1) Great Faeries. They've been in every Zelda game since ALttP (one could even suggest that the four spring fairies in TLoZ are Great Faeries).
2) Fire/Ice Arrows.
3) Cuccoos. Every Zelda since ALttP... why couldn't they have been strutting around Skyloft?
4) Boomerang. Look, I know the Beetle would have made the boomerang useless, but the Bow makes the Slingshot useless and they put both of those in.
Did the absence of any of these make you sad? Was there any other mainstay of Zelda that SS did't include that you missed?
1) While I like fairies, the great fairies weren't necessary for SS as David said. The upgrade system made them obsolete – the great fairies' primary purpose from what I remember is to give upgrades and to heal you. Upgrade system eradicated them.
2) Yes, SS needed them in my opinion. There was no magic, but Nintendo 'could have' implemented them.
3) I didn't think cuccos even existed at this point in the Zelda timeline, but I can't confirm.
4) As you said, the Beetle made the boomerang useless. I hate the beetle with all my heart as it is just a way to make things needlessly hard (constantly having to repilot if you accidentally bump into a wall two too many times), the boomerang should've stayed past development.
I was sad about no fire/ice arrows and no boomerang. I feel as if the Hookshot should return, because the Clawshots while better and cooler...they just don't feel quite like the hookshot does. I dunno...
-They should have put some place like Hyrule Field to connect Lanayru desert,Faron woods and Eldin Volcano
-Dark Link as a boss.I was hoping to fight Dark Link in a similar battle from Ocarina of Time,but with motion controls it would have been awesome
-Volvagia as a boss
-More floating islands with more things to do in them
-More people outside of Skyloft.I didn't liked that skyloft was the only place with a lot of people,some other places had some people to talk with,but it was never in a really save place(no enemies) and it doesn't feel like Zora Domain or Goron City,etc
-The Red and the Blue Tunic could have EASILY been in the game,but for some reason they decided to give us those earrings and this Dragon Scale,I was never expecting this kind of failure in a Zelda game
-The Harp is really terrible,you collect songs just to play theme ONCE and you can't use them like in Oot,MM,WW,ST and LA,you can use the harp anywhere,but its useless,WTF?I dont know what they were thinking when they decided how the instrument would work on this game,but to me it just doesn't work.(But I do like the Harp mini-game in the pumpkin house)
1) I definitely agree, constantly having to go back to the sky just to get to the next area was ridiculous – just because the sky is sectioned off doesn't mean the Surface has to be as well. That's not realistic or even relatively smart.
2) I agree again, Ghirahim is a cool sword fighter but he was really nothing more than a troll. Dark Link as a final boss a la AoL...maybe not, but as a boss instead of miniboss I would like.
3) No thanks. That's just a forced Legendary Hammer appearance and a useless boss.
4) SS really needs many more islands with much more to do. Not a fetch quest. Rescue quests, defeat X amount of enemy quests...things liked that.
5) I agree again, Skyloft is like the only place of civilzation. What's teh point of having multiple races if you only encounter like two of each race?
6) TUNICS SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN. I have a lot of problems with things like the scale and the earrings; while they're magical in essence they just do something that a tunic easily was a replacement for, which also means more customization for Link. Too bad.
7) I would go so far as to just replace the harp with the Ocarina, but of course that would attract negative reception. The Harp needs to have more uses, totally agree.