What exactly happened (or rather, when) between OG and AC?

[Gaël]

So, the original game started in late 0007 and ended in January 0008. Edge was founded in Spring 0008. Cloud finds Denzel in June of either 0008 or 0009; the flashback scene in ACC has a nifty shot of Cloud's cell phone screen saying the date is June 29th. Advent Children happens in 0009, and Dirge of Cerberus happens in 0010.

Question is, which year does Cloud find Denzel, and when exactly in 0009 does AC take place?

Denzel could go both ways, but it ends up with him either having Geostigma or being homeless for a full year.

But since Barret is 37 in the movie, it implies Advent Children happens somewhere between December 15th and 31st. Just seems too squished to DoC that way.

Thoughts?

 

[Shademp]

From Cloud's character profile timeline in the FFVII 10th Anniversary UO:

[ ν ] – εуλ 0008/01

· FFVII – Northern Crater
With his friends he was victorious in the final battle with Sephiroth, and prevented the fall of Meteor.

· Edge
After visiting various locations with Tifa and Barret, Tifa opened the “Seventh Heaven” bar. Before setting off on a journey, Barret left Marlene in Cloud and Tifa’s care, and the three of them began living together.

(Age 22)

· Edge
While searching for provisions for the bar, more and more people began to ask him to make deliveries for them, so he set up the Strife Delivery Service.

· Midgar
He took Denzel, who had collapsed at the Sector 5 Slum church, into his care and brought him back to Seventh Heaven, where Denzel then also started to live.

Cloud's birthday is August 11, so at some point between August 11 and December 31st in 0008 is when Cloud found Denzel, if the timeline is interpreted exactly. (See below why we can't interpret it exactly)

EDIT: That said, the Ultimania profiles are sometimes very rough with the ages. I knew before that the Ultimania listed Barret as being 35 years old when the Mako Reactor #1 bombing happens, even though at that point his birthday is six days away (the date for the bombing is December 9 according to Barret's character profile).

But now I just noticed that in an earlier part of the profile he is listed as being 31 years old on May 8 year 0003, when in fact he is still 30. They estimated his age upwards with more than half a year.

In conclusion, the timeline profiles tend to be a bit sloppy and not exact. It is possible that Cloud found Denzel at any date between June 29 (mobile phone date) and August 11, as well. The way the timeline profiles are written, we can't use birthdays as an exact reference for when events took place.

 

[Gaël]

Huh, that's odd. Here's the screenshots from ACC claiming that the date was June 29th.

Wonder if the ACC scene was an easter egg or a goof on the staff's part. The August 11-December 31 0008 makes more sense timeline-wise.

 

[Shademp]

Rewatching that scene with the mobile phone, there is much room for speculation.

We see that many days can go between missed calls. The gap between missed calls is seen as anything from 4 days to 10 days. There's no telling if the last missed call from June 29 is that same day or if many days have passed since the missed call.

 

[ultima espio]

I think it is the 29th of June that Cloud meets Denzel, if you look at the first screen, you can see the date in the top left of Cloud's phone.

You can see the time, 14:24 and to the left it says 6 29. The second screen says that Tifa called at 12:02, and the missed call symbol is still on his home screen, so I'd assume that Cloud had been in the Church for at least 2 hours and didn't know that he'd been called.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

That seems pretty definitive to me.

 

[Shademp]

I can't believe I missed that!

 

[Gaël]

Shade, I just now noticed the edit on your first post. I may or may not be a blonde.

It's kind of interesting what's going on with Denzel, because Cloud's biography is the only one listing Denzel being found in 2008. I believe Tifa's character profile and the timeline both list it as 2009, but I'd have to double-check that. ...Then again, these are the same people who couldn't figure out how old Marlene was in AC, haha.

Kind of unrelated, but was there ever something official regarding how long Cloud lived in the Church pre-AC? I've seen a few weeks being tossed around the forum, but haven't been able to track down the source.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

There hasn't been an official approximation offered. Most people just go with the reasonable guesswork of "a few weeks" since that could easily cover anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

Based on Tifa and Marlene not checking the church before AC, I'd conclude it was closer to the lower end of that guessed range.