A Strange Piece of NieR Artwork

Here's a little oddity that I discovered after going through the Brady Game's strategy guide for NieR.  On Page 19, you can see a piece of artwork that is neither from Grimoire NieR or from any of the game's press releases:

It almost seems like someone simply redrew this piece of artwork:

So what could this be?  And why was it necessary to redraw the original Japanese art?  It's probably a piece of artwork created specifically for use in the guide book.  After all, it's hard to release a guide without that many images to help space out the large amounts of text.  It's also possible that the American one was designed to look less Japanese and more like something that came from the west in order to appeal to American players.  None of NieR's 2D artwork similar to the one above made its way into the book.  There aren't any names of any artists in the credits, so it's hard to say who drew this and where it came from.

There is however, something that sort of resembles this strange artwork.  An image, found in Grimoire NieR, of one of the DLC costumes resembles the artwork found in the strategy guide:

So this brings up another question.  Was the version of this found in the strategy guide a piece of artwork that didn't find its way in Grimoire NieR for some reason?  Or did someone really just take this one and the other piece of artwork and merge them into one?  Maybe there isn't much of a mystery behind this.  But I still find it interesting.

It's the Small Things That Count (NieR)

Of all the things that Nier has grown to be known for since its release in 2010, there are many things that go unnoticed, even by those who have played the game numerous times.  Little details can be found around the game that are quite intriguing, and truly proves that the game stands out from the rest.  Hit the jump to learn about things you'll likely never see in any other game on the market.