Now only four of the members remain, the other 37 having quit the game, and only one, a skeletal Lich "Overlord" character named Momonga, continues to play as the guild leader, maintaining their headquarters in The Great Tomb of Nazarick.

While saddened by this, he accepts the reality that his friends have their other lives to take care of and decides to stay logged in until the servers shut down.

When the shut-down time arrives, Momonga discovers that the game hasn't vanished; instead, it appears as if Nazarick has been transported to another world altogether and its various NPCs becoming actual living beings.

Momonga has been trapped in the form of his game avatar, leaving him unable to use the normal player functions such as General Message, or even log out.

Taking on the name of the guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, as a message to any other remaining players, Momonga begins exploring the world in an attempt to figure out what has happened while searching for anyone or anything that could help him solve this mystery, while ensuring the safety of Nazarick.

Ainz Ooal Gown seems to have modifications made to his behavior by in-game mechanics, because he demonstrates no moral qualms with killing and other actions that are taboo in the real world.

[7] Yen Press announced its license to the series in October 2015 for North America and began publishing the novels in English,[8] with the first volume releasing on May 24, 2016.

A 30-minute original video animation was bundled with the eleventh limited edition volume of the light novel series, which was released on September 30, 2016.

It also featured characters from the light novel series KonoSuba, Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World, and The Saga of Tanya the Evil, all published by Kadokawa Corporation.

[105][106] A Metroidvania game titled Overlord: Escape from Nazarick was announced on December 17, 2021, for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam[107] and was released on June 16, 2022.

[108] By June 2015, prior to the release of the anime and manga, the light novel series had about 600,000 copies in print in Japan with eight volumes.

[118] Phil Hoad of The Guardian gave the film 3/5 stars, writing, "At least in this instalment, we never see the real-world frame story outside the game, but there’s a fatalistic sense that all this is being decided elsewhere.

Coupled with expansive, heroic visual character-work, the film has a classiness that, with a bit more focus, could in future put it in Princess Mononoke territory.

"[119] Randy Myers of The Mercury News gave it 3/4 stars, writing, "Director Naoyuki Itô obviously relishes classic world-building elements and oversees some rather astonishing visual set pieces.

"[120] IGN's Mike Mamon was more critical, calling the film "more of a footnote to a long-running anime series than it is an entertaining movie experience" and adding, "The arc that inspired the movie receives only a passing mention on the TV show; The Sacred Kingdom's lackluster execution makes that short shrift feel justified."