Eiji Aonuma appeared in today’s Nintendo Direct to explain that despite the fact that they’ve been toying with Legend of Zelda’s traditions, there are some that they want to capture in some form or another. He specifically mentioned that a connected, cohesive, open world was an important part of the series and that they aimed to provide the same in the newest game. It’s also evident in the screenshots released by Nintendo that the series’ beautiful artwork and hardware pushing graphics will also return to the series.

Not only serving as eye candy, this screen shows off the new world open for exploration with no loading break in between entering areas and towns. It was said that every nook and cranny to the mountain peaks in the far distance are available for exploration.

Using a style somewhere between Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, the world is presented in a more realistic fashion than the former, but is much more painting-esque than the dark latter. The lighting combined with the art style make for incredibly impressive visuals, all running in engine on Wii U.

As Link can be seen without his trademark green Hero’s Tunic, it is to believed this takes place early in the game before it’s acquired. However, it hasn’t been said whether the events in the trailer are simply a showcase or whether these are canonical events. Legend of Zelda for Wii U is scheduled for release in 2015.

 Check out all of Nerd Bacon’s E3 2014 coverage right here.