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
Guile in the original Street Fighter II, according to early promo materials, was canonically supposed to be like 34 (born 1960), and was in the Vietnam War. I think all that glorious Nippon steel must just warp the flow of time over there or something.
Guile was just one of those child soldiers that are also a common trope in anime and manga