Cold Steel 3 has one of the worst gameplay loops of any Trails game I've played so far, and each loop drags on for far longer than it needs to.
However, the actual content of this game is quite good. I loved the character development that New Class 7 got, and the stories told in each field exercise location were very gripping. Plus the finale was a crazy sprint to the finish packed with crazy lore drops, plot twists, and a compelling ending.
Overall I think if I had a bigger gap between each Trails game I would have enjoyed this more - waiting a few years vs a few weeks to go from CS2 -> CS3 probably burned me out on the repetitive cold steel gameplay loop. I think CS3 is still my favorite game in the Erebonia arc so far tho, and I'm excited for CS4 but might take a bit of a break in between games this time.