The Mech Touch by Exlor

this is an incredibly solid story, with a lived-in world and fleshed out characters. the fact that it's not more popular is kinda bizarre tbh, it's really good. definitely a unique take on cultivation to the point where it's like LoTM in this aspect, you can see elements of "cultivation" but you can't really call it that

I'm basing my review on the 1.2k chapters I've read. Beware of spoilers below.
I don't really want to structure this into pros and cons and so I'll probably just talk about certain topics without any particular order.

So, this is probably the longest original novel on webnovel and it definitely feels long if you get what I mean. With each passing arc and plot point developed/approached you can feel the author's desire to stretch his story beyond what would, imo, be the preferred length cuz this novel has more "side quests" and tangents than any other I've read which slows the overall plot of the novel. As of chapter 1.2k the MC has only just entered the 3rd level of mech designers (journeyman) but eben then this level is for many the actual start as before that your basically a scrub, and yet I've read other comments and I know that by chapter 4k he's still a journeyman. Imagine the pacing till then.

Now onto specific points:

MC - Personally I am not a fan of the MC because of the type of person he is, his values, actions and overall characterization. I'm not saying he's badly written but the way he is bothers me immensely and it gets worse with each passing arc. At the start you had a guy fresh out of college, who's parents were dead/missing, with a dream to be a mech designer kickstarted with the help of a cheat given to him by his dad, but throughout his journey he's slowly but surely been corrupted and he's turned into an hypocritical murderer who does whatever it may take to get what he wants no matter what. Example: Aside from this I also dislike his, in a way, meaningless attachment to his family and even more so to his planet/republic. The way he plans his company and business and how he plans to develop, what will obviously become something huge, in his backwater ass shit republic makes no sense. He should have obviously stayed at the Friday coalition imo. In regards to his family it's normal to feel attached but when he personnaly says multiple times that he only cares about 1 or 2 people there why does he keep reluctantly making decisions that help the hundreds of other family members he has due to peer pressure or some shit like that. Makes no sense.

MC's business: In short, amazing at the start, shit afterwards. His company was interesting to follow and see develop when it was in its initial stages but after it become a "proper" company the author threw in too much politics, influences, blackmail, coercion and anything else you can imagine to a point where his company didn't even feel like his company anymore cuz whenever he's away the so called board of directors does shit he explicitly told them not, he hears about it, gets angry, says he'll need to have a serious chat with them when he gets back and then that chat never happens and he just accepts anything they throw at him. Absolutely infuriating. The company literally turned into the thing I hated reading about the most, although by chapter 1.2k, after the war arc, the MC seems to have a bit more backbone to actually take hold of HIS own company.

The Larkinsons aka his family: his family's always "despised" him, treated him differently cuz of his ineptitude towards piloting mechs and even after he became a somewhat successful mech designer it still took them awhile to start taking him seriously. As a military family they are all religiously patriotic to the Bright Republic to a point of fanatism even which although I understand why its there it still feels stupid, especially in the MC's case cuz he's not even a mech pilot. His family also tried to take hold of his company and kinda turn it into a family business cuz he sold them 25% of the company shares and they grew greedy after awhile. They also wanted him to put the family's mech pilots into his private force which would, again, tun it into the family's private force. Everyone is always trying to push him aside and gain control and he doesn't really seem to be able to show them who's boss quite literally. I'm quite fed up with his family and business, tho again it seems to be improving lately.

Romance - tho i know he's married and has kids, as of right now his love interest has not showed up at all. However, i do think Calabast real identity could be her in the future. Zero romance so far.

Plot - excruciatingly slow. The ideas the author has are quite interesting and unique in a way but at the same time I feel that his execution is not the best because of how long the novel is and will become. There are some banger moments here and there but overall it's just quite stale imo, especially in the war arc. There's also not that much cohesion because each arc is an absolute mess and it feels like the author just has an idea of where to start and then figures everything out on the way which creates a fuk ton of side quests and tangents in between each major arc that subsequently makes them long as fuk and boring to read, not to mention confusing. In the war arc for example, which lasted like 600 chaps at least, i don't remember exactly when it began, there was enough content there to write 2 or 3 war arcs bu the author just decided to have it all play out consecutively in the span of 3 years with no time to rest or contemplate about what had just transpired. It was like a bullet train that kept on going nonstop. The author should, imo, do a more streamlined story for it to be more consistent and enjoyable to read. There's too much padding and unnecessary content that could have otherwise been either summarized, cut out, or written into the main story better.

The chapter length is also very good, kinda like a korean novel, which is nice but in this case bad imo, because it feels like everything drags on and on and on.

His cheat/system - somewhat disappointing but gets the job done. I'm not a big fan of novels where the system/cheat gets sidelined by the mc because they start realizing that they can't be dependent on it and it might have its own agenda, etc. I find it all very pointless, because what's the point of introducing a cheat in your novel if not to help the mc? Even if there's something deeper about it, I think this mistrust and misuse is not the way to go about it. I also feel that the system is kinda lackluster tbh cuz it is just like any other system out there and there's nothing that stands out about it. At least it doesn't have a personality.

MC's design philosophy - probably the most enjoyable part of the novel is when he is figuring out what his new mech is gonna be and how's it gonna turn out. His philosophy of bonding the mechs with past/present figures and giving them stories to better match their future pilots and everything is imo very interesting and I do like where the author is going with it. Tho the mc is turning into a psychopath willing to do anything to further discover new ways of applying his spirituality in his designs.


Overall it's a good novel that is too stretched and who's pacing suffers because of it. As of chapter 1.2k i'd give a 3.5/5 because of the amount of things that annoy while I'm reading it but i'd still recommend it to anyone in doubt.

He's still journeyman after these 4 thousand chapters??

Mc = P U S H O V E R

How is this 4 thousand chapters.

#panic# what is going on

Ohhhhhh!!! chapters are incoming, I repeat incoming

it's a spoof

Honestly could we get this exact novel just cut out all the mech and have starship designer system?

That novel would be nice

Ps can't wait untill they legalize weaponry on starships the CFA is cooler then MTA

Fight me if you disagree.

Good novel