Okay. Now that US/UM have been out for three months and the subforum for them is gone, here are some things I like from them and a little from some other games too.
First of all, I really like all the minor differences in US/UM compared to S/M. I like when third/alternate versions have a lot of minor differences, especially the when they are of the kind that which makes you think: "Hey, wait a minute, was it really like this in the previous game? I remember it being different somehow...". There are also some more noticeable ones such as Lillie not going with you to Exeggutor Island. I like those too.
I like all the miniquests and sidequests in US/UM. I said in a previous post that several things in S/M gave me a feeling of other Nintendo games. US/UM continues with that since this feels similar to Xenoblade Chronicles, being able to help various minor NPCs with a lot of different sidequests and miniquests of all kinds. I also feel that it makes the game and the world feel more alive when you interact with various minor characters and help them with things in their lives. Helping others feels good. The only thing I am really missing is a quest log in order to keep track of what sidequests I have completed and which I have left in the game as opposed to having to keep track of it myself. But hey, maybe next time.
There are some areas in US/UM where you can see wild Pokemon in the background, not being intractable with but still existing in the world. For instance, Magmar on Route 7 near the entrance to the volcano or Bewear outside of the Battle Tree, on the left side. And there are many others as well. This also makes the world and the region feel more alive and I love it.
The appearance of "Acerola" in her trial in US/UM, near the end. I thought that was creepy and very well done.
One minor detail I noticed when playing Ultra Moon which existed in S/M as well but I didn't think about then (confirmed it through watching a walkthrough video on Youtube). After you participate in the Battle Royal during the story and then walk out, the four who participated in the battle (the player character, Hau, Gladion and the Masked Royal) are standing on the four fighting fists. I think this is easier to show with a picture, so here we go:
It is very minor but I like how it shows the four who just took part in a Battle Royal standing on the fists that are the very symbols of the kind of battle they just participated in together.
I like it when there are many legendaries you can catch in the games. I like catching legendaries in the games because it sort of feels like a new adventure in the games, so the more there are of them, the merrier! Anyway, there are five main series games that stand out regarding this. The first three are Platinum, HG/SS and B2/W2 which all had a great number of legendaries, more than any other games that existed at their time. They also included some or several that weren't native to the region in question, which I thought was great. Then OR/AS came along and took it one step further with even more than these three games, as well as allowing us to capture a mythical Pokemon within the games without an event of some sort. And now we have US/UM which not only has even more legends to catch than OR/AS, but they go as far as to have every single legendary Pokemon that exists being catchable across both games. I like that a lot.
In addition to the above, I like how you can catch an infinite amount of the original Ultra Beasts in US/UM. I also like how you can catch more than one of some of them in S/M, and how you can catch two Stakataka/Blacephalon in US/UM.
I really like how they expanded on Mt. Lanakila in US/UM to make it more into a real Victory Road similar to the ones in previous generations. Adding more areas as well as actual trainers goes a long way when it comes to improve something that was previously just a cave, that is something I appreciate a lot.
Lastly, one big thing, and one of my favorite new features from Gen 7. Z-moves. The idea of powering up regular moves is great, and being able to do it for any regular move and for any Pokemon is even better. I really like how they went all out with it compared to some other things in Gen 7 which feels a bit half-finished (such as Alola forms which there should have been many more of, or Ash-Greninja/Pokemon synchro-evolution/fusion/whatever which was limited to just one Pokemon which in turn could only be obtained through a game demo). Z-moves are useful in battle without being overly broken, they are strong but balanced. There's also the poses, which I have grown to like a lot. At first they might just seem like something you do for fun but if you look a little deeper, there's more behind them. First of all, they all have some sort of connection to their type, like the Electric-type pose is in the shape of a lightning bolt, or Fighting is a lot of pummeling fists. In reality, they aren't the easiest to perform correctly either. The games make it seem easy but you have to move correctly in a specific way to do get them right. Pokemon Adventures shows this better as you need a bit of practice in order to do it. Finally, I like how the Pokemon that performs the Z-move has a determined look on its face before it uses the move. Minor details like that are just so enjoyable to see.