It really is quite extraordinary how so many of you come here only to diss, to complain about stupidity, to make fun of, to personally insult; obviously not liking the subject, some not even involved in the matter - and yet, in all your hostility/ignorance/displeasure, you've been contributing to keeping this thread alive. I suppose that should deserve a thank you, but since you don't care (despite your best efforts to make it seem like you do), I'm not gonna offer you one. I do thank those who actually wrote about valid and relevant points though.

On topic... If you fail to see how details like this might alienate people - I hope your kids, if you ever have any, won't turn to you asking "why is it always a boy and a girl?" when they're watching or reading their favourite fairy tales. Because regardless of your views about it and how you might be able to explain it away, it'll mean they will have been made uncomfortable and bad. Is it making a mountain out of a molehill right here? Yes, perhaps; but it is these small steps that can be done to change things.

Yes, there are cultural differences. In real life. However, this is a fantasy world, so why transfer those in there? Also, if it's such an issue, then SE should just make up their mind about which audience they want to cater to (the Japanese or the Western), and stick with it. Because, obviously, wanting to cater to both doesn't work: it doesn't only show in this specific issue, but in others as well, for example the Heavensturn event did make me wonder just how many people have any idea what hitsuji, or a bugyo, or any other Japanese-named thing was, which are obviously no-brainers for the Japanese. Valentine's day in itself is not a Japanese thing to begin with, yet the in-game event itself very much goes by the Japanese traditions. Kind of convoluted already, but if it's so much the Japanese culture they want to base everything on, then why not have a White Day event as well? See the picture? The game is marketed and available internationally, and though (at least the majority of) the dev team itself is Japanese, they do get around the world enough and see a lot of it. Yet so many aspects seem to be focused on Japan, in design and/or the obvious audience they aim at. All the while it is a fantasy world, very loosely based on our own real one.

And for those saying "go play the game", "it's a minor seasonal event nobody's gonna remember in a week", etc - I'm not gonna say sorry either. Not everyone plays the same way. You play for progression, you wanna get through everything as fast as possible, you click through conversations and skip cutscenes, you want to get all the loot (could say "it's just a piece of gear you're gonna drop quite soon") - that's fine. Some others play for the story though, the immersion, the characters, the events. Your complaints about which job needs tweaking to be able to to execute one more action to do 10pt more damage in whatever raid is not any less or more valid than the complaints of those who couldn't care less about the ilevel of the drops from the latest ultimate mode primal.