PH fairies made me think i was at a bingo hall with three gossiping women, i'm not used to being that surrounded in a Zelda game and so when they talked amongst themselves it felt very odd, like they'd forget Link was there and then fill him in later on what he needed to know and nothing more. Though from a gameplay standpoint i did like the choice of companion power ups.
Navi; i can't hate her, i was young when i played OoT and never really got over the fact that she could talk. "HEY LISTEN!" just made me smile and think 'wow it talks' every time. and then later on she'd tell me to 'watch out!' very handy, she scared me a few times too like in the fire temple with the spiked enemies and she tells you to look around the corner with the camera, it was tense enough before she just violently grabbed my attention, but it still felt friendly because i was so happy to have her around.
Tatl: it was nice to see a companion fairy with a deper back story, as has been previously mentioned, she was a little bit like Midna in that she was important and had a back story and was in the know about things Link wasn't privvy to, there was almost level of distrust between her and I and probably Link too, i wanted Tael though, dark fairy for the win.