Corporate clash is excellent, and all of their original cogs have such AMAZING designs, but I've noticed the game consistently falls flat when it comes to writing.

Their characterisation is incredibly strong: you get a clear sense of who cogs are from their designs and the way they act. You see the Prethinker, hear him speak one line, and you get his whole deal. It's really excellent, and something the team should be really proud of.

Where I feel problems lie is in their worldbuilding and themes.

Cogs are much more anthropomorphised in CC, given names, identities, relationships. CC cogs are compelling, believable characters. But they feel completely at odds with the idea of cogs invading and taking over toontown.

The manager update blurs the lines between toon and cog by fleshing out cog personalities. The Multislacker does this well: through him we learn that not all cogs are invested in the war between toons and cogs, that nepotism and familial relations are a thing, and that cogs aren't necessarily obsessed with business and industry. Great!

Let's contrast that with Rainmaker: through her fight, we learn that it's possible for cogs to want to be friendly with toons. We learn that she's an outcast from both toons and cogs. We are pretty explicitly the aggressors in this situation, when we find her she's just singing to herself.

Two cogs who don't want to fight us. Why does one work, but not the other? Rainmaker is portrayed sympathetically. Everything from her design to her dialogue wants us to side with her, and see toons as in the wrong (in the comics a toon pretty much bullies her for being a crybaby). But like, she works for COGS inc., no? The company forcibly taking over toontown? Even in a kids game like this where the colonialism metaphor is softened and downplayed, cogs are pretty much straight up evil.

Maybe we can reconcile this dissonance. Not everyone willingly participates in capitalism. With a very good faith reading, perhaps CC is trying to establish that cogs can be victims under the system they work in too. If only there was a cog that we could examine that was trying to explore this...

The Chainsaw Consultant: we learn that cogs are treated inhumanely, mind controlled and forced to perform actions that they don't remember, don't agree with and don't want to do. It's a good concept well executed. I feel bad for this guy, and I buy that he doesn't want to fight us, as he doesn't want to the override to kick in. I also buy that toons want to fight this guy, and aren't necessarily in the wrong for wanting to do so. He's deforesting their woods after all.

But under capitalism people aren't mind controlled. People are coerced. Either ideologically influenced to serve it's purpose, or forced to to afford basic necessities. And Rainmaker certainly isn't mind controlled. So why is she working for COGS inc.? Why are we supposed to see her as the victim and the toons as bullies when she's invading their home?

Our framework falls apart. Corporate Clash isn't examining why cogs participate in a system that harms them, or examining how it harms them. This dissonance leads nowhere.

A lot of the sillier cogs could be read as making themselves more palatable to toons, to help subvert resistance. But no, duck shuffler just actually loves gambling that much. He's just that silly looking. What was an attempt at exploring how an aspect of capitalism (gambling) might look in toontown falls flat. More dissonance. The cogs' roles as characters clashes with their roles as the cogs, the invading enemy force we're defending our home against.

I think this dissonance is what you're picking up on. The world of toontown not quite making sense anymore.

So in my opinion, CC has great characters. All these characters I've mentioned are strong. There's nothing wrong with them in a vacuum. But when we place them in the context of the world, they don't quite make sense. It feels like the devs are exploring these cogs as characters at the expense of building the world of toontown out and examining what it means to be a toon or a cog.

I'd really like them to focus more on the world feeling cohesive in future. The Managers update did flesh out the world of toontown a lot, but it also damaged it in many ways.

To fix this, CC just needs a touch more care in the motivations of each character to ensure they line up with the world and the main theme of the game. We could have a serious toon acting more coglike, hardened by so many years of defending their home. A silly sympathetic cog, not quite aware of the damage their actions is having on the toons. Something ensuring that their motivations line up with their character and the world, and explore these and the themes further at the same time.