Scrublord

Sorry, you've lost me at the GameFAQs part. I don't think I've ever mentioned any GameFAQs post, nor have I implied that the support system revolves around FE Amie, because I know that it doesn't, and I also think it's irrelevant to this whole topic. I also wasn't trying to say that you "can't" ignore that FE Amie exists, because obviously you can; it's just that it doesn't change anything. I also wasn't trying to say that FE Amie is equivalent to someone being racist, but they are similar in that 1) they are an optional "feature" of a thing that can either be acknowledged or ignored if it's not central to the "key" feature (in my analogy the gameplay or the business), and 2) is a kind of matter that ends up having a tangible impact on the whole package, even if it is ignorable, unlike something like a cheese-slicing simulator being in the game or a person inexplicably hating cheese. The view that FE Amie is "just rubbing a character's face and them saying a line", implying that it is the "cheese-hating" variety of optional, is technically wrong; even if it doesn't affect the gameplay, it's going to affect the characters and the overall tone of the game, which are still part of the whole package. I don't think anyone is saying that FE Amie is "objectively" wrong, but rather that it impacts the game in a negative way (which might just be my opinion because it is my opinion on this matter, but that's how I view it). Even if it's mundane in terms of the gameplay, it isn't in terms of the entire game itself, which the gameplay is just one part of (even if you think it's the most important part). And since it does affect the game, I think people do have a right to criticise it, and the game as a whole as a result. And in my opinion, "taking something personally" isn't really very different from having a subjective view of something, which is what I believe you are doing as well by choosing to defend the existence of the feature. It might just seem like an overly personal thing because you can't understand why they choose to see it that way. My main point was that Sakurai's logic is faulty here, as illustrated by that "rape minigame" analogy (though I have objections to using something like rape as an analogy, considering how much of a sensitive subject it is), because there is the "completely irrelevant kind of optional" feature like the Smash minigames, and the "optional but has an impact on the game" feature like grinding (affects gameplay) and FE Amie (affects overall tone). You can't compare the former to the latter. (I kind of feel like I've been saying the same thing in slightly different wording three times by now...) Now, if the mods think I'm not sticking to the topic of this thread enough, then I'll just make this my last public post on this matter. (PM me if you'd like to continue, arvilino.)

I just want to point out that that's not actually Callie and Marie, it's just two girls in a similar colour scheme singing a bad ripoff of the Splatfest theme. (Maybe they're very subtle and frankly pretty bad references, but I doubt that.) On topic, it's pretty certain by now that #FE (and recent Fire Emblem games in general) have been designed to appeal strongly to the otaku/fujoshi crowd. The one good thing I see coming out of this is said audience throwing enough money at the 3DS/Wii U so that Nintendo can afford to go back to not resorting to pandering like this.

Well, I don't think it was a perfect tl;dr, but I don't think it was going against what I was saying or anything... As I said, this isn't like the "ignoring that my business client hates cheese" kind of optional, it's the "ignoring that my business client hates black people" kind of optional. The business side might not be affected to a great degree (in this case the gameplay), but the client and your perception of them (in this case the game in its entirety) is. Sure, you can do your business with them perfectly fine if you want while ignoring their other traits, but those traits do not just exist in a vacuum, and you can decide for yourself if you really want to do business with someone like that. tl;dr You can't just handwave optional features out of existence by ignoring them. Just because you can just ignore that something exists and carry on with your life just as well, doesn't mean that that something isn't open to criticism at all.

I think marriage can stay if, and only if, they limit the marriage options to characters that actually have chemistry with each other. Like, I can't imagine why someone would want to make, say, Gregor marry Lissa, support-wise or gameplay-wise. But I'm not really opposed to the Avatar being able to marry anyone they want, I guess (I have more problems with the concept of an Avatar itself, but I digress). Children can go. Awakening at least had a plausible reason for them, but Fates royally screwed it up and I cringe at whatever other excuse they would come up with later on.

I'm surprised that Awakening's soundtrack isn't rated higher than it is in this poll. It's one of my favourite video game soundtracks ever, and along with the graphics of the game, really helped me get immersed in the atmosphere. Conquest and its Ablaze variation is pretty much my favourite track from any video game.

F!MU - Chrom, though I think this is only because they got there with each other first, and I probably had them paired up all the time anyway. M!MU - Lucina, but only for the added feels in "that scene". So far the only other person I've married is Frederick as F!MU (turns out I actually love Lucina anyway).

I don't think the "it's optional, ignore it" argument really works here. I think it's like saying that just because grinding is optional in Awakening, you can't say that it's an easy game, since you can just ignore it. Even if you do, it's still there, and by default that ends up impacting the game. In this case, even if you ignore FE Amie, it's still in the game, and that by default undermines the tone of the game and makes it seem like a softer version of an otaku/fujoshi dating sim, which I think people have a right to complain about. In my opinion Sakurai is wrong in comparing it to the optional features in SSB4, because those really don't affect the game or the player in any way (pretty much because it has nothing it can affect, really), while something like grinding being present or Amie definitely does, even if not for everyone. It's kind of like saying that because you can just ignore the fact that your business client hates cheese as it's not relevant (unless you're running a cheese business, I guess), you can just ignore the fact that your client holds racist views since technically that's not relevant either. Like, sure, you can just ignore the feature, but it still ends up affecting the whole thing in this case, so you have a valid reason to criticise the feature (and the entire thing). (On a side note, I'm pretty sure the fanservice-y side of FE14 like FE Amie positively impacted its sales, bringing in the money of the otaku/fujoshi crowd (for whom Phoenix Mode was probably designed for, since they probably don't care about the difficult gameplay). But a game can be trashy and sell well at the same time, like Fifty Shades of Grey, so that's not really relevant in terms of game quality.)