Regardless of what he said last year, the lead designer is saying today its the same as the current gen, only difference being the unique controller.
Maybe the hardware specs from last year have been downgraded to reduce the price of the system?
Too be fair, there is a little bit of wiggle room there, and I'm sure some will seize on it.
Which is that, "on par" could mean lets say, it's 50% better than current gen, but as Alstrong on B3D stated, to Vigil Wii U is just another platform to support as inexpensively as possible. Therefore they do not make any alterations to the game on Wii U (for that matter, they dont make many on PC, presumably much more powerful than Wii U!).
The fact the guy stated the hardware is on par and not just the Wii U version of the game, though, does lessen the wiggle room.
My expectations on the Wii U should be well known, of course. I've never expected a lot. To me about the only drama left is, is it only equal or even slightly below PS360, or is it say, a solid 30% more powerful? At this point I'd expect Wii U fans should be happy with anything that's actually clearly more powerful than current gen, even if it's not a ton.