• NEW POKEMON REGIONAL FORMS CONFIRMED!  Say what you will about the new variants, that they exist at all opens up huge opportunities.
  
• Oricorios is a really interesting concept, with regional typing, design and moveset.  Hello Galapagos inspirations.
• Minior is an interesting new Pokemon as well, always neat to see more alien Pokemon and one that is a sentient meteor with a squishy core definitely fits the mold.  
• Yungoos and Gumshoos being compared to Trump is only going to continue, poor Pokemon
• Fomantis and Lurantis being mantids but not bugs?  I’m okay with this. Good ability and nice design, with a new attack.  Can’t wait to see how they work.
• Mudbray is my donkey child and he is precious.
• Riding Pokemon look to be a much more prominent feature with several areas requiring them to pass.  Given the outfit the trainer wears and the summoning mechanic, as well as the harnesses on all of the ridden Pokemon they could end up being a rental feature that you can summon at will in certain areas.  I doubt it’ll fully replace Surf or other traversal mechanics and will likely be used to open up or traverse certain routes much like it was in X and Y.
• Island challenge instead of gym challenges?  I’m okay with this.  From the looks of it there are 4 trial captains who will pose a puzzle or challenge of some sort, and likely fight you after completing it, and then the 4 kahunas who will challenge you further afterwards.  Still 8 “gym leaders” but presented in a less traditional way which makes sense for a region that’s so different from the others.  It reminds me a lot of the Orange Islands in the anime.
• Boss battle Pokemon that can summon help.  Why has this not been a thing before?
• Z-Moves are interesting, an alternative to Mega Evolution that allows a single use power attack instead of a form change.  Given the slot on the bottom of the bracelet it looks like you’ll be able to get a keystone and Mega stones as well.  Based on the information it looks like any Pokemon can use a Z-Move so long as they’re holding the appropriate crystal and have a move of the appropriate type.  Considering Professor Kukui’s specialty is Pokemon moves this makes a lot of sense, the professors’ specialties are ALWAYS reflected in the mechanic or Pokemon changes introduced in a generation
• The starter evolution leaks showing Litten as a wrestler got some added support with the introduction of the trial leaders, one of whom can be seen in the art

More information should be dropping during Gamescom towards the end of the month.