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At the start of the game you get to pick your rival.
Each rival will specialize in a different sort of strategy and specialize in two types of Pokemon although this doesn't limit their team.
You can still encounter the rivals you don't pick, but you don't unlock challenging them until after you beat the league.
Which rival you pick determines which of five towns you encounter them in, and ideally this game is less linear so you can go to any of these towns in whichever order you want as they're all close to the starting town and the number of badges you carry determines the Pokemon leaders in respective towns use and their level.
There's also a "bond" level between yourself and other characters, including your rival, whose bond can turn ambiguously romantic (we can't go full on dating sim since this is Pokemon) as when their bond is maxed out it shows a heart symbol as opposed to the stars that appear alongside other trainers.
My chosen rival: Ghost/Psychic type boy
Essentially a male Hex Maniac only his personality is entirely different
He's shy sometimes, but only when he's embarassed
He's stoic and somewhat stern but it's easy to embarass him and he has this cute blushing sprite
He has dark hair, black but not jet black, blue eyes, and he wears dark colors.
Think: black/muted blues.
Originally he wears all black, full goth mode
After your initial encounter with him, his jacket has a hood resembles Banette and his shirt has a set of Meowstic eyes
He grew up in a rough household and ran away with his ace Pokemon--a Shuppet and Espurr--to survive on his own.
(Unlike Bianca, there's never any resolution with his family and you the player never meet or see them. He's just better off on his own and that's okay.)
He used to dream of becoming a great trainer and a gym leader, because he loves to battle, but instead he and his Pokemon have been using ghost and psychic tricks to cheat slot machines at the local game corner.
cont...
