I agree, but i think the solution needs to be looked at differently. What made the WindWaker's overworld work was the fact that it wasn't really an overworld, every area was surrounded by more area, except that every area was an island occupying only a tiny portion of the map. They need to take that idea, but eliminate the concept of islands and the grid shape.
The idea being: make everything contiguous. Nowhere should be a designated "overworld" that seamlessly links to all the other regions of the games. Every area links to other areas, but there is no central location, just moving around.
Imagine if you took TP's overworld, but instead of the different sections of one big field, divided it up and made three or four whole new areas to sit on the same space, occupying the same area, and then closed off navigation between one or two of them.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
