My opinions:
-Male Scientist: Looks cliche and mysterious. Now only if he could take that blue strand off, then he'd look like Germany with glasses, and Hetalia fans can squee in peace.
-Water-type Gym Leader: A simple, yet briliant, design. Reminds me of a cross between Finnick from The Hunger Games and Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
-Guitarist Gym Leader: If they give ehr a cutsey personality, I hate her. If they give her a snooty personality, it's genius.
-Rival: Sex/bed-hair? He should comb it down to look more handsome, like Shinra drom Durarara!!. Aside from that, neat overall design. I could live without the pahnypack, though...
-Female PC: Cutsey design. Looks adorable, in contrast to Hilda's sensual design. But it still irks me how Sugimori's doing all he can to prevent panty-shots.
-Male PC: Get a haircut or GTFO.
That's what I think of them, but that's just me. Other people will surely have different ideas than mine. XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
As for the time-setting, it's wonderful to see that everything hasn't stayed the same, to be honest. This will make things far more easier to work with, as far as sequels go. And considering how half of the region's frozen, it's understandable that the oldies migrated down to the pre-E4 areas, making them available early. The development team thinks of everything! XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD