I agree with jake21 - I'd love to see more text puzzles (like the awesome one to acquire the submarine in the grand canal.)
First and foremost, though, is the intense desire to see it remain
- single-player
- true turn-based combat (e.g., no ATB, timer bars, etc.)
- not scaled to player level, scaled to region
- no respawn
There's literally
no other current game that I can think of that ticks off those delicious, delicious checkboxes that King's Bounty does.
Beyond that, I'd love to see an expansion on the ambient life; some of my favorite moments involved zooming the camera all of the way in and just watching the hummingbirds/fish/frogs/owls/squirrels dart this way and that. Seeing crabs skittering about on the shoreline, tadpoles lazily swimming near some aquatic vegetation in pools, birds rustling in the underbrush; so many games ignore these attempts to give the environment resonance and non-hostile life, and I love the fact that King's Bounty doesn't neglect this important facet. Expand it!
Along those lines, I'd really like to see more ambient animation in battles; harmless beasties strolling around the edges of the battlefield, flowers swaying int he breeze, etc.
I'd also enjoy seeing more quests with non-violent resolutions; the 'get the bear to follow you back to the ranch' quest from the first King's Bounty was one of my favorite quests of the game.
Expansion of trap abilities. Placing traps was one of my favorite things to do, and I'd love to see charm traps, explosive traps, freezing traps, etc. I'd also love a trapper unit that could place traps as a charged/reload skill.
In terms of units, I'd love to see an exploration of the more unique units. For example, the thorns, the devilfish, etc. I've had enough elves, dwarves, demons, and undead to last me a lifetime amongst hundreds of games, books, and movies; how about some new races?
Thorn race (with various mushrooms, toadstools, aquatic vegetation monsters (how about a killer water hyacinth?)
Owl race (burrow owls who could burrow under and attack an enemy like gobots, screech owls to stun, great grey horned owls to cause fear, etc.)
Fish race (devilfish, mudskippers, flying fish, swordfish, sawfish, piranha.. lots of great possibilities)
I *really* like what they did with the lizardmen; fantastic models, creative enemies (love the gobot/choska) - I hope they break away from the traditional high fantasy mold and run with some new race ideas.