Yeah, it's definitely Rolf. And if that's not Nei...

[Tanith]

You know the joke about the armor guy in PSIII looking like Rolf, right? Either it was always meant to be that way (in my opinion) or Toyo Ozaki has a sense of humor and turned it into even more of a gag in her later artwork.

Taken from Orakio Rob's scan of the PSIII character book (is it really official? I mean, unless Sega's stamp of approval is on it, isn't it just a work of fan art, even if it's done by the original character designer? Anyway...):





So why do I think that's Easter Egg Nei? Because of this image:



Who's the girl with the purple hair? All of the other shop people are accounted for in the color image. She's standing right behind the armorer, and it appears she's similar to the girl standing next to the armorer in the character book.

Just found this interesting. Carry on.

[Black Sword]

...well, snap. *doesn't know how he's missed that*

[meteor9]

Toyo Ozaki draws the most adorable stuff, I swear.

[Tanith]

She does, doesn't she? She seems like the kind of person with a good sense of humor, too.

[tilinelson2]

I'd say that was made on purpose by her. I don't know about the original armor shop guy, but certainly these later images would be made on purpose.

The book is not officially licensed by Sega. But then, I don't know to which extent we can call it official or not. Surely Sega holds the rights of PSIII name, but I don't know who holds the rights of the characters.

[Zucca]

Well this is really interesting...

[LegoMuskCat]

This was something I noticed when looking through the PSIII character book, too. I didn't make the connection with Nei (or "Not Nei" in this case, though a friend had), but I did make note of "Who the heck is that girl? The armorer's assistant?"

I just wonder why she wasn't used since there is some form of concept art for her, I guess. And, if she was added, what would she be used for? Or, like others said, it could entirely be a PSII reference and she's a gag character. =P

[Tanith]

I kind of wish Not Nei was actually in the game. She could've been the "please stay on the other side of the counter" girl! Though, that wasn't the armorer's shop. But still!

[Wing-0]

I like those characters.

"I'm not the clerk. The clerk is over there."

Still, they sit behind a counter.