If Nintendo keeps doing this, I think they may really disenfranchise a lot of fans. Or least least one of them.

And I’m pretty understanding person. :p Your comment wasn’t harsh.

In the end, I just felt that the game just felt so very unoriginal in every way. It’s sad. I’m a huge fan of the series, and this was, by far, the biggest letdown yet.

“This does mean that there are three new items, and this is a welcome change. Despite the new tools, two of them feel similar to previous items from other Zelda games, so only one is truly original.”

I mention that there are three new items. The whip, as you mention is one of them. As an attack item, it is very much new. But its main focus is for swinging across gaps. That makes it very similar to the grappling hook from Wind Waker. Furthermore, its attack capability is similar to the hammer from Phantom Hourglass in that it can attack from nearly any distance by touching. It does have one new purpose for solving puzzles, but that is only found in the dungeon that you find it in and nowhere else that I found.

And while I’m at it, there is the wind making item, which is also new. But really, its main functionality was replicated in the Gust Boomerang from Twilight Princess. So even though these items ARE new, they aren’t really serving new purposes, they are just ‘new’ items that feel like reskinned items from previous games. Link could, for instance, get a ‘come back stick.’ A long stick that is not curved. If you throw this come back stick, it magically returns to the user. This would be a ‘new’ item in that you’ve never had one before, but no matter how you look at it, it’s a replacement for the boomerang even if you could also swing it like a sword of some sort.

That brings us to the final new item, which I purposefully did not name because it is the only truly original item in the game. I’d rather not spoil the most interesting part of a wholly uninteresting game for anyone that might have picked up this game by some sad chance.