Enjoyable battle, i have some fond memories of this one in TIE.
First introduction of mag pulse.
Let down by a bug or two but still worth flying.

I found it fun and very fair on easy, which I can't say about all TFTC-R battles

Flying version 1.3.3. Had issues with bugs in 3 out of 5 missions. Beyond balancing issues popping up again, it has the unfortunate problem of adapting a battle that isn't necessarily my favorite from the original game. So combine source material with balance issues and bugs gets a lower score.

Bugs include (not reporting them on the Bug Report form as it won't matter for TFTC items)... TRN Runner won't show up unless PLT Omar 2 is sufficiently damaged... maybe not a bug, but if you don't keep on the FRGs that attack that platform, they will absolutely wreck TRN Runner to shreds in a way that is fairly unfair. On Mission 2 (on Easy at least), Gunboats destroyed vehicles the Conveyors they were meant to disable, forcing me to try to disable them first... On Mission #4, well towards the end of the mission, the Platform my ships were supposed to drop troops off at was simply destroyed, I believe by ally Bombers.

Did that seriously end on a cliffhanger?! Nooooo! Honestly though, the Zaarin arc just gets better and better, and flying it in TFTC makes it feel like a modern AAA game rather than an amalgamation of games released between twenty and thirty years ago! I can't wait for parts 9-13 to be released later this year. I do echo Yoda's comment that the TFTC Defender is like playing with God Mode on, especially against Rebel Headhunters...

Every single battle of TFTC-R is an abolute masterpiece. As if the original TIE-Fighter was not one of the best games ever conceived, TFTC-R tops it - on every single mission. It is not only that the graphics, sound and joystick support cababilities were brought today's standards with underlying XWAU package. TFTC-Reimangined also set out to redisgn the original TF missions reimagining what they could have looked like if it wasn't for TF's 1994 engine limitations (e.g. only ~30 ships in space at any given time) yielding huge battles which truely make you feel as part of a mighty imperial war machine rather than a lonely TIE Fighter pilot taking on the galaxy. They even did full voice acting, remastering of the soundtrack and ironed out some story quirks - it is insane. They did what they set out to do - mission accomplished - and then some!

I don't think the first mission captured the difficulty I remembered of the original TIE , your allies are a bit too helpful. This is compensated by them being mostly useless in the next mission. Flying the Defender against Rebels feels like god mode in the third mission.
A wait in the fourth mission was just the second time in 40 missions that I missed time acceleration, which is a tribute to excellent design and execution. This was also visible in the last mission - a well designed mag pulse mission is hard to pull off, but a fun change when it works.
The final email is a great link between your quarters and Thrawn's character.

I am very much looking forward to the next battle

Well, looks like we are awaiting battles 9-13 as battle 8 definitely isn't a satisfying ending!
The ring around the rosy mag pulse final mission was a bit rough. Once I realized I should be laying into the ships after I disable all 3, then things went a bit better.