Let's say I'm of two minds.
I think the really fun part of playing a "different" character -- be it a troublemaker, a thief, a jerk, or someone truly evil -- is doing it under the radar, putting them up against "normal," good characters. Part of what makes Matthias and Palila great characters is their context: Amy, Sophie, Tony, Marina. If you take Pali away from mild-mannered Marina and the straight-edge girls, she doesn't shine quite as brightly in comparison. If you put Matthias in a group of Team Fu thugs, he's not going to stand out. It's fine for an origin story, or a bit of character-building flavor (see his nod to Team Rocket Grunts Jesse & James a little while back). But I think the "natural fit" for them will end up with them more or less fitting in -- not what you want for a story arc.

(Or maybe it is, it's been shown in the past I have no clue what you all want out of your games/stories.) Point being, there's not a lot of tension when life is good. At the very least, it changes what kind of story you're telling... a lot. I'm envisioning less, "we have to run away and get home! but also do gyms" and more "we have to steal pokemon and rise through the ranks of organized crime! and also get home." Less The Hobbit survival and more Indiana Jones heists. Is that even close to what you envision?



All that said, I had an earlier chat with Lychee and asked 'em to sell me on it -- and they did. I said, "I've set this character up to make my own fun in the main storyline without being too disruptive, to be a side-character. How do I play this in the villainous team?" And Lychee told me, "I think he just goes back to piracy."

And, well, I guess that's fine.

I do wonder about some of your conflicting points though: "You will be stealing pokemon!" vs "Risky stuff will send you to jail." Stealing Pokemon seems pretty risky! (Also, stealing from players? Eh? Ehhh? I'm into a little PvP.)

Also curious (and a little disappointed?) about potentially not facing gym leaders to control higher level Pokemon. I know you've got a replacement for that, but I always thought Rocket Grunts (etc) did the gyms like everyone else.

Anyway, I'm not sure what exactly you wanted me to comment on. I intended my current character pitch for the context of the main game (a large cast of centrally-vanilla "the player character in a Pokemon video game" characters), and Team Galactic is a different context. That's not to say I'm against the idea.



And actually, I just scrolled up. Knowing there'll be a little more freedom with the timeline sounds liberating. Bring on the side team.