I felt empty after I finished it and I kept going back to it, finding new reasons to play for just a little bit more. And what's scary is that I can see ways the game can be improved upon (more expansive dungeons, varied bosses, etc)....the next Zelda might bamboozle me even more, how crazy is that for a generation-defining game?
It absolutely consumed me during that first weekend I had it, to the point I almost forgot to eat. Nowadays, I still think back on BotW as one of my greatest video game experiences...on par with Ocarina of Time, Metroid Prime, and Super Mario Galaxy. I look at other open world games and constantly compare, they just aren't the same. I really wish other developers would learn from BotW, instead of chasing that boring cinematic experience that puts me to sleep.
One of my favorite things to happen to me was when I was hiking up a mountain in British Columbia...and a young girl saw my BotW Link button on my bag and we started talking about the game as we hiked, real life adventuring meets video game love <3 Her favorite thing to do in the game was to blow up trees with bombs apparently lol