I don't really know how to feel about it, I should give it more time but there's some things that bother me.

Positives first.
It definitely scratches the itch for more Armored Core, controls well, plays well, the customization is rather nice and the mechs look nice too.
It's very impressive for a solo project, sure it's janky but mostly in places where it doesn't matter much, we're mecha fans we can handle sub-par graphics.
It has a lot of great things going for it in both gameplay and mecha aspects.

Why do I feel divided?

I understand the AI could be hard to figure out but I really wish you fought other mechs, or just, anything other than weird fleshy aliens.
The story and themes are so whatever and I honestly would do without the voice acting.
Finally I really wish it went without using generative AI, it literally brings nothing to the game and I honestly think Mecha Knights could do without character portraits or voice acting. It's not the end of the world but it definitely shows some flaws in the dev's approach.

I do 2D art, 3D modelling and some game development so I get how hard it is to juggle all of these things as a solo dev but I really think Mecha Knights should've focused on its strength and just be a good mecha game instead of trying to add a story and characters when the writing clearly doesn't back that up.

In conclusion, Mecha Knights is a good mecha game with all the right inspirations, it's just not for me. I can't overlook the usage of AI and its terrible writing (which I wouldn't be surprised to learn if it was made by AI too). Which is sad because I really do like the parts of it which were made with genuine effort and passion.

I started enjoying this game much more when I reconceptualized it from "Budget armored core" to "Even more budget Earth Defence Force with mechs"