New Zelda items.
You probably shouldn't read this entry if you want to be surprised by the new items as you get them, but I guess if you want to know the details of the game before you get it (or have already beaten it and want to, uh, reflect? I dunno) you might find it interesting.
Magic Armor: This isn't Nayru's Love, or that little high tech looking thing that eskimo guy sold you in Wind Waker. This is a full freakin' suit of armor that you can swap out for Link's tunic so he looks like a badass knight. Obtaining it essentially costs 3600 rupees, (or 1800 if you do a sidequest) so there's at least one cool item to pay for. After you buy it, and you do the donations required to get a certain heart peice, there is basically nothing left to buy except for Bombs (which you don't need that much later in the game) so your rupees sort of become your magic meter. When you wear the armor, "your rupees become magical" and your rupees slowly drain, but you don't take any damage at all. If you get hit, your rupees will just drain faster. When you run out of rupees the armor turns blue-green and gets heavy like the Iron Boots and no longer has any beneficial effect.
Ball and Chain: Notice I said you don't really need bombs later in the game. This is pretty much the most powerful item you've ever gotten in any Zelda game. It can break anything that a bomb can break, and even stronger things that only a cannonball could break. Just setting it to B and making it your active item slows Link down as he has to lug around this massive metal ball. When activated Link swings it around his head and it'll do damage to any enemy that happens to get knocked by it. But while swinging it, you can also aim it like the boomerang or bow, and when you let go the ball will fly in that general direction. I've noticed that you can actually manipulate objects that are 'supposed to' be out of reach, by displacing them with the ball and chain and pushing them around the room, even though you can't physically get to them. You can do this to solve certain puzzles early, even though it's harder than just solving them normally. It's big, heavy, and imprecise. But it's still pretty badass.
Dominion Rod: This is like the Command Song in Wind Waker. It's a rod that conjures a yellow ball and is aimed with the pointer. The ball will fling in the direction you point, then, if it hits a wall, it'll fling right back. It doesn't deal any damage or anything, but if the ball of light goes inside a statue with a hole in it, it'll illuminate the statue and make it come to life. Any movement you make will then be mirrored by the statue. So you can use it to lead around statues. In Hyrule Field there are owl statues all over which you can take control of. It's basically just used for puzzle solving but still pretty cooll.
Dual Clawshots: The Clawshot replaces the hookshot. Instead of hooking into a surface, it will grab any surface Link could grab with his fingers. So you can use it to shoot on to any thing like vines that Link could climb, and also metal grates that he wouldn't be able to reach otherwise. You can even remain perched on the walls or move up and down when hanging from the ceiling by retracting and extending the chain. Later on you get two of them, so you can hookshot to new pads while still holding on to other ones. This allows for rooms with no actual floor. You can even use it to pick up items and bring them to you. Some items are too small for the boomerang to get, like the golden bugs, but the clawshot can pluck them right off the wall and drop them on the floor next to you.
Zora Armor: Makes Link look like a scuba ninja. With it, Link can breath underwater, and has a full 3D swimming, kind of like Mario 64. One boss is fought entirely underwater by swimming in a giant underwater arena. You can use it in conjunction with the Iron Boots to walk on the floor under water, where you can still use your sword, clawshot and water bombs. Water bombs are a special kind of bomb that blows up under water, obviously.
Multiple Bomb Bags: There are different kinds of bombs in this game, and you can gradually get 3 bomb bags, so you can keep one of each kind of bomb at a time.
Ooccoo: This is both an item and a character. You have to find her in each dungeon, and you'll reunite with her and then leave her behind once you complete the dungeon. She is a 'fellow adventurer' searching for something. She lets you warp outside of the dungeon and then warp back to the exact same spot you were at from anywhere in Hyrule. She also seems to eventually be not only important to the plot, but to the greater history of Hyrule.
Gale Boomerang: Basically exactly like the Wind Waker Boomerang, but you can target anything. I mean, you can target the floor and walls and stuff. You can target up to 5 points, and the boomerang will go to them in that order. The tornado will also pick things up. It will pick up basically anything that you could pick up, cuccoos, pots, rupees, etc. Sometimes you can even transport pots without breaking them, which lets you cheat on some puzzles (even though it'd be harder than just doing the puzzle normally). Probably one of the coolest uses is targeting a pot or something with the boomerang, and then having it fly right into your hands, then targeting and enemy and chunking it at them. It's good for dealing ranged damage without depleting items earlier in the game.
Fishing Rod: This is actually in your inventory for entire game. It's one of the first items you get. You can even fish in the middle of dungeons. You need it to get one of the bottles and a heart piece... I guess you could also use it to get other heart pieces and stuff like that, but once you get the clawshot and boomerang, why bother?
Bomb Arrows: Equip arrows. Mouse over bombs. Press Z. Bomb arrows consume both bombs and arrows. You point them at things and they blow up. It's pretty cool.
The Spinner: Part hovercraft, part top, part skateboard. This item is totally out of place but still pretty cool. When Link pulls it out he jumps on top of it (it's like a big top) and slides over surfaces he normally couldn't walk on, like sand and snow. Pressing B makes him do kind of a kick flip that spins the gear teeth and does damage. There are sometimes zipper-shaped grooves in walls that you cna ride on with the spinner.
That's basically it. Some old items have some changes or new uses. The shield now works more like Zelda 1 than OoT or Wind Waker. There is no shield button. Pressing 'Z' to target/strafe will automatically deploy Link's sheild. He'll only put it down when you attack, use an item, or let go of Z. Later in the game you can learn to thrust it forward (with the nunchuck) to stun enemies or deflect attacks. The Iron Boots are now a lot more useful. You can use them for traction on slick surfaces, weighing down switches, and getting sucked into magnetic streams. There are also a bunch of new sword techniques, most of them are old skills (like the back slash thing from Wind Waker) but some of them are new, like the Helm Splitter (stun enemy with your shield, then flip over them knocking off their helmet/head with your sword) Mortal Draw (put away your sword, don't target your enemy, walk the exact right distance from him, then press A when prompted for a 1-hit-KO) and some move--which I forget the name of--where you charge up the "forward-A while Z targeting" lunge attack thing so that it sends out a shockwave.
There's probably some other stuff. I'm not finished yet, but I figured you might be interested in knowing what's new about the gameplay. Aside from the wolf thing, which you've heard about over and over by now. And, really, being a wolf isn't even that important after the first 3 dungeons. After a while you just need wolf mode to smell stuff and dig things.
Magic Armor: This isn't Nayru's Love, or that little high tech looking thing that eskimo guy sold you in Wind Waker. This is a full freakin' suit of armor that you can swap out for Link's tunic so he looks like a badass knight. Obtaining it essentially costs 3600 rupees, (or 1800 if you do a sidequest) so there's at least one cool item to pay for. After you buy it, and you do the donations required to get a certain heart peice, there is basically nothing left to buy except for Bombs (which you don't need that much later in the game) so your rupees sort of become your magic meter. When you wear the armor, "your rupees become magical" and your rupees slowly drain, but you don't take any damage at all. If you get hit, your rupees will just drain faster. When you run out of rupees the armor turns blue-green and gets heavy like the Iron Boots and no longer has any beneficial effect.
Ball and Chain: Notice I said you don't really need bombs later in the game. This is pretty much the most powerful item you've ever gotten in any Zelda game. It can break anything that a bomb can break, and even stronger things that only a cannonball could break. Just setting it to B and making it your active item slows Link down as he has to lug around this massive metal ball. When activated Link swings it around his head and it'll do damage to any enemy that happens to get knocked by it. But while swinging it, you can also aim it like the boomerang or bow, and when you let go the ball will fly in that general direction. I've noticed that you can actually manipulate objects that are 'supposed to' be out of reach, by displacing them with the ball and chain and pushing them around the room, even though you can't physically get to them. You can do this to solve certain puzzles early, even though it's harder than just solving them normally. It's big, heavy, and imprecise. But it's still pretty badass.
Dominion Rod: This is like the Command Song in Wind Waker. It's a rod that conjures a yellow ball and is aimed with the pointer. The ball will fling in the direction you point, then, if it hits a wall, it'll fling right back. It doesn't deal any damage or anything, but if the ball of light goes inside a statue with a hole in it, it'll illuminate the statue and make it come to life. Any movement you make will then be mirrored by the statue. So you can use it to lead around statues. In Hyrule Field there are owl statues all over which you can take control of. It's basically just used for puzzle solving but still pretty cooll.
Dual Clawshots: The Clawshot replaces the hookshot. Instead of hooking into a surface, it will grab any surface Link could grab with his fingers. So you can use it to shoot on to any thing like vines that Link could climb, and also metal grates that he wouldn't be able to reach otherwise. You can even remain perched on the walls or move up and down when hanging from the ceiling by retracting and extending the chain. Later on you get two of them, so you can hookshot to new pads while still holding on to other ones. This allows for rooms with no actual floor. You can even use it to pick up items and bring them to you. Some items are too small for the boomerang to get, like the golden bugs, but the clawshot can pluck them right off the wall and drop them on the floor next to you.
Zora Armor: Makes Link look like a scuba ninja. With it, Link can breath underwater, and has a full 3D swimming, kind of like Mario 64. One boss is fought entirely underwater by swimming in a giant underwater arena. You can use it in conjunction with the Iron Boots to walk on the floor under water, where you can still use your sword, clawshot and water bombs. Water bombs are a special kind of bomb that blows up under water, obviously.
Multiple Bomb Bags: There are different kinds of bombs in this game, and you can gradually get 3 bomb bags, so you can keep one of each kind of bomb at a time.
Ooccoo: This is both an item and a character. You have to find her in each dungeon, and you'll reunite with her and then leave her behind once you complete the dungeon. She is a 'fellow adventurer' searching for something. She lets you warp outside of the dungeon and then warp back to the exact same spot you were at from anywhere in Hyrule. She also seems to eventually be not only important to the plot, but to the greater history of Hyrule.
Gale Boomerang: Basically exactly like the Wind Waker Boomerang, but you can target anything. I mean, you can target the floor and walls and stuff. You can target up to 5 points, and the boomerang will go to them in that order. The tornado will also pick things up. It will pick up basically anything that you could pick up, cuccoos, pots, rupees, etc. Sometimes you can even transport pots without breaking them, which lets you cheat on some puzzles (even though it'd be harder than just doing the puzzle normally). Probably one of the coolest uses is targeting a pot or something with the boomerang, and then having it fly right into your hands, then targeting and enemy and chunking it at them. It's good for dealing ranged damage without depleting items earlier in the game.
Fishing Rod: This is actually in your inventory for entire game. It's one of the first items you get. You can even fish in the middle of dungeons. You need it to get one of the bottles and a heart piece... I guess you could also use it to get other heart pieces and stuff like that, but once you get the clawshot and boomerang, why bother?
Bomb Arrows: Equip arrows. Mouse over bombs. Press Z. Bomb arrows consume both bombs and arrows. You point them at things and they blow up. It's pretty cool.
The Spinner: Part hovercraft, part top, part skateboard. This item is totally out of place but still pretty cool. When Link pulls it out he jumps on top of it (it's like a big top) and slides over surfaces he normally couldn't walk on, like sand and snow. Pressing B makes him do kind of a kick flip that spins the gear teeth and does damage. There are sometimes zipper-shaped grooves in walls that you cna ride on with the spinner.
That's basically it. Some old items have some changes or new uses. The shield now works more like Zelda 1 than OoT or Wind Waker. There is no shield button. Pressing 'Z' to target/strafe will automatically deploy Link's sheild. He'll only put it down when you attack, use an item, or let go of Z. Later in the game you can learn to thrust it forward (with the nunchuck) to stun enemies or deflect attacks. The Iron Boots are now a lot more useful. You can use them for traction on slick surfaces, weighing down switches, and getting sucked into magnetic streams. There are also a bunch of new sword techniques, most of them are old skills (like the back slash thing from Wind Waker) but some of them are new, like the Helm Splitter (stun enemy with your shield, then flip over them knocking off their helmet/head with your sword) Mortal Draw (put away your sword, don't target your enemy, walk the exact right distance from him, then press A when prompted for a 1-hit-KO) and some move--which I forget the name of--where you charge up the "forward-A while Z targeting" lunge attack thing so that it sends out a shockwave.
There's probably some other stuff. I'm not finished yet, but I figured you might be interested in knowing what's new about the gameplay. Aside from the wolf thing, which you've heard about over and over by now. And, really, being a wolf isn't even that important after the first 3 dungeons. After a while you just need wolf mode to smell stuff and dig things.