@Jack-o-Lantern  
Japans see mechs as giant powered armor. Master Chief might use a sword  
Western designs see mechs as taller, maybe more mobile tanks. Tanks have big guns.

@Ponyfodder  
We should get that in writing; it is too true to be forgotten.

Pull a “Death from the above” with a highlander

Well, western designs tend to be based around the assumption that a mech is going to be a tank that we slapped some legs and arms on for some reason. In most scenarios, both sides know that the other mechs probably wont melee them, due to the general fact that most western mech designs also tend to not be as agile as their japanese counterparts, and both sides tend to want to sit back and see who has got the bigger gun. That being said, in the Battletech fiction, while melee is uncommon, you still dont want to be in a city fight with a 50 ton mech with a hatchet for a hand, nor do you want 30-90 tons of anything jumping off of a cliff/building and landing on you.

Which is why Dynasty Warriors Gundam was so baller.

*No matter how much

What I don’t like about these western designs is they put so many guns but no options for melee. No how much technology evolves you must never forget basic things like CQC.  

I prefer the classics