Edit: dropped in the 19th episode. All edits are marked.

My notes app was the most used app while I watched Battle through the Heaven (BTTH) and simultaneously rewatched Fight Breaks Sphere (FSB, we know it as BTTH as well but for the matter of this review, I'll use FBS to differentiate) because I didn't remember many of the things referenced in BTTH... I didn't want to compare these two too much but you can't have one apart from the other since BTTH is based on FBS.

But first, let's judge BTTH as a stand alone drama. It is pretty much your standard drama centered around the martial arts world. It is not exceptional, but it is also not too underwhelming. I liked that we were getting into things and stuff right away and we did not wait for the plot to unfold develop for ages. One of the main evil characters is eliminated in the first half of the drama, I have been missing such element in many other dramas. One thing I couldn't buy is Xun'er portrayed by Ding Xiao Ying, edit: I think a different actress (switching her with Xiao Yixian actress for example) would be a better pairing with He Luo Luo (end edit). If you don't know anything about FBS, you'll be able to enjoy BTTH. And if you did watch FBS like me and enjoyed it, you could still enjoy BTTH if you watch it with an open mind. Don't compare and think about the differences too much and it'll be fine. But, I am the person who was not fine and I did have to compare FBS to BTTH. Edit: I had to drop it in the 19th episode, because the cherry picking of FBS was.... Ugh (end edit.)

When I saw that there will be another BTTH, I was really excited and I thought this was going to be a new season, where they would pick up on the cliffhanger from FBS iykyk. I was WRONG. BTTH is loosely based on FBS. The writers cherry picked characters and events and just went with it. Which is not a terrible thing to do if you pick the right stuff, discard some things, adjust it and go, I was just a little disappointed (who out of us who watched and loved FBS wasn't, am I right). What I liked about this cherry picking was: Xiao Yan (XY) and Yao Chen's relationship, I enjoyed the chemistry between them far more here than in FBS. The playfulness, the jokes, the genuine kindness. I have to say that I loved Yao Chen in BTTH far more than in FBS (he was my fav in FBS). We got rid of the Soul Clan pact XY accidentally picked up in the medicine making competition in FBS and it gave us load of space to work it.

The CGI was pretty good in both, but BTTH wins this one. We had some new characters, but I'd have appreciated even more new characters or recurring characters from FBS. Chance to bring back at least Lin Xiuya since we traveled a lot in BTTH and elder Hai was missed. Especially elder Hai when we had Xiao Yixian back (little medicine doctor in BTTH). I wanted to say that I liked that BTTH did not clench into FBS but in case of XY and Xiao Yixian, copying this story wasn't executed well by the actors. What boggled my mind here was, the writers mentioned the beast flame in BTTH which XY acquired in FBS when he met Xiao Yixian and in BTTH XY does not even mention having the flame in eps prior to ep12. Cherry picking the FBS plot done badly here.

Now, onto more plot holes. TL;DR: I HAVE QUESTIONS. First of all, how and why did Yao Chen get into the spatial ring, and how did the spatial ring find XY? By getting rid of the heroes went far north to fight Soul Hall backstory completely, how was the spatial ring created? How did XY acquire the mystical ruler in BTTH when it was an item of Soul Hall and he acquired it after fighting a Soul Hall member? XY was a pharmacy shop apprentice and learned to refine medicine, even got accepted into the alchemists guild and used his skills in FBS. But in BTTH we are thrown into the middle of things and the only background of XY's skill is seemingly medicine elder. In my opinion, another thing which didn't make sense was using Bai Shan and Bai Cheng. Bai Shan was the more powerful one in FBS, has his pride and stuff and in BTTH they made him into this not so powerful power thirsty dummy blinded by his ambition. Then, when XY fell into the Blazing Qi Tower, why was the Snake Queen not able to control the python? Also, she made XY the temporary Snake King in FBS, so he should've been able to control the python too. Edit: As I later learned in BTTH, XY wasn't made into temporary Snake King, only later in the plot (end edit).

If I should describe FBS with one word, it would be grand. The filming locations, the amount of characters, the CGI, the plot, the music were simply grand. To surpass this grandness is certainly not an easy task and BTTH would not be able to do it, unless the writers would carry on the plot precisely and if the production cost would be the same if not even higher. In terms of loosely based stories and spin offs, BTTH is slightly above the average in my opinion. And lbr, the bar is quite low here. If definitely could've been better, but as I said, it is difficult to follow up on such a staple martial arts drama like FBS.

Last edit: at first, I wanted to say that I liked that BTTH writers didn't try to clench too hard on FBS. Episodes 15-19 made me change my mind definitely. Placing Yan Xiao identity into a completely wrong place and even the medicines making competition.... It honestly felt like they made BTTH into a plagiarized version of FBS. Just no. I was dedicated to watch it until the end and try to not have a bias, but I can't. Also, a big pet peeve of mine, XY in BTTH is a reckless dumbass who unintentionally made Xiao Yixian fall in love with him while not publicly acknowledging his relationship with Xun'er. Just why was he so oblivious to what his kind words and live saving actions would do to Xiao Yixian. Hence the score deduction from 7.5 to 6.5.