FINAL UPDATE OF THIS REVIEW:
With the sale of "逆袭人生 The Underdog Tycoon", I decided to give it a try as a fan of FMV games and also tycoon games. And the mix of these two, I figured that it would be cool to try.
Well, with the game being under 2GB, that tells me that there are probably not much videos.
And since when I started, I have now put in nearly 200 hours into this game at the time of this review. But before anyone says if one can stay with this game for so long, you must love it. Read on...
I. WHAT THIS GAME IS ABOUT?
You are a person needing to advance in society by starting off as a peon and literally using your tycoon skills to rise in the company.
By learning various skills and training multiple times each day and watching your stamina and getting enough sleep to replenish your stamina, so you can level up your skills of trade up to level 10. Working out also to level up other skills not just for your hometown but across China.
But the problem is everything consumes money (kn - not sure why it's called that when China uses Yuan or even RMB, while Croatia did call their currency, kn at one time). And just by leveling up to level 10, while you can invest in establishments pertaining to those skills, you run out of money and your broke. And when you level up your learning, you can level up and get promotions and be smart about what you invest or don't invest in.
There are sexy female talent that appear as basic FMV. They just tell you that they are helping out but really, they are just eye candy who repeat the same message over and over and it's the same video over and over. Some girls act different roles as shop owners in another city but really, the scene where they are laying on top of the bed while you rest at home, is probably the best part of the game.
II. GAMEPLAY
There are other things that are not really explained in this video. It's all trial and error. It's a game that you need to figure things out on your own.
To be perfectly honest, I was not sure if this was a cash grab to capitalize on the popularity of FMV games. The game is definitely not polished. In fact, it may be abandoned because there is no updates by the developer.
But never judge a game by it's STEAM AVATAR....lol..
So, I have more details on the guide I created but the game has several facets. When you start out poor, you have limited money to begin with. So you need to make money by shopping and then reselling what you buy in other cities and repeat the process until you make enough to put towards learning and training. But the goal is to utilize learning and training not just in your home area but every city.
Of course, things cost money, so how do you recoup the money you spent? Well, that's the next part of this game and why I have so many hours of gameplay, to recoup money from your investments, you must leave the game on. Yes, 24/7. But you need too rest and the more you put towards training (Physical Strength) to boost stamina. The more you build this past 125, you can just leave it on for 6 hours until you rest again.
But also a big part of leaving the game on is how you level up and you can easily level up to 200 (max) easily.
UPDATE 3/27/2026: I have reached the max stats:
Management - 245
IQ - 245
EQ - 245
Adversity Quotient - 245
Charisma - 245
Physical Strength - 200
And after you invested a little in every city, the next part is then investing big on the more expensive things, more buildings and earn a lot of money and spend a lot of it on building creation, learning and training in other cities.
It's tedious and takes forever but fortunately, the big part is just leaving it on. And thank goodness, the software is so light on memory that you can play other games while this is game is on.
Last but not least, many will ask if the game has English subtitles. Because when you start the game it's all in Chinese characters. The first screen asks you to choose an assistant, then enter your nickname, then you enter choose a difficulty level with the first one being the normal setting.
Once you are in, you will need to go to settings (gear) and you can change the language and screen size from there and choose English subtitles.
III. JUDGMENT CALL:
FIFTHUPDATE: I now have figured out a strategy for this game! After two strategies that didn't work, I realized there is another strategy that works for this game and that is to not invest in buildings. You want to learn and train but don't level up to 10 immediately. In fact, the goal is to actually buy items from the stores and keep traveling to other locations to sell the items to find unique items and sell again. But just remember that by going back home and sell the items to your local seller, who will pay more than anyone.
Later on, you can bargain. But it's a game that requires a lot of wait time. In fact, I wonder if you just leave the game on while you sleep and you will auto-level up.
But once you get to level 40, you can start getting reclamation degrees and increase the size of cities. You still have to deal with not having enough money. So, eventually you'll need to get to level 80.
After trying multiple times, I can say that THIS IS NOT A CASH GRAB. Yes, they use sexy FMV to lure you in but there is actually a game to this that requires trial and error. There are a lot of things there that they put in there to throw you off. But now I'm learning is that education in many facets are important, but you want the stamina to be able to travel a lot, you want the training to be able to barter, but the best advice I can give to you is do not spend all your money leveling up. I thought that was the point to this game, but the point is actually letting time level you up, while you trade constantly. In a way it's like level grinding in an RPG game, but in this case, traveling over and over and over again. Buying and reselling, repeat over and over again.
Video is just as repetitive as gameplay. I wish they put more time to add more videos and there is actually a point to your female assistants. In fact, it's bad enough when you travel to various locations and you hear your assistant's voice but she is missing from the screen. All you see is the AI background image of a city and sometimes the cars look like raw meat.
JUDGMENT CALL:
There were a few things working for the game. One it's light, so you can have run in the background and while running, accruing money from your investments. There were some outrageous expectations of this game especially if you made it to President's Mode and need to reach Bosses mode.
There were some problems of the server not working and no menu was showing. This resolved in three days. But the part of leaving it on 24/7 to maximize profits, not sure if the developers put a stop to it because now it disconnects after several hours and I need to restart the game. So, this makes it hard if you want to reach the billion mark.
I have since nearly maxed out every Urban Facility in every location and to be perfectly honest, aside from being able to carry a lot of goods and money wise, go up in millions, it's a slow grind due to the new disconnection if you leave it on. This was not the case before but I'm assuming the server has its time out if you are connected to long, knowing that the big part of the game is leaving it on 24/7.
Again, by no means does the hours I put into this game mean I love it. It means I left it on 24/7 (or tried to) as I try to reach the final promotion of "Bosses". I personally want to know if there is an ending.
UPDATE: As of the end of March 2026, the game will no longer let you leave the game on, so you can let your money accrue. It now puts the game in pause mode and you have to click on continue the game. TERRIBLE DECISION!
Otherwise my review still stands... DO NOT BUY!!!
