Age questions...

I'm puzzled, about several things. All concerning the ages of characters within the game: FF7.

I've read his age to be 21 before I found out that his age was 25 in the game. Here's were I found Rufus to be 21 years: http://final-heaven.org/rufus/images/mag1.jpg. My question is: How old is Rufus?

Now, I've recently found that Zack is two years older then Cloud, meaning that Zack would be 23 in the game (by the time of Zack's death). I'm wondering if I'm the only one who thinks, or thought, that Zack was three years older then Cloud (meaning Zack is 24 when Cloud is 21)?

W.R.O. was founded in 0008 Nu-era, so by the time of Dirge of Cerberus: Would the W.R.O. be five years old or four?

Does anyone have a birth year, or a rough estimate on Tseng's age in the original game?

Lastly, how old would the average woman be when they give birth to a child? How old would they be when they are married? I'm asking for a rough estimate to use for the approximate age of Cloud's mother, Tifa's father, Grimoire Valentine, and Yuffie's parents.

I'm guessing that Godo is 46 and Yuffie's mother is 41 by the year 0007 Nu-era. Grimoire would be about 35 when he died before or during the year 1970 Mu-era, I'm also guessing that Grimoire would be about 27 when he married Vincent's mother and fathered Vincent. I'm also guessing that Vincent was 17 when Grimore died.

Vincent's chronological age is 57 while his physical age seems to remain at 27 this much is true. (I'm not going to try his mental age here.)

I'm trying to get things straightened out for myself in understand ages...... Any thoughts?

I'll be honest, I usually don't think that much about the age of the characters. I usually just roll with it, even though I'm kinda aware that most of these people are far too young to be going on these kinds of adventures. Either that or they're mature beyond their years. It's times like this that I think of the Grand List of RPG Cliches:

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Originally Posted by RPG Cliches

5. Logan's Run Rule
RPG characters are young. Very young. The average age seems to be 15, unless the character is a decorated and battle-hardened soldier, in which case he might even be as old as 18. Such teenagers often have skills with multiple weapons and magic, years of experience, and never ever worry about their parents telling them to come home from adventuring before bedtime. By contrast, characters more than twenty-two years old will cheerfully refer to themselves as washed-up old fogies and be eager to make room for the younger generation.

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Hm... Okay, I'm just having a bit of trouble making things workout for me.

All the way up to the pre/medieval era, it was normal for someone as young as 15 to join the military. It was also normal for women of the same age or to get married and have children.

I guess the ages in RPG's is intended to escape modern reality and give more to it's mystique and fantasy. It may also have something to do with a certain Japanese culture, though it's not something I've ever ventured on.

They also tend to make characters younger to relate to younger players. This is especially true to further you go back in gaming history where the majority of players were younger children. Sure, it's rare to see an actual child in battle concerning these sorts of games, but a good amount of children look up to the late teenage/early adult crowd as being "hip."

Hm... Okay. So, the age of war recruitment for men could start anywhere from 13 or 15 years up to 20 years while the age of marriage for women could start anywhere from 15 years up to 20 years at the earliest for both.

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Originally Posted by Sephex

They also tend to make characters younger to relate to younger players. This is especially true to further you go back in gaming history where the majority of players were younger children. Sure, it's rare to see an actual child in battle concerning these sorts of games, but a good amount of children look up to the late teenage/early adult crowd as being "hip."

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Yep, rpg's is more of a teenage genre. Although more adults are playing video games all the time most adults play games like World of Warcraft, shooters, or sports games. Very few delve into the lands of console rpg's.

The people who make video games know this so they try to create worlds and characters that those 12-17 year olds can relate to.

In movies a very young character going on adventures like this often tends to be no younger than mid to late twenties and the main characters often tend to be in their thirties and forties. However to a fifteen year old someone in their thirties or forties is considered old so they don't relate to them very well. The fifteen year old can relate to other teenagers much better and young to them is like 8 or 9 (which not coincidentally often tends to be the ages of the youngest characters in the group of many rpg's).

Okay. Anyone have an answer for some of the questions in the first post?

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Originally Posted by Shinwa Tsuki

Okay. Anyone have an answer for some of the questions in the first post?

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The game states ages for the playable characters. The non playable characters are all a matter of opinion for the most part. Perhaps Aeris did give hints to how old Zack was but I can't remember if she did or not.

Okay. So, should I use ages I feel comfortable with or deal with the age that Square gives in terms of the Timeline?

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Originally Posted by Shinwa Tsuki

Okay. So, should I use ages I feel comfortable with or deal with the age that Square gives in terms of the Timeline?

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Probably best to use the ages you feel comfortable with for the non playable characters and use the ages square gives for the playable characters.

Because not only does square say how old they are in the direction book but they also give references in the game to how old a few of the characters are. For instance they say that Tifa is currently 20 at the time the game starts and during the game Tifa talks about an incident that happened five years previously when she was 15.

To me I didn't feel that the ages of the playable characters were that terribly unrealistic (after all its not like they were all highly trained fighting machines they were just a rag tag terrorist group) in ff7 but I personally had the opinion that many of the non playable characters were older than them (having a bunch of 23 or 24 year olds running a government would be just silly).

I was always more curious about Tseng's age.

Okay. I'll use ages I'm comfortable with.

I've always thought that Reeve was in his early 20s in FF7, and that Tseng would be at least 10 years older then Aerith.