no intelligent masterpiece. However, to judge the writing you need to grasp what the purpose of the drama was first. Rugal is an ode to the old retro movies (like The Matrix) in a modern Korean style with quality CGI and cinematography. The writer used the potential of the bionic eyes to its fullest and I love him for that. Rugal is for people who are here for pure entertainment only. This was a breath of fresh air for me. While for some it got boring and disappointing, it was the opposite for me and my drama partner. The crazier it got, the more entertaining it was for us. If we checked our heartbeats we would have probably been at 200bpm. We were literally joking about calling an ambulance. It got so dramatic, unpredictable and shocking. Gosh, we loved it so much. The acting, the music, the characters, the action scenes, the visual/sound effects, the plot, the outfits, the unexpected moments of violence, what a phenomenal drama. Anyway, there was no bad writing.

Side notes :
- Gi Beom's relationship with Ye Won reminded me Je Ha and Yoo Jin in The K2. (and that's extremely positive)
- The potential of it all was used to its fullest really. They did everything they could for that, and they did right.
- The character development of Gi Beom was insane (literally).
- It's based on a webtoon. I am so glad that they brought it to life.
- The top reviewer says you need to turn your brain off, but is there such thing in Rugal? This is not how I saw it. We were seriously invested in the storyline. This expression could work for anything where the main purpose is to entertain and that it's not 100% logical, realistic and clever (in a positive way but not to everyone's taste*). It's not because a fictional work is exaggerated and the story gets chaotic (*same thing here) that the drama itself is badly written. I value great dramatics a lot and Rugal did not disappoint. Seeing how we loved The Heavenly Idol's 2nd half and W's last episodes for example, we surely love chaos. Rugal is 1. science-fiction 2. pure fun. So, to put it another way than "turning your brain off" : you enjoy what you enjoy, you go with the flow. It's as simple as that. It's all a matter of taste.

Some are talking about plot holes, but there's no such thing either. I can only think of two which could be considered as such but they are not a problem.

Some questions are better left unanswered and this was the case with the first. It was quite dumb indeed but the plot twist was fantastic nonetheless. It all made it 1000x better, we went completely insane and what went after that was even crazier. Choi Jin Hyuk served in that one scene related to the plot twist in question. Actually he served in the whole drama, what a brilliant actor.

The second, they implied an explanation at the end so I don't mind.

The drama was left open to a sequel without making it frustrating. It was a satisfying ending so you don't need to worry. I would have loved a sequel but it's okay, it's an underrated drama so of course they didn't make one, the budget needed must be quite important after all. I even saw people hating on the concept itself and saying it was cringe for them. But what can we do? It really is a style you either love or hate.

SF dramas are rare. Rugal is one of the coolest dramas I have ever watched. How sad it must be to not enjoy it... We had our best time ever. I will never forget that. I am so thankful towards everyone who worked on it!

I will write down my thoughts on the ending in the comments.

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My friend's review : (may contain some inaccuracies because I translated it from french)

In Rugal
We've really got the magic recipe of the old-school comic book, the original superhero blockbuster.
We've got that perfect team, the family you find and with whom you heal your heart wounds (the remedy also being to beat ass).
Made up of 4 leather-clad badasses who'll win you over;
Our MC, who's fun, peppy and sarcastic, old school and just plain badass. Then, of course, there's the scowling team leader with a heart of gold, the young comic relief and the strong woman.
And then there's a whole other cast of characters, all more fun and wacky (Bradley, we love you and your pimped-out granny glasses).
The villain is straight out of a comic book.
The atmosphere he gives off, the intonation of his voice.
He's positively cartoonishly wacky, pure fun to admire.

The movements may seem overplayed or strange to someone who doesn't appreciate old-fashioned fighting.
But these, along with the costumes, create a most retro atmosphere, and until you've seen it, you can't imagine how satisfying it is to hear the robotic noises in the fights (VIOUP VIOUP makes the punch and VLAN VLAN makes the villain flee to other skies).
In concrete terms, you have to look at this drama through the eyes of a child of the 90s, a fan of badass guys in leather like the first part of Matrix (with the advantage of top-notch image quality and special effects, plus Korean-style).

Then even, the tropes of the drama, god damn it haha.
The bionic eyes, I imagined so many possibilities, and I was fulfilled for almost all of them, and that's beautiful. Truly one of the craziest concepts, and very very well realized/used.
It's the drama that made my heart beat the fastest when I watched it, so high is it in emotion.
Exhilaration in the fights, in the inter-character conflicts, in the moments of drama and violence. Violence that sometimes comes so unexpectedly that you're left dumbfounded by the turn of events.
Rugal is a delight, whether for the eyes (bionic or not), the ears or for your little heart in need of pure badassery.