The swordplay is better, the best in the series in fact. (did not like the shield though, rarely used the thing) Fi is more helpful than navi. Character development for the main quest is better, like zelda and Groose, but OOT had allot more likeable people. I liked Zelda, Impa, groose and Ghirahim as characters in this Game, whilst I liked Darunia, Saria, Ruto, Ganondorf, Ingo... In fact OOT's characters were more likeable and because of the travelling though time you got to see them change and/or mature which is incredibly effective. You also got to know the tribes better in OOT. SS did not go the full way with character development that I would have liked it to but when it did have developed characters they were better than OOT's.
OOT's villain was more effective. Ganondorf had a distinct personality like Ghirahim, but the in the opposite way, Ghirahim was playful, it was not as though he and link were enemies, Ganondorf was forceful and brutish, demanding that link tell him where zelda was,he truly viewed link as no threat, refusing to fight him, and just blasting him away with magic on their fist meeting. Ghirahim showed up made threats and did not follow through. Ganondorf was this big evil looking man with greenish skin and dark armour who everyone but the King knew was evil. We see first hand the extent of what he can do as soon as you step out of the temple of time, seeing a death mountain with a bright red ring around the top and ruined market town full of zombies and dark clouds blocking out the sun overhead. We are told that he murdered and stole, even Nabooru who was a thief thought he was evil. This menacing feeling of facing a real threat was not in SS (except when the imprisoned tried to break out). Ghirahim's powers are shown off when he blasts apart a wall but he has not really impacted peoples lives in any way. Ghirahim was a good character but not very threatening. Demise was said to have been this demon king who had a great army and killed people, we don't even know what he looks like until the end and it is told by zelda though a text box we just read of it rather than witnessing anything and the scene was not dark, and had no foreboding music that I can remember making the coming of Demise seem less worrying than it could have been.
I preferred the dungeon formula of OOT with a dungeon, then travelling to the next area, talking to people so you find out where the next dungeon is and how to get in and then doing the Dungeon. Rather than the overworld being a dungeon just with no roof.
SS has fantastic music, performed by a real orchestra allot of the time. This is an instance where it obviously surpasses OOT. Seriously I think it has some of the best video game music ever. The Koloktos boss fight intro and battle music is the best boss music ever. Lanayru desert music really made you feel as though you were in that desert and the Earth temple music really set the scene for a hot lava filled temple. I think OOT should have had the orchestra treatment for the remake, the midi music really did not do some of the tracks justice keeping the same kind of sound for the sake of nostalgia rather than bettering a game was a bad move in my opinion.
SS has better graphics, no doubt about it, art style choice is a personal like or dislike for people, but there is no denying the Game is technically superior. Physics were implemented better in this game than in any other game in the series as of yet. The Moblin had belly and man-breast physics, the grass would part when you walked through it.
Cutscenes from SS were beautifully rendered for a wii game and would not look too shabby in comparison to some X360 games. Much better than OOT, character expressions were allot more noticeable showing more clearly the mood of the characters in the cutscenes.
Voice work was superior in SS, more voice work was done which expressed the characters feelings far more than in any other zelda title. Ghirahim in particular is the best example of where the voice work was put to good use in SS. Zelda's singing was beautiful also and probably as close to proper voice acting as the series has gone so far. ( I know voice acting would work in Zelda!)
The final battle is far more visually spectacular than in any other Zelda game. It is how TP's final battle should have been!
SS does surpass Ocarina of time in many ways, but do I prefer the game as a whole? No. OOT is still tied with TP for top spot with SS securely in second. I just loved the atmosphere of those two games and preferred their story and more of their characters. It seems that whenever a new game is released some aspects are improved whilst others are changed in a way that is worse. It's like art style I suppose some people love one style whilst others like another. SS may have been the perfect game that beat every aspect of OOT for some people, just not for me.
