Playing a MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games) is something that almost everyone has done or heard about. If you play one of the big ones, the games can go on for years. Some of the smaller ones have a good run, but eventually their servers will be shut down and the games end. But what if the game didn’t end, and instead you found yourself with NPC characters with their own personalities? That’s the premise of Overlord, showing a man who seems to be trapped in a video game. The first season came out in 2015, and the second season just started airing.
End and Beginning
Momonga has come to the end of his favorite game, Yggdrasil. For twelve years, he has been the guild master, but now the servers are shutting down and he has decided to stay logged in until he is forced out by the servers shutting down. When the moment comes, Momonga finds that not only is the game still running, the non-human characters have started to develop personalities. Momonga, taking the name Ainz Ooal Gown, decides to explore this new world and try to find out what is going on. While enjoying this, he finds out that he cannot log out of the game.
The type of game that exists 2138, the year in which this show takes place, is one in which the player has his or her brain connected so they are transported virtual into the game. This has to happen, because if Momonga was just playing on a computer screen, he could shut it down after a while. Momonga is an interesting character, as he is passionate about the game to a point of obsession. When he notices his friends have decided not to join him until the server shuts down, he acknowledges that they probably have real world things to do, but it still upsets him. We never see Momonga in the real world, only his avatar. This is probably to show that his virtual life is more important than his real one.
Twin Swords of Slashing Death
Momonga finds that the characters who he previously had only surface interactions with are becoming real with their own set of ideas and problems. We all want games to be more lifelike, but we don’t realize what effect that would have on games. When Momonga tells his followers that he wants his name to be known around the world, they take that to mean that he wants to conquer the world. This would be fine in a video game, but Momonga has to deal with people who are more like real people then video game characters.
One of these characters is Albedo. Created to be a beautiful succubus, Momonga changed her programing right before the server shut down to be madly in love with him. He thought it was just a joke, but in the world where these characters have grown beyond their original intent, Albedo is now obsessed with Momonga and will do anything to be with him. She is a fascinating character, a strong fighter who has become something more than just something beautiful to gawk it. She is funny too, sometimes disregarding humans as weak, other times threatening to slaughter anyone who dares hurt her beloved ruler.
Army of Death
This show just started its second season. While the wait in between the first and second was very long, the show still retains is awesome action and commentary of the world of online gaming. One might think that an episode about loot crates might be in the future. The biggest strength is how the video games characters are treated as real people. Some might say that MMORPG’s take over real life, but what if the characters had real thoughts. Another interesting choice is that the reason that this is happening has not yet been explained or hinted at. It might be that this happened just because it did. Head on over to Crunchyroll and see what the world of Yggdrasil has in store for you.
