PROS:
- Most beautiful cinematography, costume designing, and production out of ALL the C-dramas I've seen. Obviously meticulous work was done in order to achieve the stunning visual effects (enhanced by the OST).

- Beautiful OST. I didn't find it so beautiful when I first listened to it (without the drama), but it melded impeccably with the drama's scenes. Most of the OSTs were used, too, so I wasn't left wondering why I didn't hear something when listening to the track list afterward.

- Good acting. I think this is one of Hou Minghao's strongest and most layered performances and encouraged me to look into his other dramas. As for the other actors, I think they all did the part that they could with the script (largely focused on ML alone; few other characters had any sort of development or growth).

- Good exploration of friendship between ML and 2ML. A lot of chemistry is in this performance, and I can actually see how the friendship developed.

- The humor is unmatched, especially if you're decently fluent in Chinese (I think the humor is on par with Falling Into Your Smile, which is a seriously funny drama).

CONS:
- Disjointed storyline largely reliant on flashbacks, side plots, and magical objects (which the fate of the world depends on, but they break super easily). I lost track of what was going on and the explanations for all the random scenes by Ep. 23 (?) Up until Ep. 10 though, I thought the story was wonderful. Beyond that, it barely passes as "cohesive."

- Too many people died for no particular purpose. A lot of tragedies happened in this drama, but I don't think they enhanced it in any way. Too much of something tragic/beautiful makes nothing tragic/beautiful at all. Additionally, there wasn't enough character development for me to feel attached to any of the characters besides ML so their deaths were "just another death."

- FL development in the script was terrible. I'm sure Chen Duling did what was asked of her, but there wasn't really much for her to work with. The FL's presence + romance feels a little like the director's afterthought (though I do think the romance was more developed than many viewers claim and occupied a decent number of scenes).

- A lot of missing/unbelievable character actions/explanations. Why was the main antagonist for 15 episodes redeemed? Nobody saw his change of mind until he actually acted upon it, and that left very little development for the actual "main villain."

COMPARISON TO SIMILAR C-DRAMAS:

1. Till the End of the Moon (Bai Lu/Luo Yunxi) compared to Fangs of Fortune
- Heavier on the romance
- Better written female lead and overall more cohesive plot
- Less beautiful visuals + cinematography; a lot of it is a LOT overdone (blood vomiting)
- Similar presence of side stories though generally less important side characters
- OST in FoF is more suitable/enjoyable IMO
- Similar tragic ML, though I think the ML here is less psychotic/intense

Personally, I think they're on a pretty similar level quality-wise.

TLDR; I thought this was a decently good drama because it was beautiful to look at (hats off to the costume designers, cinematographers, and everyone involved in that). It was enough to keep me watching, but do note that the story and character development arcs are pretty poorly done besides for the ML.

Do note that I did think about this drama for a very long time afterward and had trouble watching any other drama's cinematography (this was pretty insane). I'd give it a watch, and I do find myself going back to certain episodes/scenes to watch it again.