It’s easy to forget sometimes, but video games are often a family affair. I fell in love with them while sitting on the floor, watching my older brothers play Super Nintendo and Genesis. My brothers fell in love with them while sitting on the floor, watching my dad play Intellivision. And Akio Inaba, the sweetie-pie protagonist of Netflix’s 2017 limited series, Final Fantasy 14: Dad of Light, falls in love with them by sitting on the floor, watching his dad Hirotaro play the original Final Fantasy.
Dad of Light is leaving Netflix at the end of August, but there’s still time to watch all eight episodes, thanks to their bite-size 20-25 minute runtimes. It’s a funny examination of awkward family dynamics, as well as a reminder that the lessons about love and friendship that games teach us can apply to our real lives, too.
Dad of Light is based on a true story, and centers on Akio’s quest to secretly befriend his retired workaholic father in the online RPG. Assuming the avatar of a cat-eared lady warrior called Maidy, Akio and his friends are determined to give Hirotaro an adventure he’ll never forget. Encouraged by Akio to give his character a cool, heroic name, the shy and reserved Hirotaro settles on Indy Jones as his alter ego. He even gives his avatar a cool purple tribal tattoo on the side of his face.
The Netflix adaptation is a speedrun through a blogging project that ran from 2014 to 2016, and mixes live-action scenes with in-game footage. This approach takes some getting used to. The transition from an ordinary middle-class living room to a 2010s digital guildhall filled with pink-haired chibi girls and musclebound meatheads is jarring at first. But Dad of Light leans into that awkwardness, by showing Dad-as-Indy-Jones awkwardly walking into walls and using contextually inappropriate emotes nonstop. Oddly enough, keeping some of that in-engine clunk helps Dad of Light from feeling like a four-hour advertisement for Square Enix.
It’s a well-worn cliché to talk about experiencing something you love “through the eyes of a child,” but Dad of Light reminds us it can be just as delightful to experience something you love through the eyes of your parents. During the second episode, Akio realizes his dad has quit playing FF14 because he wandered into the game’s snowy region and was embarrassed his character didn’t have a coat. After a little gentle encouragement, Indy Jones is soon back to his adventure, with Maidy as his first in-game friend. Then Akio uses that empathy for beginner frustrations to make a new IRL pal at his office.
If you’re looking for a bingeable show with likable characters and plenty of gamerly nostalgia, Dad of Light is a low-stress chillfest. It’s also got a bunch of wonderful music, because it’s Final Fantasy. You never know, you might come away from it itching to dive into next month’s FF14 crossover for Monster Hunter Wilds.
