KaneU said: I am playing this game now, on chapter 8 currently, but when does this dating sim aspect of the game start? Maybe I am playing it wrong, i've only noticed little hearts after the battles when characters support each other during the battle. Click to expand...

Spoiler After marrying, the chapter for the characters' child will show up on the map (once you cleared Chapter 13 iirc), where you can then recruit the child.

Just like in a lot of Fire Emblem games before this one (starting with FE6, Awakening being FE13), there are support conversations. In Awakening's case, you unlock support conversations between compatible characters (not everyone can have supports with everyone else) by having them stand next to each other, battle alongside each other, pairing them up (each time you see those hearts). This increases an internal value, and when that reaches a certain value, you unlock a support conversation.Supports come in C, B, A and S variants. You first unlock C, then B, then A. Certain characters can also reach the S rank, which means they will marry each other. You can only get one S rank per character in each playthrough (just like you would only be married to one person at a time in real life). Spoilers since you are only at Chapter 8:That's pretty much the "dating sim" aspect of the game. It's hard to call it dating sim, really, and the only thing Awakening added to what was already used by other games in the series was the S rank (and it's consequences, basically).Oh, yeah, you have to view unlocked support conversations outside of battle. This is also were you see which ones you unlocked. I think the internal support points value is increased regardless of you actually viewing the conversation (so you could, potentially, have already unlocked the A support but would only see that once you viewed C and B), but I'm not sure on that right now.On another note. I said this once and I will say this again: I really, really think people overstate the importance of the marriage system. The art style being more or less big factor for people picking this up I give you, but not "waifus". Seriously. It had a lot more to do with better positioning in the release schedule, better marketing (Nintendo Direct playing a big role here if you ask me) and, as a result of the initial success, more awareness for the series in general, more retailers stocking the game, more reprints by Nintendo etc.