Cid from Final Fantasy 9 was 35?! THIS GUY, with the steely grey beard and glorious regal moustache?! He's clearly 20 years older than that!
As an adult I thought it was kind of funny that Steiner, at 33, is the designated doddering fussy comic relief old man of the party but this is just nuts.
I keep being confounded by the way Japanese media treats age. 6-21 is prime adventuring age, you're practically done at 25 and afterwards you should just shuffle off to a retirement home
I think a lot of it is how Japan has a terrible work-life balance. Once you're in the workforce, you're supposed to be a good salaryman or OL lol.
It's probably what's underpinning this.
It's sometimes interesting to see how characters across media are seen by Western and Japanese audiences. The average Westerner looks at someone like Geralt and thinks he's the Coolest Guy Ever That Definitely Gets All The Ladies while Japanese people think "shouldn't this ossan be with his wife and kids"