Differences with previous KB titles?

[Phyrex]

Hey guys,
I used to play Armored princess and absolutely love this type of gameplay. Too bad there aren't many others like it. I recently found out that Warriors of the North is out and was wondering what changes there are compared to the previous King's Bounty.

It looks pretty similar overall but I'm hoping they made some improvements as well.

One of the things that always bothered me was the excessive island exploration when you first start out just to pick up powerups. Then later when actually can fight on those islands, all the fun stuff has already been taking. Did they change that or is that still possible?