Update regarding the 1.05 patchnotes saying this file appearantly does nothing:

Hey all, I had no intention to jebait anybody in any way. I even asked two friends to try this fix before posting it, because it seemed unreal to me a file like this could change ANYTHING. After they confirmed this, I went to post it on reddit and people's responses were huge. I expected this to ONLY maybe help in niche-cases. Only after hundreds of people allegedly confirming that it made noticable diffferences, stability being the most common, reflecting purposefully increased memory pools, I started to collect data and tried to draw a better picture since some characteristics seemed very distinct (for example new Ryzens seeming to be totally unaffected). Maybe I got hit with placebo, but how the hell is it possible thousands of people appearantly did too? This bugs me quite a bit. If I really spread misinformation, I am sincerely apologizing. Obviously it's hard to argue with patchnotes most likely backed by developers or a member of QA, but for me my personal changes were far beyond any deviation that would fall in within placebo limits. (Yes, I am very aware that a game restart can fix a common memory leak issue or can get the game the chance to reorder itself, therefore giving you a few perceived temporary extra fps gains) I am still positive my game ran way more stable (even on higher settings and better resolution) and it recovered a lot better from fps drops. A prominent point were definite improvements in load times. I am not trying to pull something out of thin air for the sake of defending myself, I am being honest.
To the people calling me out for allegedly farming awards or having ill intentions: If there is any way I can refund the awards, for example via staff, I will do so asap. If I can refund Platinum / Gold 1:1 I will immediately do that if I am asked for a refund. I have zero interest in keeping any undeserved rewards. The one person who actually has donated me 4.69$ via PayPal has already been promptly refunded after reading the 1.05 patchnotes. https://i.imgur.com/DY6q0LR.png
I only had good intentions, sharing around what I found to get back feedback on, waiting for people to either tell me this is only in my head and that I am a muppet or responses confirming my assumptions. And I got a lot more from the later.
I would appreciate it if a CDPR dev can reach out to me personally so I have first hand confirmation, but It's definitely hard to argue with an official set of patchnotes claiming this file does nothing.
Again, sincere apologies if I indeed sold you the biggest snake oil barrel in 2020 on accident. It's just hard to grasp for me atm that this thread has tons of posts backing up my assumptions while an official statement states the complete opposite.
>> I have created an updated all-in-one video guide, scroll to 'What we've learned' for it.

Pre-Story 🐒

Hi, I played Cyberpunk for 14 hours now and was quite bummed from the start.
I have the following rig:

CPU: i7 4790K @ 4.4GHz
GPU: EVGA 1080Ti
RAM: 32GB DDR3
Game on SSD, Windows on a seperate SSD

My rig is normally a ~~monster~~ trusty chap when it comes to performance, I can play the most recent titles on 1440p high on at LEAST 60 fps.

I was shocked that I was only averaging 30 - 50fps (lowest settings possible,1080p, 70fov, no extra jazz) at best depending on the amount of objects I was looking at. For someone that is used to play at 1440p @ 144hz, this was heart-wrenchingly bad performance and half an agony to play. So I took a look at CyberPunk in Process Lasso and noticed that both my CPU and GPU always lounge around at 40 - 60% and that my GPU consumed a humble 100 Watts. Something felt horribly off. It makes ZERO sense that my cpu & gpu barely do anything but at the same time my performance is horse shit.
I was looking on advice on /pcmasterrace, people with similar or worse rigs than mine were shocked how I was basically at the ~~bottom's barrel~~ bottom of the barrel, while they had no issues to play at 1080p @ high or 1440p @ medium. What the heck is going on?

Guide 💡

Since I am a C# developer and very comfortable around configuration files, I figured it wouldn't hurt to take a look at the configuration files. And found something that I didn't believe.

https://i.imgur.com/aOObDhn.png

Please take a look at the above picture. This picture shows the configuration columns for each platform. PC, Durango, Orbis. (Durango & Orbis is what XBox & PlayStation run on).
Now take a look at PoolCPU and PoolGPU. These values are the same as the other platforms. This looks off. So I decided to give it a try and just screw around with this config. So based off my rig I assigned some values that made a little more sense to me.

https://i.imgur.com/xTnf0VX.png

I assigned 16GB (of RAM I guess) to my CPU and 11GB of my GPU's VRAM.
And howdy cowboy, my i7 finally woke the fuck up and started kicking in second gear, now working at 85 - 95% CPU usage. My 1080Ti also now uses 230 Watts on avg instead of a sad 100W.

https://i.imgur.com/fP32eka.png

Booted the game and et voila, I am now rocking a solid 60+ fps on:

High Settings
No Film Grain, No Ambient Occlusion, Lens Flare etc.
80 Fov
1440p

My loading times have gone down from 20 seconds to 2.

I can't put the emotion in words how I felt when I discovered this. It was something between disbelief, immense joy and confusion.

I can confirm GOG patch 1.04 and Steam patch 1.04 have this borked configuration file.
If you need guidance on what to assign in your config:

PoolCPU: Use half of what your RAM is, make sure to leave 4GB for windows tho.
PoolGPU: Google your graphics card on google and see how much VRAM it has. For example my EVGA 1080Ti has 11 GB GDDR5X, so I am entering 11GB.

A fair bit of warning 💀

These changes can possibly crash your CyberPunk and Windows. I do not take any responsibility for any problems resulting from this.
CyberPunk will complain that it crashed, even when you close it. This shouldn't matter too much though.
Mileage may vary. I can't guarantee this will massively improve your performance, I can only say mine did a huge leap and the response from my friends has been very positive.

If anybody is more familiar with the configuration I am touching, please let me know and I will adjust it. I am merely showing this around because it looks like a promising starting point for many who have weird performance issues.

If this helped you, please let us know with a short comment how much your FPS and joystick ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) went up.

Update: What we've learned.

Since this is starting to make bigger waves I decided to create a video compiling a lot of key points of this thread of all sorts. I made a 16 minute long video that should be a one-for-all guide catering all types of users.
>> All-In-One Video Guide <<

If you prefer to go through this in a written version, the agenda i go off on in the video can be found below in prosa.
Timestamps for the video:
General Info: 0:00
Additional Fixes & Troubleshooting: 3:57
Calculating your Values: 6:58
Finding the file: 9:50
Explanations about the File: 10:30
Actually configuring it: 11:58
Zero Config & Theory Crafting: 14:28
Written Version:
TLDR Possible Benefits * strong fps gains (up to 50%) * better stability, less jitter * better load times Condensation * newer processors seem to be already fed correctly, ryzens mostly * older processors seem to benefit a lot more from this, especially the 4th gen i7 / i5 (4790K) * scroll the thread. try to Ctrl + F your proc / gpu, a lot of kind people post references * deleting the file or entering critically low / impossible values will most likely resolved by the engine initializing with defaults * safe tryout can be the 'zero' config * its not placebo, its just possible the changes are very minimal for your setup Troubleshooting / Additional Fixes * VS Code is light & should replace notepad on windows. Treat yourself to a good editor. https://code.visualstudio.com * running 'Cyberpunk 2077.exe' as admin can help sometimes * make sure to run the latest nvidia drivers. * pay attention to formatting in the csv * yamashi's https://github.com/yamashi/PerformanceOverhaulCyberpunk (mentioned by u/SplunkMonkey) * u/-home 's https://www.reddit.com/Amd/comments/kbuswu/a_quick_hex_edit_makes_cyberpunk_better_utilize/ AMD Hex Edit (mentioned by u/Apneal) * if your pc starts to behave strange, lower the Pools, try zero config How To Calculate Values? * Task Manager / Performance * https://www.heise.de/download/product/gpu-z-53217/download for GPU-Z * Amount of RAM / 2 & leave atleast 4GB for windows Examples: 64GB RAM = 32GB 32GB RAM = 16GB - 24GB 16GB RAM = 8GB - 12GB 8GB RAM = 4GB Folder Locations
Steam
X:\...\Steam\steamapps\common\Cyberpunk 2077\engine\config
GOG
Y:\...\GOG Galaxy\Games\Cyberpunk 2077\engine\config
Epic Games
Z:\...\Epic Games\Cyberpunk 2077\engine\config

My personal memory_pool_budgets.csv
;;; ; ^[1-9][0-9]*(B|KB|MB|GB) - Pool budget ; -1 - Pool does not exist on the current platform ; 0 - Budget will be computed dynamically at runtime ; PC ; Durango ; Orbis PoolRoot ; ; ; PoolCPU ; 16GB ; 1536MB ; 1536MB PoolGPU ; 10GB ; 3GB ; 3GB PoolFlexible ; -1 ; -1 ; 0 PoolDefault ; 1KB ; 1KB ; 1KB PoolLegacyOperator ; 1MB ; 1MB ; 1MB PoolFrame ; 32MB ; 32MB ; 32MB PoolDoubleBufferedFrame ; 32MB ; 32MB ; 32MB PoolEngine ; 432MB ; 432MB ; 432MB PoolRefCount ; 16MB ; 16MB ; 16MB PoolDebug ; 512MB ; 512MB ; 512MB PoolBacked ; 512MB ; 512MB ; 512MB
Donations
~~I have been asked by a very small amount of people if there's another way they can send a little something my way besides reddit, so here's my business paypal:~~ Paypal Link removed since 1.05 says this file does nothing. The one person who has donated 4.69$ will be refunded immediately. :)
~~Please feel zero obligation to do so, I greatly appreciate it though if you decide to.~~
Please consider donating money to the people creating performance mods (yamashi for example), creating a codebase like that takes a LOT of time and sending a digital coffee their way can be a serious motivation booster.

[Video Games/Rollercoaster Tycoon] Theme Park Studio: How a developer set exceedingly high expectations and failed to meet them

Tl;dr: fans of a video game are excited about the release of what could be the spiritual successor of their video game. Said developer makes very bold promises and obviously fails to deliver, finally releasing a very disappointing game and alienating most of the community.
I recently stumbled upon this subreddit; I've enjoyed reading most of the posts here and figured I had a few stories to share as well. From 2012 to about 2018, I was active (though with intermittent breaks) in a community of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 players. This was a small community, with no more than a few hundred active members at its heyday and only a few people active now. Despite its small size, there were definitely a few memorable instances of drama. This is one of those stories; it actually involved another game called Theme Park Studio, which – as you may expect from the title – was not what it promised to be.
Background
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 was released in October 2004, developed by Frontier and published by Atari. It was primarily a theme park management game, where players have to earn money and keep guests happy in a theme park by constructing and maintaining rides, shops, paths, scenery and more. There was also a sandbox mode that allowed players to build without any monetary restrictions. A small but active community set out to build roller coasters and theme parks (and occasionally completely different projects) in this sandbox mode and share their results online.
While the game was good for its time and viewed positively by many, it did have some downsides. Firstly, the game used a grid: when placing rides and scenery, you were confined to this grid and had little freedom to place things where you want. Secondly, the roller coaster construction system was limited compared to similar games, and as a result most roller coasters were hardly very smooth. Thirdly, the game was poorly optimized. As an example: the game had a day-night cycle, but the game was basically unplayable at night, so people set the game to only daytime.
Over time, people became more and more ambitious in their projects, and these problems became more apparent. As a solution, lots of custom content (akin to mods in other games) was made by members of the community: custom scenery objects, custom rides and even custom roller coaster tracks. These objects were much more versatile and looked much better than most in-game content. As a result, people almost exclusively used custom content to build their projects. Combined with some smart picture and video editing, almost nothing was still recognizable from the original game.
While custom content brought a whole new level of versatility and arguably kept the community running for a long time, the aforementioned problems still persisted. Because the game was being pushed to its limits, people were wondering when a sequel was coming. By 2012, there was no word yet by Atari on a potential sequel, and many similar games from other video game publishers had failed to offer any meaningful improvement to Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. However, this was soon to change.
The spiritual successor
Enter Pantera Entertainment, a small, unknown video game publisher and developer. In November 2012, they posted a trailer to Theme Park Studio, which presented itself as a theme park building tool. Unlike Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, which had a focus on park management, the focus was on building attractive theme parks and rides. Many of the aforementioned issues were solved in this game: there was no grid-based system that dictated where you had to build, roller coasters could be constructed with much more freedom, and the graphics looked more modern. One major feature was the ability to import custom content. Obviously this was also possible in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, but only using third-party software. That the developers were now anticipating for this was a good sign.
The community was generally excited about Theme Park Studio: it looked to be the spiritual successor to Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. The staff from Pantera would even visit the forums (at the time, most of the community was active through online messaging boards) and would happily provide updates, answer questions and take suggestions. This left a good impression with most of the community.
Over the coming months, more and more promises were being made on new features and huge amounts of content. The game was looking to become a very ambitious project. Now, it would later be discovered that little development had actually been done on the game: the trailer had really only showed footage from Pantera’s earlier title, Hyper Rails. Nevertheless, the release date was set for summer 2013, and the community was still optimistic for a long time.
In April 2013, a Kickstarter campaign was set up. For the uninitiated, Kickstarter allows for developers to source crowdfunding for a project. Developers set a goal and have a set time to achieve that goal. People can ‘back’ a project by donate towards that goal, and in return receive rewards based on the amount they donated. Money only goes towards the project if that goal is actually reached; otherwise the ‘backers’ receive their money back. Well, Pantera set a goal of $80.000 for Theme Park Studio, to be fulfilled within a month. Backer rewards were ambitious: lower amounts would get you the game for free, both a physical and digital copy, and perhaps some merchandise, while those who backed larger amounts were allowed to suggest or design certain rides for the game, and the highest-tier backers (think $500 or more, which only a few people donated) would get you an invitation to a big release party. Now, keep these rewards in mind, as they’ll become important later on.
It took a while and people feared the goal wouldn’t be met, but thanks to enough promotion and a few generous donations, about $100.000 was raised, and the goal was met. Despite Pantera’s ambitious promises, the community was optimistic. Some high-standing members of the community were even assisting in the development of the game and were offering their custom content – made for Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 – to be used in Theme Park Studio. Unfortunately, as we would later discover, this hard work would never really pay off.
Early access
The Kickstarter campaign offered a release date of September 2013. As time went on, it became very apparent that this was unachievable. The game was delayed several times; first to later in 2013, then to April 2014. Finally, they announced that instead of waiting for the complete game, Theme Park Studio would enter Early Access on Steam in February 2014.
Early Access allows people to play a game before its full release. People can play the game and offer feedback to the developers, who can use this feedback to improve the game and add new content in free updates to the players. In this case, that would mean that Theme Park Studio would first release as a basic theme park builder, and that other features, such as new rides and the custom content importer would be added later.
Early Access is an example of something that works well on paper, but is often butchered in practice. When done well, Early Access is a win-win situation: players don’t have to wait to play the game but can get involved in its development, and developers will receive money which they can use to fund the rest of the development. Unfortunately, it is rarely done well, and there are many games released through Early Access that are flat-out unplayable or clearly unfinished. Similarly, many games never leave Early Access or only leave many years later, because developers have little incentive to improve and complete a game they’ve already received money for.
Well, Theme Park Studio would turn out to fit the latter category. Upon release, the game was... disappointing. Most notable was the lack of ability to build roller coasters: players could only build flat rides (simple rides such as a merry-go-round or a Ferris wheel). The game was also poorly optimized and didn’t look particularly great. Still, many people called for the community to be patient and wait for new updates to come: Pantera had provided a route map for the implementation of further updates to provide some perspective.
This implementation was generally very slow. For example, the ability to build roller coasters – a rather essential part of a theme park construction tool - didn’t come until August that year; even then, people weren’t happy about it, as it was unintuitive and difficult to use, and many considered it hardly an improvement from Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. The community slowly grew divided. A sizeable group defended Theme Park Studio and called for people to be patient, but a growing group had become very critical of the game and its developers. However, besides lacking updates and producing a game of low quality, there were other glaring issues as well.
Pantera loses approval
Now, remember the aforementioned Kickstarter rewards? As time went on, it became increasingly clear that many of these rewards would never be released. Many people complained about not receiving digital access to the game once it was released through Early Access, despite promises from Pantera – and that was the easiest reward for them to fulfil. Even to this day, some people are yet to receive digital access. People were also losing hope about higher-tier rewards, such as physical copies of the game, merchandise and the release party.
Probably the most controversial reward tiers were those that allowed backers to design rides, however. More than 100 people had pledged enough money to have a ride suggestion implemented into the game. It turned out, however, that many of these suggestions would never see the light of day. On the forums, people complained about their suggestions being rejected, while some received no response from Pantera. When eventually an update was released that was supposed to contain rides suggested by backers, people noted that way fewer rides were added than that there were backers. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but I think no more than 10% saw their rides actually published in-game.
Now, resentment grew towards Pantera for failing to uphold their end of the bargain and releasing an unfinished, low-quality game. By this time, there was also not much left of the actively involved, feedback-taking staff that represented the game when it was first announced: the developer became notorious for failing to take and accept constructive criticism. Many people had their posts removed and accounts banned from the official Theme Park Studio forum for speaking out against the developer.
Another absurd rule on their forums was their stance on ‘dark rides’, mainly indoor rides based around creating an atmosphere above being thrilling, such as a haunted house. As the name suggests, many dark rides are dark: the atmosphere is creepy or scary, and many horror themes are used. Well, the forum banned the posting of rides containing demonic themes or otherwise being ‘sacrilegious’, effectively meaning most dark rides. This pissed off the community, as quite a few people made dark rides and this was seen as infringement on their creativity. It also spawned a series of memes on rides that were “too dark and sinister for Theme Park Studio”. Another questionable decision by the development team was to add VR support; while becoming the only theme park building or management game to have it, it was generally criticised because it would add very little to the game and so many other aspects of the game needed much more working on. I’m sure there were other decisions made by Pantera that received significant backlash from the community, but these I remember best.
The aftermath
Over time, interest in Theme Park Studio faded away and people generally gave up hope that they would ever receive their Kickstarter rewards. There were still a few avid supporters of the game, but the broken promises, slow progress, disappointing results and bad PR meant most people in the community had changed their stance over the years. The game was forgotten and slowly faded into irrelevance. There was no real way for backers to get their money back or otherwise hold Pantera accountable for the unfulfilled promises, an issue that other failed Kickstarter campaigns unfortunately also have. Amazingly, some of the backers reported actually receiving a physical copy of the game, albeit five or six years after the initial Kickstarter campaign, but similarly there are still people waiting for their rewards to this date.
Theme Park Studio was finally released in December 2016, after many years in development. It released without much fanfare and definitely without a release party that backers had paid hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars for; many people didn’t even notice it had left Early Access. The game never took off and its reviews on Steam are mostly negative. The entire fiasco made people much more sceptical of other new games: from 2014 onwards, many other theme park simulation games were announced and released, but people were much more cautiously optimistic about these games (and rightfully so; many of them failed, but those are stories for another time).
Eventually, the true spiritual successor to Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 was released: Planet Coaster, developed by Frontier (the original developers of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3). It was released in November 2016, prompting some to think that the definitive release of Theme Park Studio only weeks later was a hasty attempt to piggyback off of that success. It did almost everything Theme Park Studio promised and offered the possibility to build much more detailed and complex rides. Over time, many people who played Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 switched over to Planet Coaster because of the vast improvements.
People generally forgot about Theme Park Studio, and many people wanted to leave it in the past. It’s hard to find many of the original forum posts on the topic. RCTLounge, one of the major forums on the topic, was closed in 2016 due to inactivity. In 2018, Shyguy’s World, another forum on the topic, actually removed the Theme Park Studios board and deleted all posts to forget about the ‘dark and sinister’ affair. As the forum’s owner said: “The first rule of Theme Park Studio... you do not talk about Theme Park Studio”. The official Theme Park Studios forums are also down and the website is vastly outdated. Most of this post was sourced by memories, the Wayback machine and the few threads I could still find.
Many people agreed that Pantera was probably a well-intentioned company that had simply bitten off more than they could chew. Clearly they had vastly underestimated the difficulty of this project and lost any drive to complete the project as it went on and support disappeared. Nevertheless, all the drama resulted in a bitter aftertaste for many people and changed people’s outlooks on the future releases of similar games.

The 4 Trading Fears (and how to conquer them)

[Steam Lunar Sale] is on till 15 February, most JRPGs are on sale to even over -80%. Here is the link and a list of recommendations.

The Steam Lunar Sale has started and a good number of JRPGs are sale now:

~ Link to the JRPG Page of the Sale ~

~ Link to the full JRPG list on Sale ~

Here is a list of recommendations if you can't decide which ones to get:

~ Classic Turn-Based ~

Persona 4 Golden: A great game with a lovable cast, and fantastic music. A school life simulator and dungeon crawler mixed in with a fantastic mystery plot. I would say more but I am holding back as to not spoil anything, because this is one of those games that lives and dies on the twists and turns of the story and the choices you make during the story.

Battle Chasers: Nightwar: An actual kickstarter JRPG that more than delivered what it set it out for and more. It went under the radar since release, but it's a great turn-based JRPG with great characters and challenging combat and a satisfying crafting system, arena fights, fishing, skill trees, and a fantastic in-game encyclopedia with an actual incentive to complete. With a great tiered loot system, dungeons with random events and side-quests every time you enter. And really great monsters to hunt. It's more than worth full price, but right now it's dirt cheap.

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling: 2nd rank on the best Indie JRPG of 2020 and only because CrossCode took number 1, this Paper Mario style JRPG saw that Nintendo isn't making what JRPG fans are waiting for, so they scrapped themselves in to patch in that gap in JRPG history. With praise from every where and Overwhelmingly Positive score on steam. why not give it a try ?

GRANDIA HD Remaster and GRANDIA 2 HD Remaster : If you are in the mood for one of those old turn-based epic fantasy adventures, then look no more. The first Grandia in particular is one of the classics great fantasy adventure games. Grandia 2 is more "Edgy", but still has the great gameplay that Grandia 1 had.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon: Another game that is always in the top 3 in multiple categories, with it's Main Character (Ichiban Kasuga) winning the number 1 spot for the best character for 2020. The Yakuza series was already crazy fun, and now it's Turn-based ? enough said.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky or The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel: Bla Bla Bla, as if you already don't know.

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition: 2 full games in 1 package. If you're a fan of the series then this is a must play, it dives into the lore more than a lot of the previous games, and also has one of the biggest Digimon rosters till to day. Even if you're not into the series but you're looking for a classic turn-based game to just grind and chill out in, then this is a good choice.

~ Tactical Turn-Based ~

Disgaea 5: To be honest any game in this series or even it's spin-offs, like Phantom Brave, is worth getting. Great voice acting, always funny characters and funnier events, and you'll always get more than you're money's worth of content and gameplay time even if you are paying full price for it. But if you don't have the time to go through the series one by one, then going for this one is more than worth it. You'll miss out on a lot of inside jokes and great cameos if you start with this one, but story wise you don't have to worry about anything since they aren't really connected. They happen in the same world, but even if you don't know the story of other games it still won't hinder your enjoyment of the story here.

Disgaea 1.

Disgaea 2.

Disgaea 4 Complete+.

TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children: What if you want something serious ? then this is your go to game. I always liked X-com but I couldn't get into the RNG gameplay and losing characters forever because of one mistake. So here is TroubleShooter, an X-com JRPG, with an actual full story told through multiple chapters. A really fun world to get into, with great characters and fantastic music. The detective Noir atmosphere combined with really deep and complex customization system just provides endless content to go through. They also just recently released a whole DLC for free that expands the story and adds more content...yes for FREE!

SD GUNDAM G GENERATION CROSS RAYS: You want a Tactical Mecha game focused on the Gundam universe with great graphics and crazy amount of customization and days worth of play time ? that's a weird request but I got you, here you go fam, Cross Rays brings you amazing Metal on Metal clash! with a huge (and I mean huge) list of Mechs to develop, evolve, capture, exchange, and unlock throughout a long and satisfying story campaign, and a customization system deep and varied enough to lose days of your life on.

Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen: The Entire Series is on Steam now. This fantastic Visual Novel Style game is one hell of a ride from start to end. If you're looking for a lore and story rich fantasy game then there is no reason to not get this whole series. Drama, Comedy, Mystery, Action, Horror, Fan-service, and more, this game has it all.

Prelude to the Fallen is the first game story-wise, and while the story is fantastic, I won't lie to you that they didn't really update the gameplay to the standards of the other two games in the series. Still the gameplay isn't really where the game shines anyway, and once you get into the other 2 games after this one, the gameplay gets much better.
After Prelude to the Fallen is:
Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception.
And then after that comes:
Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth.

Lost Dimension: This one probably went under the radar when it was ported to PC. But it's a solid Tactical JRPG, with a really fun setting. To save you the time on the story, Imagine Danganronpa as a tactical JRPG and there you go. A really dark Mystery story, filled with plot twists, and some really great customization done in a way that makes sure no 2 playthroughs are the same.

Tale of Wuxia: Are you into great world building ? choices that matter ? open-world gameplay and life-sims ? Tactical turn-based combat Chinese Martial Arts novels/comics ? well here is one of the best games you can find. A remake of an older game, they did a fantastic job with it. There are issue with the translation, but for something so unique and one of a kind you'd have to work through minor issues. The game is about building your own Martial Art master, by managing their daily life-style, chores, adventures, jobs, training, and even social relations. With multiple endings, and so many different routes and events, you can easily gets sucked into it's world. If you like it then you can also check Tale of Wuxia:The Pre-Sequel, that does away with the life-sim, and focuses completely on the open-world adventure and tactical gameplay aspect.

~ Action combat ~

.hack//G.U. Last Recode: You're itching for the next great action JRPGs that plays like the Tales series, but with an even more edgy and revenge hungry main character than Velvet from Berseria ? Then look no more. With 3 games in 1 and with an extra new episode to wrap the story up, then you'll be getting more than you money's worth for sure. With an MMO setting and a fresh approach to side-quests and world exploration, it's a classic that is more than worth giving a try.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA: Again this is a case of a whole series is filled with great games, but if you're going to choose one, then this one is an easy pick. Fantastic soundtrack ? check! Great Smooth Action gameplay ? check! Dogi the wall breaker ? check! Base building and crafting ? check! and check!

Tales of Symphonia: To be fair, any of the Tales games on Steam right now are good to get since they are all dirt cheap in this sale and they are great games. But if you had to choose only one, then this is the classic Tales game experience, and it might as well be free at the price they are selling it now at. Whatever Tales game you get, make sure to check out the mods on steam, there are some really good ones to make sure you get the best experience possible, graphics and FPS wise.

Tales of Berseria

Tales of Vesperia

Tales of Zesteria

CrossCode: Look.....I have yet to play this myself (don't shoot!), but I got so many people telling and shouting at me to play it, and friends begging me to, that it has to be good. But just to be on the safe side, you can check the free demo before you take the jump. And am sure someone in the comments can vouch for the game. Oh and it's Number 1 in the rankings of this year's Indie JRPGs.

Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch™ Remastered and Ni no Kuni™ II: Revenant Kingdom: If you're looking for that great Isekai fantasy adventure feel, then these two games are where it's at. Fantastic visuals and great music, coupled with a great art style, a combo that is perfect for a chill and relaxed gaming experience.

The games aren't connected story-wise, so you can start with any of them:
Wrath of the White Witch: For a the best fantasy adventure feel, while the combat is a hit or miss depending on your taste, don't let that stop you from actually diving something that is really whimsical, this is the one with the better story in my opinion, so if you want more story than game, this is for you.
Ni no Kuni™ II: Revenant Kingdom: This one focuses more on gameplay, with a Kingdom builder, Army battles, Heavy loot focus, and even character collector, this is the one to go with if you want more game than story.

Here is the "Bonus Round" version:

AKIBA'S TRIP: Undead ＆ Undressed: A Beat'em up JRPG, where you kill Vampires in modern Japan, by using a combination of elaborate wrestling moves and every weapon you can get your hands on, and finally finishing them by stripping them till they disintegrate. A funny and silly game that has a weird amount of detail.

One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 (Wait on buying it, there seem to be a crashing problem at the moment): Yes I am aware that Pirate Warriors 4 is out and on sale, but I like this one more, and it's cheap as hell. If you're looking for something mindless but very satisfying to waste hours on, then this is really good. Even as someone who isn't a fan of the Warriors series, I really couldn't stop playing this one when I first got it, and if you're a fan of the show then this is a must.

Okami HD: I mean, what is there to say ? a true PS2 classic...on the PC, in HD, for dirt cheap. It's Okami people come on.

Please go ahead and post any great deals that I missed, or ask about any you are unsure of.

Slay the Spire and its "family"

https://steam.cryotank.net/wp-content/gallery/slaythespire/Slay-the-Spire-01-HD.png
Slay the Spire (StS) has finally arrived to Android! For two years many of us dreamed for this legendary game to be accessible on their mobile devices, and finally the day has come. No need to talk about how awesome this game is, how it basically started a new genre of card-based dungeon crawlers (UPD: or roguelike deck-builders, if you prefer the term), and even about how well or poor it works on Android hardware in its current state (there will be lots of these posts during the days to come). What I wanted to talk about is the impact this game had on (specifically) mobile industry and how other developers were able to utilize this innovative formula in their own products.
Personally, I am somewhat glad that StS release was delayed that much. This allowed a lot of "clones" to be spawned, many of which I enjoyed playing. Some of them appear to be straight rip-offs, but others introduced many fresh ideas of their own, some even surpassing the predecessor's greatness. What the heck am I talking about and how is this even possible will be revealed to you, should you decide to stay on a bit and read through the article below.

General info

First and foremost, let's clarify the important thing: card based dungeon crawlers are not Collectible Card Games (CCGs). Even though they share the same ideas, and some of them (StS included) even have a feature to permanently improve starting cards, or a mode to play with pre-constructed decks, this is not the case for the genre in general. There is no place for multiplayer and PvP battles here: a turn-down for the most, but an undeniable advantage for the rest - only though-out puzzle-like single-player experience which we can pause at any moment and continue when the time is appropriate. Thus, there will never be troubles with downtime, matchmaking, ratings, overpowered builds and other PvP stuff, as there will never be a satisfaction of crushing your opponents with the power of your mighty intellect... The fun of discovering interesting synergies between various card combinations is still present, though.
With this being said, let's quickly look through the core features of the genre, which will be relevant for almost every game we review below: - we must explore a dungeon, which (usually, but not necessarily) consists of three floors with increasing difficulty; - we have limited control over the order in which to face the challenges; - there is a powerful boss in the end of each floor; - we battle using deck of cards, usually drawing new cards from deck to hand each turn; - there is a limitation on how many cards we can play during our turn; - we start with a weak basic deck, but get new cards as rewards for fighting enemies; - there is a possibility to permanently remove (weak) cards from the deck; - successful gameplay strategies revolve around utilizing the synergies between different cards; - there are several character classes, each with their own cards and tactics; - there are often additional items to acquire in the dungeon, providing bonuses and emphasizing specific types of play;
Before Slay the Spire (StS) came out, there was another card-based dungeon crawler called Dream Quest (DQ), which considered by many to be the first game of the genre (at least the first one to make a significant impact). Not sure if the former drew inspiration from the latter, but certain parallels can easily be drawn: in fact, all of the features mentioned in the list above are valid for DQ the same way as it is for StS. The rich plethora of card based dungeon crawlers (both PC/Console and mobile) originated from some combination of the two.
StS, however, can not be considered a clone of DQ, as it introduced a lot of original ideas and spawned its own line of descendants. It is always interesting to analyze each new title to see which of two games was the biggest inspiration, and to group them accordingly. For me the main criteria lies in the core difference in battle system: - in StS, enemies (usually multiple) show their intentions at the beginning of each turn, so we know what to expect and what to play against; - in DQ, the enemy (usually single) draws and plays cards the same way as we do, often using the same abilities and synergies we ourselves can use.
Introductions aside, let's finally get to the interesting part - the games! (Note: Games are listed in alphabetical order to not give any privileges to one over another. For my personal preferences see the comment section).

Dream Quest clones

Call of Lophis takes us on a grim journey through infested lands full of deadly monsters, dangerous traps, and one of the most ridiculous card art I have ever seen. It's surprising to see how dark fantasy elements combine with the humor and gags this game presents. From the gameplay point of view, there is enough card variety and interesting synergies, but it will take a long time to reach the interesting parts. Really: this game just does not know when to end, forcing new and new dungeon locations onto us with basically the same monsters and same approaches to dealing with them over and over. Its the boss battles which crank the difficulty up to over 9000, and if we don't have the right deck by the time we reach them, there is nothing we can do to pull it off. Plus there is some shady business going on with monetization schemes, where even paid version of the game makes us spend money to unlock additional classes and grind a lot to buy permanent improvements. Only truly dedicated players will be interested in dealing with all this nonsense. [...] UPD: Haven't checked on it for a long time - maybe the situation improved somehow.
Crimson Deep is still in early alpha and was not updated for a long time. But the development hasn't stopped, and there is a new major release approaching in the nearest future. It makes no sense to talk about the game till then: the version in the store is too raw to provide any significant gameplay experience, but it would be interesting to see where it goes in the end.
Dimension of Dream is probably the only game that has the same grid-based dungeon layout as DQ itself. This time with full 3D and a possibility to fight only limited set of enemies before facing the final boss (which allows to moderate difficulty as we go, either defeating tougher enemies with better rewards, or to save HP and fight only the easy ones). This game has one of the most interesting battle systems and 6 truly unique classes with deep complex strategies unlike anything we have ever seen (not only the cards themselves, but the order in which we play them greatly affects the outcome). Unfortunately, the English version was pulled from Google Play, leaving only Chinese version for Asian people to enjoy. UPD: Apparently, the game was re-released under different publisher with the title Dreaming Dimension, so there you have it. [...]
Meteorfall: Journeys offers the streamlined approach to dungeon crawling, where all our decisions boil down to Reigns-like "swipe left / swipe right" operation: picking the path, encounter resolutions, and even battles are simplified to utilize this binary choice mechanic. But don't worry: these specifics do not affect the gameplay, still providing enough strategic depth to appeal even to hardcore players. Add here a neat visual style, lots of character classes and their variations, cool card combos, and you get a true masterpiece, which is Meteorfall. [...]
Night of the Full Moon offers a fresh take on a fairy tale of Red Riding Hood, but adding darker elements to it (including werewolves, zombies, mad scientists and cursed cultists). It demonstrates an amazing production quality with top-tier art, beautiful audio support, and intriguing storytelling. Gameplay wise, we have the closest thing to DQ, safe for the grid-based dungeon maps, which were changed to just picking the encounter out of available three. Some people may argue that the game does not offer enough strategic variety, only suggesting a single best build for each class, but you will still get different runs due to the randomness of card and power-up drops. Another argument of it being too easy is completely nullified on higher difficulty levels. Wish the story would develop in a different direction, though. [...]
Spellsword Cards: Origins provides the gameplay similar to the Night of the Full moon, but focuses more on role-playing character development part. Aside from choosing a class, we also get to pick race with unique traits, and a school of magic, greatly affecting which cards will be available to us during the run. The problem here, though, is that monster encounters do not demonstrate a lot of variety, forcing us to fight the same enemies over and over, and the difficulty is rather high, with starting cards doing almost nothing and enemies quickly run out of hand with their devastating attacks, whereas good cards are hard to come by, and even then you will still be devastated on later stages. [...] UPD: Or maybe I am just bad at this game (welcome to comment section for valid strategy suggestions).

Slay the Spire clones

Blood Card offers a unique possibility to construct the dungeon ourselves, providing a pool of encounters of different types: regular monsters, elite monsters, events and shops. We pick a desired encounter from the pool, deal with it and then move on to the next one. Another interesting feature is that our health is defined by the number of cards in draw pile, which limits our tactical possibilities, but is compensated by the fact that we get multiple copies of cards as rewards for fighting enemies. There are a lot of interesting mechanics related to moving cards between various piles, as well as other neat features (like: the Death inevitably arrives in three turns and starts whacking everyone on the field with increasing persistence), but I'll leave them for you to discover on your own.
Card Crusade seemed like a cool idea of mixing classic "roguelike" dungeon crawling with its "deck-based" counterpart, where we explore the dungeon the same way as we do it in Hack, Angband, Pixel Dungeon and other similar games, but use cards to fight actual enemies. In reality though, this implementation just adds a useless abstraction, as the adventuring does not provide any tactical benefits and is only there to inter-connect battle sequences (heck, even breaking pots and chests does not give us any coin, of which developers themselves warn us at the very beginning!). The cards are not very interesting, with next to none cool synergies, and new classes (which should be unlocked by performing specific actions on previous runs) do not provide any major difference. [...]
Card Quest takes us on an epic journey through fantasy lands, where we will perform great deeds as one of the classic RPG hero classes (fighter, wizard, rogue, ranger), each with their own equipment and fighting disciplines. The interesting part is that the cards we use during runs are defined by said equipment, and if we find some new pieces during our adventure, we get to keep them for further runs. Also worth noting that defense cards are played not during our turn, but during enemy turn, which requires us to plan ahead a bit. This being said, the game is extremely hard - it will take a lot of unsuccessful tries to finally reach the end. But the variety of dungeons and possible builds will keep us occupied for long.
Dungeon Tales for a long time was the closest, yet simplified copy of StS mechanics (up to similar cards and gaming strategies), but without certain elaborate features, like upgrading cards or using potions. The basics are left intact though: we still build our deck along the way and face the powerful boss in the end. There are only two characters available yet, but each has a couple of viable builds, so it can keep us invested for quite some time. [...]
Endless Abyss is a close StS clone with very similar character classes (only two so far) and a lot of cards with exactly the same effects. Graphically the game looks very good, but angry monetization, lots of grinding, and forced ads make it almost impossible to fully enjoy. [...]
Heroes of Abyss is a predecessor to Endless Abyss with basically the same core gameplay, but very simplified dungeon crawling part. There is no floor map with choosing our path, nor there are elaborate adventure events: just a series of battles with the boss in the end. The spoils we get after each battle go into improving our starting deck and unlocking new difficulty modes with higher rewards. What makes the game unusual, is that we chose the preferred build right from the beginning with appropriate set of starting cards, without the need to rely on the randomness of card drops. It may be interesting to unlock and compare all the 6 available builds, but once the task is done, there is almost no reason to play the game further.
Heroes Journey provides a different setting for a change: this time we will play as space explorers, who crash landed on an alien planet. Thus, instead of familiar swords and bows, we will be wielding blasters and energy shields: the rest remains the same, up to the majority of cards straight up copied from StS. Unfortunately, this innovative idea was completely ruined by repetitive grinding and angry monetization, forcing player to make dozens of identical runs with the same small card pool, until something adequate is unlocked. Oh, and the game is long abandoned by the developers.
Pirates Outlaws is an amazing rework of original StS ideas in a pirate setting with some changes to gameplay mechanics, such as introducing persistent charges needed to play certain cards, and different buff/debuff statuses that replace each other. There are also some questionable features, such as ship stamina that deteriorates over the course of the journey and leads to game over if not repaired in time, or a quest system, where quests can not be completed in parallel, but instead picking the new quest resets your progress in the current one. Some may also argue that new classes take long to grind for, or expensive to pay for, but with permanent booster pack this should not be a problem. Anyway, the game is highly recommended for any StS fan. [...]
Rogue Adventure offers a twist to usual mechanic: our hand is limited by 4 cards, but each time we use one of them, a new card is immediately drawn to its place, thus we never run out of cards to play. Non-starting cards are common for all classes, but are grouped by type (or race), giving huge synergies depending on how many similar cards we have. Aside from this, the game offers diverse gameplay by providing a lot of different classes, each with its own unique strategies and dynamics, and some interesting items to work around. The developers constantly provide updates with bug fixes and new content, but be warned that new mechanics may break what you are already accustomed for.
Royal Booty Quest started as a straight rip-off from StS with the same classes and abilities, and even cards having the same names. And absolutely atrocious pixelated visuals, which were not possible to look at without eyes bleeding out. Over time, though, it developed its own unique mechanics and interesting card combinations, but the art style did not get any better. However, if this is not a problem, the game is enjoyable to an extent, but since it was not updated for a long time, I doubt it will keeps anyone's interest for long. [...]
Tavern Rumble adds an unusual strategic element - a 3x3 grid, on each units and enemies are placed. The core gameplay remains the same (we still see what opponents are planning to do each turn and adjust our own strategy accordingly), but the addition of the grid introduces another tactical layer: not only we should maximize the damage output, but also plan the layout for our troops to provide the effective delivery of said output, while at the same time establish enough defense to minimize the damage to ourselves. There are a lot of cards and classes to play around, different play modes and a lot of features that are still being constantly added to the game. Some may argue about simplistic pixel graphics or long repetitive grinding, but it is easy to unlock everything within reasonable amount of time, even without paying. [...]

Other Games

Of course, my criteria does not work 100% of the time, as some games are way too different from anything else to confidently enroll them into one of the categories. They either demonstrate traits of both, or implement entirely unique mechanics of their own (which I like the most), while still maintaining the basic dungeon crawling ideas (so a lot of the games you might think of will not end up in the list). What I have in mind is the following:
Dungeon Reels removes the cards from card-based dungeon crawler - why bother, right? Instead, it provides some kind of a slot machine, where each turn three rows spin independently to pick available actions based on what slots we have in our reel. Winning battles awards us with new, better slots to add, each with their own specifics and synergies. Enemies also randomize their moves with slots of their own, but the most satisfying mechanic is the possibility to spin a jackpot with three identical slots for some powerful effect. It is interesting to see this concept developed further, but the game has not been updated for a long time.
Iris and the Giant takes us on journey through imaginary world, inspired by Ancient Greek mythology. Each battle takes place on a grid, where various enemies advance in huge numbers. We play a card from our hand, usually dealing damage to nearest enemy, and then everyone who is still standing and can reach us deals damage in return. There are cards that target multiple enemies at once, as well as ways to play more than one card during our turn, so most of the time we will be deciding which card to play at which moment. The deck has limited size, and if it becomes empty we lose, so new cards should be constantly acquired. There are a lot of interesting mechanics to discover, but the game is very hard and luck based, requiring a lot of trial-and-error to finally reach the end. [...]
Phantom Rose Scarlet has the same basic core, but with completely innovative battle system, not seen in any other game. On each turn there are four positions for cards to be played in strict order, where two of them are randomly filled with opponent's cards, and the remaining two are left for us to fill. Instead of drawing the hand, we have our entire deck available right away, but playing cards puts them on a cooldown, which does not reset between battles, so we constantly face the strategic choice of playing our best cards right away or keep them for later. The game is in active development, providing new mechanics and further developing the story, which is quite captivating here. [...]
Void Tyrant is a bit of a stretch, but still a "card based dungeon crawler", in which we basically play BlackJack against our enemies by dealing card with numbers from 1 to 6 one-by-one from our deck until we stand or bust. Whoever has the highest value wins and deals damage to the loser. There are various supporting cards on top of this mechanic, allowing us to either jinx the outcome in our favor, or to perform various other metagame manipulations. The only downside of the game is the lack of content, as it quickly runs out of interesting things, and since it was not updated for a long time, it is unlikely that anything new will be added in the future. [...]

Conclusion

As you see, there is a lot to play besides StS, so even if you are not hyped by its long-awaited Android release, but appreciate a good intellectual dungeon crawler, you will find something to suit your needs. I hope, even with StS release, new games of the genre will continue appearing on mobile phones, and I will gladly review them and add to the list. If you know any hidden gems (or even trash) that was not highlighted in this article, please share the names and/or links in the comments. I am also open to any discussions on the topic, as I am obviously able to talk a lot about my favorite genre.
Good luck to everyone in all your endeavors.
P.S. I am well aware of games like Dungeon Cards, Card Adventure, Dungeon Faster, Meteorfall: Krumitz Tale, Card Thief, Maze Machina, Cube Card, Card Hog, Fisherman, Relics of the Fallen and other "grid-based puzzles", but do not consider them to be a part of the "family".

Lockdown 3.0 Things to do, plus help and support.

Disclaimer I want to thank everyone for the gilds, replies and suggestions. I just do not have time to reply to everyone, but I am reading everything. I am not sure how much bigger the thread can be, I already typed this but it vanished so I think I'm at the limit. I will try to keep updating, but I don't expect the thread to be up top for much longer and will likely vanish soon, so if you need anything save it.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers

Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
Disney+
Britbox
Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder

If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV

If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is

The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design

Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts

Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.

Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months

Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.

There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks

Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.

Education

Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.

If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change

If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."

That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish

Duolingo Numerous people have suggested this So I haven't used myself. Thanks to OhHiGCHQ StephanieMecredy & Allorie_95

Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:

Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
Communal religious worship
Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house

I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)

To flee the threat of harm or violence.*
CoronaVirus Symptoms
CoronaVirus government site You can check your location and how many cases here.
Worldometers Shows cases around the world.
Interactive UK Map Another easy to read map with cases in counties and local area's.
World Health Organisation

Support

FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted these links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:

Update:
Digital Art
These are Free

Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.

You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.

LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.

Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here

/r/RedDeadOnline Simple Questions & FAQ Thread.

/RedDeadOnline Simple Questions & FAQ Thread.

If your question isn't answered below, leave a comment and a community member will try to help!
If there are any frequently asked questions missing, then please comment with that question & what the answer is. Please also feel free to improve on any of the answers below.
We'll reward members who help most often with a special flair / badge to use on the sub!
We'll be redirecting all simple/one liner questions to this thread in the hopes of reducing spam/repeat posts. Please report any you see under Rule 6, commonly posted question.

PC / Next-Gen / Stand-alone Questions

Q) If I buy on Rockstar Launcher, can I play with friends on Steam?

Yes, you can play with friends on PC regardless of what store they bought it from. Even Steam GTA, uses Rockstar to launch the game.

Q) Can we transfer our characters from PS4 and Xbox One to PC?

No, you cannot transfer characters to a different platform, e.g Xbox to PC. The game is cross-gen however, so if you play PS4 you can continue on PS5.

Q) If I buy a next-gen console, can I play with friends on old-gen consoles?

Yes! The game is backwards compatible on console, so you can play with friends on PS4/PS5 or XB1/XBX

Q) If I already own Red Dead Redemption 2, do I need to buy Red Dead Online again when it goes standalone?

No! Red Dead Online is still part of the RDR2 game.

Red Dead Online: General Questions

Q) What are the currencies in Red Dead Online?

Cash, the main currency in RDO that is earned through almost every activity.
Gold Bars, the premium currency in RDO that can be purchased using real money. You earn a small amount of gold for completing activities online.
Role Tokens, earned by levelling up in each role, used to unlock abilities & items for the five current roles.

Q) What is the Outlaw pass?

The Outlaw Pass is an in-game purchase using the premium Gold currency that allows you to earn items/rewards as you level up.
Outlaw Pass are only available for a limited time and once they finish, you can't access them again.

Q) What are Daily Challenges?

Every day at 6am UTC, you are given a new list of 7 daily challenges as well as 15 role daily challenges. They can range from hunting specific animals or finding certain herbs, to completing PVP/Freeroam events.
Initially, you earn 0.1 Gold per completed challenge plus a bonus if you complete all 7 regular challenges.
After completing at least 1 challenge per day for 7 days, you then earn a little more gold per challenge each week before your daily challenge streak resets after 28 days.
Your daily challenge streak will then reset, and you start the process again.
In addition to this, there are also 3 daily challenges for each role available and you can do a max of 9 role daily challenges. Daily challenges for roles will also differ depending on your rank within each role.

Q) What are Free-roam events (role/normal)

Every 45 minutes, you'll receive an invite to a free-roam event. Free-roam events can be activities such as fishing, horse racing, archery competitions, or PVP. You earn XP + cash for completing.
There are also role specific events that happen every 90 minutes, you need to be ranked up and enrolled in each role before you'll see invites for these activities.
You can see the schedule for free-roam & role events here

Q) What are ability cards?

Abilities in Red Dead Online are assigned to a character through Ability Cards. These are divided into two different types. Dead Eye cards that grant abilities only active during Dead Eye, while Passive cards add abilities that are always active, no matter what you do. Passive abilities are further divided into several different categories.
In Red Dead Online, it's not possible to assign all of the available abilities to the character, as there are only 4 slots available. One slot is used for a single Dead Eye card, while the remaining three slots are used for Passive abilities. ^{^{^{^Source.}}}

Q) What are the playing styles online?

Defensive: Players in Defensive mode will be indicated by a shield icon, will take reduced damage from enemy players, cannot be lassoed, melee attacked, executed or targeted with auto-aim. Defensive players will also be excluded from being targeted in PvP-related missions such as Player Assassination. Those who attack Defensive players receive hefty penalties via the Hostility system, while players who initiate conflict while in Defensive mode will be instantly pulled out of Defensive mode and also receive similar Hostility penalties.
Offensive: The Offensive playing style is set as the default and is how most players traditionally interact in Free Roam – free to engage in hostile contact with other players if you are prepared to accept the potential consequences.

Red Dead Online: Other Questions

Q) How do I dual wield?

At rank 25, you can buy an off-hand holster which allows you to equip a second handgun.

Q) How do I change appearance

Press Left on the D Pad (Keyboard TBC) to bring the Online menu up > Scroll down to Online Options > Scroll down to Change Appearance

Q) How do I setup camp

Press Left on the D Pad (Keyboard TBC) to bring the Online menu up > Scroll down to camp options > Choose location for camp
Camps can be used to access wardrobes, collect items you've ordered via the catalog, craft & cook and fast travel if upgraded.
A small camp is suitable for 1-4 posse members and costs $1 per in game day. A large camp is suitable for 1-7 posse members and costs $2 per in game day.

Q) Where is the gun locker?

You unlock it through the trader role, then purchase it at Wilderness Outfitters in camp, and then it appears at your specific tent in camp.

Q) How do I buy a dog?

At your camp, head to Cripps and access Wilderness Outfitters, from there you can select the dog option.

Q) What can dogs be used for?

Looking cool at your camp and warning you of camp raids when you unlock the perk. Not really much else. (They're not companions like Dogmeat from Fallout 4)

Q) I saw an item, but can't find it on PC or Xbox One.

Some items are exclusive to PS4, so you may see things promoted by Rockstar that aren't yet available on your platform or it may be from an old Outlaw Pass.

Q) What is the best Horse

This post should help.

Q) What are the best Weapons

Captain Balrick's arsenal should help you decide

Q) What is the best ability card loadout

This post in the /RedDeadOnline mega-guide should help.

Q) What is the best way to make money/gold

This post should help.

Q) Where are the treasure maps located?

You can find them all here.

Red Dead Online: Roles

Q) Can I have more than 1 role active?

Yes! You can play in all roles concurrently.

Bounty Hunter Role

Q) What is the Bounty Hunter role?

Get started as a Bounty Hunter when you meet the Legendary Bounty Hunter in Rhodes and purchase the Bounty Hunter License. The standard cost is 15 Gold Bars.
Licensed Bounty Hunters can pick up work by visiting bounty boards located near law offices, post offices and train stations across the states. There is no shortage of criminals to be dealt with and the targets range in difficulty, from lone low-level petty thieves to notorious outlaws with armed protection details and a watchful eye. Taking on an armed gang or bringing multiple targets to justice is made easier with the help of a Posse, who will all earn a cut of the final bounty. And keep in mind, bringing in targets alive will yield a greater reward.
Reaching Bounty Hunter Rank 12 will open up the opportunity to take down other players with high bounties of $20 or more. Bounty Hunters will be notified through an invite about the opportunity to hunt down the wanted player when they’re nearby in a structured pursuit. The wanted player must escape (or surrender) within the allotted time and if captured, they’ll also have opportunities to escape and flee. If the Bounty Hunter brings the target in alive, they’ll receive an award while the criminal serves time.

Q) What are legendary bounties?

Legendary bounties are high-tier bounties, they usually involve a mini-story/cut scene. They're also much tougher than a regular bounty.
There are 10 legendary bounties that can be access as part of the Bounty Hunter role and 3 that can be accessed (when they've all released) by purchasing the Prestigious Bounty Hunter upgrade.

Trader Role

Q) What is the Trader role?

our trusted camp companion, Cripps, has long dreamed of starting a trading outpost and you’re going to help him make it happen - by becoming a partner in the fledgling Cripps Trading Company. Combining Cripps’ lifetime of working with animal materials and your skills at hunting and frontier security, you’ll have the perfect ingredients to develop a thriving business.
Once you agree to help Cripps, you can start turning your camp into a business by sourcing items for Cripps to convert into sellable goods. An investment of 15 Gold Bars to purchase a Butcher’s Table will get your business up and running.
Once you’re operational, you’ll provide Cripps with Materials through hunting animals – pristine pelts and carcasses will provide better yields. You’ll also take on Resupply Missions to acquire additional necessities through less than savory tactics. Once supplied, Cripps will begin turning the materials into sellable goods, which can then be sent out on low-risk local deliveries for payment or across greater distances for a premium.
Improve your hunting yields with a Hunting Wagon for larger hauls or upgrade your Delivery Wagons for larger sales. As business flourishes and your presence becomes known in the market, your competition may grow jealous of your success, so keep an eye out for raids on your camp. As your trade grows, you might consider purchasing a camp dog from Wilderness Outfitters. Not only are dogs great camp companions for all players, but a Trader of sufficient rank can teach their dog to warn of incoming attacks.

Q) Can I skip the medium wagon?

No, you need to buy the medium wagon, then the large wagon.

Q) What can I sell to Cripps?

You can sell carcasses & small animals (e.g squirrels). Along with some animal parts, e.g feathers.
Cripps does not accept meat, fish or skinned carcasses.

Q) How long does it take Cripps to make goods after resupplying?

Cripps requires materials and supplies to produce goods. You give him materials by donating carcasses and pelts. He uses two units of materials to produce one good. You either buy supplies or obtain them through resupply missions. Either way, that gives enough supplies to produce 25 goods. As long as both materials and supplies are available, Cripps produces 1 good every 2 minutes (1 in-game hour).

Collector Role

Q) What is the Collector role?

Seek out the mysterious travelling saleswoman Madam Nazar to acquire the Collector’s Bag and get started on the path of the Collector. It will cost 15 Gold Bars for access to collecting and selling rare items.
With Madam Nazar’s help, you will be able to explore the world finding valuable treasures, whether they’re discarded Tarot cards in abandoned camps, buried treasures unearthed with your trusty shovel, hidden family heirlooms and more.
Collect individual pieces and sell them off directly to Madam Nazar or collect entire sets for even more valuable sales. As you progress, you’ll unlock enhanced searching skills; more useful tools like a metal detector; benefits like increased carrying capacities; the ability for your horse to directly pluck and pass herbs to you while mounted, and more.

Q) Where is Madam Nazar?

Madam Nazar can be located by completing a map/collection for her. Her location is posted daily on /RedDeadDailies - She changes location at 6am UTC time each day.
You can also find her using https://madamnazar.io/

Q) Who is Madam Nazar?

Madam Nazar is the Collector role vendor, you can obtain maps, cosmetics & other items such as the shovel from her.

Q) Why is Madam Nazar?

...

Q) Where do you buy a shovel?

From Madam Nazar, it costs $350. If you need help finding her, check /RedDeadDailies

Q) Where do you buy a metal detector?

From Madam Nazar, it unlocks at level 5 and costs $700. If you need help finding her, check /RedDeadDailies

Q) Can you sell collector items individually or does it need to be a full set?

Yes, however you get far less money than you would if you sold a full collection

Q) Can you only have one collector map active?

Yes, if you try to open a second map, it may auto-close and almost looks like a bug, however, you should only try and activate one at any given time.

Moonshiner Role:

Q) I already met Maggie but I didn't buy a shack, now I can't find how to buy the shack?

In the options menu (left on the D-pad, or L on PC), select "Camp & Properties" → "Moonshine Shack" → "Shack Location".

Will be expanded upon soon...

Naturalist Role

Will be updated soon...

Useful Red Dead Online Resources

/RedDeadDailies - A subreddit dedicated to sharing daily challenge information
/RedDeadCollector - The best place to ask for support with any locations for collector items.
Collector map.
/RedDeadOnline mega-guide.
Free-roam event schedule
Red Dead Online Discord

This thread will be posted at 6am UTC every Monday. We'll aim to update & add any additional questions in time for the new thread being posted each week.

Log Horizon Seasons 1-2 Recap/Primer (Anime-Only)

Log Horizon season 3 is about to start, and if you're like me you do not at all remember everything that happened in seasons 1 and 2. Well, I didn't want to risk getting spoiled from reading wikis, so I binge-rewatched the first two seasons this past weekend and took a ton of notes so I can share with anyone else needing a reminder or ten.

This is certified 100% anime-only content meant specifically for anime viewers. I haven't even glanced at the light novels or wiki. Fans who have read the novels, this is NOT the place for you to chime in with "clarifications" and "by the ways". This place is for anime-only viewers, most of whom do not want to know the slightest bit of what happens next so we can experience it ourselves. I and the people in this thread do not give a rat-man's ass about some novel exposition from volume 2 that the anime skipped over in season 1 - go make your own thread if you are compelled to share that information.

This post is almost certainly going to hit the character limit, so I'm not going to summarize every major character or every plotline from the first two seasons. I could never hope to outline every major character's arc and development over 50 episodes in that few characters. Instead, I am only going to focus on the rules of the world and the plotlines that were still ongoing/unresolved at the end of season 2 - in other words, what I think you may need to know heading into season 3. Even if you don't remember them well, I'm sure you'll pick up the interdynamics of all these goofballs well enough just from seeing them in action again.

Poster Characters

Basics

Elder Tale was a MMORPG that a bunch of people played. One day, everyone who was logged on got transported into a world that resembles the game. This event is now known as The Apocalypse.
Elder Tale's setting was called Theldesia. Geographically, it is the same land/ocean layout as the real Earth, but half as large.
When it was just a MMORPG, the game had 13 different servers, separated by region. If your character was in Theldesia's equivalent of Japan, you'd be playing on the Japanese server, and in order to travel to Theldesia's equivalent of Australia you'd have to switch to the Australian server. Most players played on the server corresponding to their region.
A 14th server, called Mare Tranquillitatis, also existed - it was a beta-testing server used for experimentation and testing features before they rolled out. Some players had access to it. Its geographical region is... the Moon.
The series has so far taken place entirely in the Theldesia equivalent of Japan, which is called Yamato or The Yamato Islands, and particularly in the city of Akiba (aka Akihabira) which is located approximately where Tokyo would be.
The Elder Tale MMORPG ran for 20 years in real-life before The Apocalypse happened.
Post-Apocalypse, the history of Theldesia has a ratio of 12:1 for events that happened in Theldesia vs in the real world. An event that happened in the 10th (real-life) year of Elder Tale's run happened 120 years ago in Theldesia history. This means that some Adventurers who had created their accounts and done notable things in earlier years of the Elder Tale game are now characters that are known to be over a 100 years old within the history of Theldesia.
When people and monsters in Theldisia die, their corpses turn into bubbles/particles after a short time.
The Apocalypse happened on the same day that the 12th expansion for Elder Tale was launching. This new expansion - called The Novasphere Pioneers - increased the level cap for players from 90 to 100, and was to include many new raid bosses and other content. Because of timezones, only the Japanese server had the expansion applied at the time The Apocalypse occured.
As of the end of season 2, it has been about 1 year in Theldesia since The Apocalypse.

Populations of Theldesia

Adventurers

Adventurers is the collective name of player characters in Elder Tale, turned special folks trapped in Theldesia after The Apocalypse.
Adventurers can be any of a bunch of different races - humans, dwarves, cat-people, fox-people, wolf-people, and more. They have classes, special skills, and all sorts of MMORPG staples, and typically can improve all these things beyond any other population in Theldesia.
Adventurers have a "friends list" which they can add each other to. They can make long-distance voice calls to anyone on their friends list - they refer to this as Telepathy.
Adventurers can also talk psychically to other adventurers they have formed a party or a raid team with. Note that this is a separate ability than Telepathy, so effects that block Telepathy from working won't necessarily also prevent party/raid chat.
When an Adventurer dies, they reappear at a Cathedral or another respawn point nearby (e.g. if in a raid zone they respawn at its entrance) after some time (anywhere from minutes to half a day).
In-between dying and reappearing, they have surreal experiences based on moments from their life before The Apocalypse, during which they must mentally confront the failures that lead to them dying. Once they've finished that, they appear on a beach on the moon (Mare Tranquillitatis) with the world (presumably Theldesia, though it could be the actual Earth I suppose) hovering overhead. There, the Adventurer must sacrifice a piece of themself (eventually confirmed to be a memory from their life before The Apocalypse) to return. When they wake up, they retain only the vaguest memory of this ritual or none at all. (See S2E6 for an example.)
Adventurers mostly live in Adventurer Cities - cities that have special buildings like guild halls, banks, and Cathedrals, and which are populated mostly by Adventurers but with many supporting People of the Land living there, too. Most or all of the Adventurer Cities in Yamato and many of their surroundings have a post-apocalyptic aesthetic, full of overgrown abandoned modern structures like highways, parking garages, and broken-down cars. There are 5 Adventurer Cities in Yamato:
Akiba (aka Akihabara) - Situated where Tokyo would be in real life. This is the primary setting of the series. Governed relatively liberally by the Round Table, a group of the most influential guilds.
Shibuya - An incomplete Adventurer city with no guild hall very near to Akiba. All the adventurers who were there have gone to Akiba so it is empty.
Susukino - Northern city in the real-life equivalent of Hokkaido. It started out as a violent city run by oppressive guilds. Akiba sent forces up there several times to let anyone who wants to leave it and come to Akiba, so only a couple hundred Adventurers remain there. The Akiba guild Silver Sword ended up moving there and taking it over, which made it less violent and lawless than before.
Minami - Situated to the west, vaguely where real-life Osaka would be. Governed autocratically by the guild Plant Hwyaden.
Nakasu - Even farther to the west. Very little is known about it.

Monsters

Monsters are hostile wild animals - things like angry giant plants, wild felines that attack in forests, etc. They are aggressive, have stats and levels and special skills, but are of similar intelligence to animals. They haunt certain areas, and when they die eventually replacements respawn there.
After they are killed and their bodies dissipate they "drop" ingredient/crafting items and gold coins.
Most Adventurer Cities, People of the Land cities, and some People of the Land villages have a "no monster" effect/barrier that prevents monsters from entering into them. Large-scale events like the goblin nation invading Eastal are probably not prevented by this.

Demi-Humans

Demi-Humans are a special type of monsters that includes species like goblins, giants, fishmen, and other usually-humanoid hostile creatures. Unlike other monsters, they have actual social structures, use weaponary, and seem to be at least semi-sentient.
Miscellaneous demi-humans can be found in the wild like monsters, but larger populations of them also occupy significant portions of territory - e.g. there is an area of Yamato full of goblin tribes that live in their own society and where People of the Land are not present. These areas can have complex social structures.
Similar to monsters, demi-humans magically spawn/respawn in their lands. Since they have some intelligence but are difficult to research, it's unclear whether this is new individuals spawning or whether they are actually respawning with intact personalities in a similar manner to Adventurers.

People of the Land

People of the Land are what were NPCs back when it was a MMORPG. In the game they just had simple NPC patterns, always saying the same things and doing the same basic tasks, but since The Apocalypse they are now fully sentient humanoids with their own lives, backstories, generations, politics, culture, etc. The People of the Land greatly outnumber the Adventurers - for every Adventurer City there are another dozen or more "regular" cities full of People of the Land and a bajillion towns and farms spread across the countryside.
People die when they are killed.
Revival spells on a recently-dead Person of the Land slows down how fast their body disperses but doesn't prevent it.
The People of the Land in eastern Yamato (the area around Akiba) are socially structured as European-style feudal nobility, with each city and its surroundings ruled by a Baron and a patrilineal Duke as overall ruler of the area, or something like that. They have their own knights, armies, academia, etc.
Named NPCs would have lasted in the game for the whole 20 years that it ran before The Apocalypse, and with the timeline acceleration mentioned earlier that would make some of them a hundred years old or more, but it seems The Apocalypse retconned this and where necessary the names of characters the required continuation became titles passed from teacher to student, and so on. The People of the Land don't seem aware of any incongruities there.
People of the Land can learn skills, have classes, and other things that Adventurers can do, but they learn them much more slowly and generally have a lower "cap" on their level or abilities than Adventurers.
While People of the Land are less powerful than Adventurers, in some special cases they can have access to equipment that puts them on par or beyond the abilities of Adventurers. Of particular note, the Royal Guard (aka Defenders) are People of the Land who keep the peace in the no-combat-zones of Adventurer Cities - they have special armour that massively buffs their physical abilities and makes them able to teleport around the city.

Ancients:

Ancients (aka Progenitors) are a special class of People of the Land that are much more powerful than usual - even more powerful than maxed out Adventurers. In the MMORPG, these were mainly for two roles - legendary NPC characters tied to a particular quest, and the 13 Knight Orders. Only one Knight Order has been named in the anime - the Knights of Izumo that defended Yamato (since there are 13 regional servers, presumably there is one Knight Order per server). The Knights of Izumo suddenly disappeared around the time of The Apocalypse.

The Kunie Clan:

The Kunie Clan are a special group of People of the Land that manage all the banking and financial systems of Theldesia. They are of some mysterious other humanoid race that look similar but not quite the same as humans or elves, and they seem to all be almost identical (plus many or all of them seem to go by the same name, Kinjō, making them even harder to tell apart).
They can be found at the guild halls or banks of Adventurer Cities and similar places, but they also have secretive villages where they originate from that Adventurers and most People of the Land do not know about.
The Kunie Clan are not necessarily the actual cause, but are at least somehow involved with the world's supply of gold and how it gets distributed to monsters/demi-humans when they spawn. This includes access to the giant lake of gold coins that reside deep below the Depths of Palm and which serves as the world's main vault to store coins before they teleport to monsters and demi-humans.
They are also involved with many other "fundamental" aspects of the world, especially operating and managing ancient magical technology. For example, they can deactivate and reactivate the magic circles beneath Adventurer Cities which power the anti-monster barriers and Guard armour within the cities.

Instincts, Progress, & Innovation

When Elder Tale was a game, players were limited in what they could achieve by the limitations of built-in character animations, feats needing to have been pre-programmed as skills, and the game interface itself. Following The Apocalypse, the Adventurers in Theldesia still have access to the game interface and can still do everything the old way... but they don't have to. A magical leaping sword strike formerly activated by pushing a button can now also be activated by doing the same motions and thinking about using that skill. In fact, the latter option is better - the Adventurer can control and manipulate the skill with greater control and precision than the rote motions that result from doing it through the menu.
Just as this applies to combat skills, so it goes for the rest of the world:

Food and Crafting

Combining ingredient items through the in-game interface according to a pre-programmed recipe makes food that looks correct and does nourish the body, but has no distinct taste or smell. But, if a player with the chef sub-class actually combines and prepares the ingredients by hand, it makes real food. More complex and difficult recipes require finer ingredients and a higher level in the cooking skill or they still end up turning to mush.
Similarly, Adventurers with crafting sub-classes and skills can make superior, more refined, and more varied designs if they go through the process by-hand rather than using the crafting menu.

Innovation

Adventurers with the skill and ingenuity to create and craft things by-hand rather than using the menus are also not bound by the finite list of recipes and inventions that were programmed into Elder Tale. They can combine basics in all sorts of new ways not seen before. Soon after The Apocalypse, clever Adventurers developed basic steam engines and the rate of invention has been rapid ever since - less than a year later, someone has mixed magic and technology together to create a magitech hover train.
These changes have had a far-reaching effect on the societies and economies of Theldesia. Facets of Adventurer culture such as their food and clothing have been swiftly embraced by the People of the Land and Adventurer economies have largely shifted away from quest-like tasks such as raids or guarding a People of the Land caravan to their own Adventurer industries, which has fractured the traditional Adventurer-People of the Land relationship and lead to many unforeseen consequences, such as an attempted goblin invasion.

Teachings

Teachings (aka Overskills) are supposed new skills achieved by some Adventurers that were not possible back when it was a game. They are commonly perceived as being a higher-tier version of commonly known skills or powerful new abilities.
In actuality, Teachings are just (a) unorthodox applications of existing skills, or (b) instincts gained from becoming more in-touch with the world and losing the mentality of it being a game. E.g. Nazuna figured out that she can use the protective barriers she normally cast on other people as airborne platforms she can climb/jump on instead. Adventurers tend to

"The Apocalypse is not over yet"

As Shiroe comments, the natural laws of the world post-Apocalypse are altogether a confused mish-mash of Elder Tale game mechanics with real-world logic. Gradually, however, these two separate systems are starting to merge. Some known examples are:

Initially, an Adventurer needed to have the chef sub-class in order to be able to make any real food - even if a non-chef Adventurer prepared the ingredients perfectly, it would still turn to mush. After some time, though, anyone can now make basic recipes and the chef sub-class (plus leveled up cooking skill) is only needed for intermediate and harder recipes. Likewise for any other sort of crafting.
Adventurers whose Elder Tale avatar had a different body than their real body got stuck in their avatar's body, but retained their original voice. Over time, their voices are becoming more like what their body's physical vocal cords would naturally sound like.
The size of the world is slowly increasing, presumably until it becomes the same scale as the real Earth.
Objects had all sorts of associated flavour text in Elder Tale. They still have this flavour text in Theledisia after The Apocalypse, but it is just that - two objects with the same stats but different flavour text behave identically. After many months, though, the flavour text of some objects started coming true.

The Debauchery Tea Party

The Tea Party was a group of 15~30 Adventurers on the Japan server that frequently partied together in Elder Tale, many years before The Apocalypse. They were known for pulling off a number of incredible feats in the game, and generally had a more loose and fun tone than other groups since they weren't a structured Guild.
The Tea Party disbanded several years before The Apocalypse and many of its members moved on to other things. Some members joined or started guilds, while conversely many others had not logged in for years by the time of The Apocalypse.
Almost immediately after The Apocalypse, Shiroe checked his friends list to see who else that he knew was online/trapped in Theledesia, so he should have a pretty good idea of which members are/aren't in the world, but we the audience didn't get an exact list. Currently we know of 9 former Tea Partiers who are in Theledisia...

In Akiba:

Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Nyanta partied together in Theldesia and eventually formed Log Horizon.
Back when the Tea Party disbanded, Sōjiro, Kazuna, and Saki created a guild called the West Wind Brigade, with Sōjiro as guild-master. Saki wasn't logged in at the time of The Apocalypse.

In Minami:

Intix is the #2 seat on the Council of Ten of Plant Hwyaden and therefore 2nd in command of Plant Hwyaden behind only Nureha. She seems like a real big jerk and is part of the faction there that wants war and total dictatorial control of Yamato. Up until the end of season 2, it seems she was emotionally abusing Nureha to get her way within Plant Hwyaden. (I don't think they ever actually specifically said Intix was in the Tea Party, but from the way she's shown with them in the OP and how Kazuhiko/KR talk about her it's 99% certain.)
Kazuhiko is also on the Council of Ten of Plant Hwyaden. He seems to be fairly disgruntled with the way things have been going over at Plant Hwyaden, but is hoping to change it from within. He's kind of a jerk about it, though. He and Shiroe have been occasionally in contact with each other and have been sharing some info.
KR is on the Council of Ten of Plant Hwyaden. He's very carefree, but seems like a good guy overall - like Kazuhiko he doesn't necessarily approve of the way Plant Hwyaden is running things or their desire to go to war with Eastal and Akiba. KR is a summoner with a skill to possess creatures over vast distances - at some point he possessed a horse in the China serveregion to scout out what things were like over there and while traveling around in China he encountered Kanami's party. And he can summon a giant fucking dragon that solos raid bosses. He only told Kazuhiko about his journeys in China, not Intix or the rest of the Council.

Elsewhere:

Kanami was the leader of the Tea Party for most of its run, but she moved to Rome a few years before The Apocalypse and stopped playing the game at that time. During that time she had a daughter. Eventually, she got back into Elder Tale, creating a new account on one of the European servers, and she got trapped by The Apocalypse, too. Since the Novasphere Pioneers expansion pack content had only been loaded on the Japan server and figuring it was related to The Apocalypse, Kanami started journeying from Theldesia's Europe counterpart all the way to Yamato. Also in her party are a teenage mutant ninja frog, a farming bot that may have gained sentience, and an Ancient.

Unresolved Plots & Mysteries

Regan, New Magic and the World Fractions:

Regan (aka Li Gan) is a mysterious guy who has shown up a few times and gradually become an ally of Shiroe. He was first encountered when Shiroe et al went to a conference with the People of the Land nobles. He seems to be a Person of the Land, but I don't think that was ever actually confirmed. If he is, he's an extraordinarily knowledgeable one, possibly on par with the Kunie Clan. He's a shady guy who may have a hidden agenda.
He has the title Sage of Miral Lake, a name that was associated with a lot of lore in the game before The Apocalypse but (as far as we/Shiroe know) not a character anyone ever encountered. He says it is a title passed down to him from his teacher, the previous Sage of Miral Lake.
Regan's main interest of research is magic that is on the scale of altering the entire world, something that he says has only happened 3 times so far in events he calls the World Fractions - the creation of monsters/demi-humans, the arrival of the first Adventurers (240 years ago), and The Apocalypse.
Since each World Fraction was an unprecedented form of magic, he is intensely interested in the creation of new forms of magic that did not exist prior. Shiroe's Contract Magic which turned Rudy into an Adventurer was one such new magic, and one that Regan thinks could some day be world-altering. Around the same time, Regan says he felt another brand new form of magic with similar potential happin in the west.

Death and Resurrection

Regan and his predecessors were researching a so-called Spirit Theory about how death and resurrections work. His theory posits that people (Adventurers, People of the Land, and Demi-Humans) are divided into anima (physical attributes, correlated with HP) and psyche (mental attributes, correlated with MP). The psyche and the anima are each required for a person to persist - when people take too great of an injury their anima is too damaged to persist to it dissipates; the healthy psyche stuck inside the body dies when there's no anima to support it.
Since when people die in Theldesia their bodies turn into bubbles/particles, that is their anima dissipating. If the psyche is intact, revival spells can pull those dissipated bits of anima back to the rest of the body and put them back into place (up until the point where the body has completely dissipated). But if the psyche is also destroyed, there is no mind to reassemble the anima as it once was.
For Adventurers (and possibly demi-humans), their dissipated anima particles all travel to their respawn point, so their psyche can still reassemble them there. For People of the Land, the dissipated anima just scatters in all directions, so even a healthy psyche can't do reassemble them and dies.
However, the reassembly can't be perfect... some energy must be expended for the process. And since the anima seems to be reasembled perfectly, Regan and Shiroe theorized that some psyche must be lost - in other words, the person loses some of their memories. (See S1:E14 for the full spiel)
When Shiroe shared this with the Council, Krusty was able to confirm that this is indeed the case, and further suggested that it seemed like memories of their lives from before The Apocalypse might specifically be targeted. (After a particular death, Krusty could no longer remember the name or appearance of a cat he owned.)
Regan implied the Ancients had different spirits than ordinary People of the Earth and that this could be significant.
Shiroe and Akatsuki eventually remembered the experience of being on the moon between death and revival. We don't have a lot of comparison points as no one talks about it much, but it sure seemed like Adventurers always forget that in-between experience once they woke up (Akatsuki herself when she revives seems to remember it for a moment and then quite specifically forget it).
(Continued in the Navigators section)

Enemies in the West

To the west of Akiba and Eastal are three People of the Land nations - the Westelande Empire, the Ninetail Dominions, and the Fourland Dukedom - and within those are two Adventurer Cities - Minami and Nakasu.
Following The Apocalypse, a guild called Plant Hwyaden lead by Nureha took over Minami by conning money out of the People of the Land nobility and buying the Cathedral, then forcing all Adventurers to join Plant Hwyaden through the threat of controlling the respawn building. Plant Hwyaden now rules Minami and its environs autocratically, and is much more integrated with the People of the Land nation, the Westelandian Empire, than Akiba is with Eastal. Their combined government is run by an organization called the Council of Ten Seats - Nureha and her nine advisors/ministers, which includes some people of the land.
Nureha herself is a somewhat emotionally unstable person and she occasionally runs off on her own private journeys, so the much of the actual policy-making has been driven by Intix and Mizufa, the bloodthirsty Westelandian army general.
Ever since establishing control, Plant Hwyaden have made efforts to suppress information about the west making it to the east. This isn't outright possible, as plenty of Adventurers in Akiba have friends in Minami, but it has overall made it more difficult for Shiroe and the Round Table to gather detailed information about Plant Hwyaden's capabilities and motives.
Likewise, the presence of spies from Minami in Akiba has lead to the Round Table waging their own information warfare, trying to keep their own secrets and knowledge of their operations out of the hands of Plant Hwyaden.
Nureha herself came to Eastal, disguising herself as a People of the Land chronicler named Dariella. She was seen suspiciously visiting various various places in the east, and then eventually met up with Shiroe, who saw through the disguise. Revealing herself as Nureha, she encouraged Shiroe to join Plant Hwyaden so they wouldn't have to be enemies, but Shiroe declined. Apparently she knew Shiroe in the game before The Apocalypse and is somewhat obsessed with him now, but Shiroe doesn't remember her at all, and furthermore it's clear that Nureha lies a lot so who knows how much of this is true.
Recently, factions within Plant Hwyaden - especially Intix and Mizufa - want to go to war against Eastal and Akiba. They have been power-leveling their People of the Land soldiers (using a disturbing magitech system wherein People of the Land control spirit monsters), built a giant hover train base, and have been making other preparations.
They sent a small expeditionary force to the border of Eastal which caused a bit of havoc in some towns, but Kazuhiko and Nureha made them withdraw.
The threat of all-out war or a smaller, more focused attack by a faction within Plant Hwyaden still looms large. Nureha seems to be taking a more active role in government and standing up to Intix now, but that doesn't mean she has full control or even that she wouldn't order an attack herself.

The Disappearance of Krusty Suzumiya

Krusty is the guild leader of D.D.D., one of the most important guilds in Akiba.
When flavour texts started becoming real, the scythe (which admittedly had some pretty evil flavour text) of Krusty's lieutent, Takayama Misa, one night suddenly flew up into the sky and show a giant red beam of pain around her. Krusty pushed her out of it and got caught in it himself. Then the beam disappeared, Krusty and Misa's arm vanishing with it.
For the longest time no one knew what had happened to Krusty. He did not respawn, could not be reached by Telepathy, and Misa's arm couldn't be healed or revived either.
At the very end of season 2, they discovered that Krusty is in China with Kanami.
He still has Misa's arm with him. And it is twitching (ew).

Ennui & Social Safety Nets

Living as an Adventurer is easy. Slaying a couple low-level monsters every few days gives more than enough gold coins to buy food and a bed. Throughout their time since The Apocalypse, the leaders of Akiba have struggled to keep its culture and economy engaging so that its people will have motivation and drive.
However, the mostly-capitalist system of economy and governance they've established, especially with its focus on guilds within the government structure and trade in its economy, has furthermore left a growing population of Adventurers who do not have social standing, influence, or prized trade skills and who do not wish to leave the safety of the city disenfranchised and despondent.
The Round Table is aware of the issue but hasn't figured out what to do about it.
Most recently, Eins and his enormous guild Honesty have been the leading voice for this issue. He's even suggested some extreme socialist/communist economic reform measures, but no one else thought that was a good idea.

Navigators

During a westward quest, the junior members of Log Horizon encounter Roe2, Shiroe's second account, acting independently from him. She says a bunch of cryptic stuff and also sends a letter to Shiroe via the juniors. Putting it all together (but she could be lying about some or all of this):
Navigators are artificial lifeforms that come from a society that ran out of empathion and now search different universes for more in order to survive.
What, exactly, empathion is is not entirely clear. It seems to be a resource necessary for life and which is evidently tied to the psyche.
The Navigators were brought into this world by a process they call "the Match", something they don't fully understand and which they did not cause. Probably the same thing as The Apocalypse.
Navigators are divided into two types: Observers, whose role and motives is not yet fully clear; and Harvesters, who are less intelligent than Observers or Adventurers/Humans and who prioritize collecting empathion above all else.
Adventurers dying is one way that empathion is collected. Given the name and the correlation with the psyche, it's 99.9% certain that this is the same thing as when Adventurers give up a bit of their memories on the moon before they revive.
Navigators don't have their own bodies in Theldesia - instead, they have taken over the bodies of unused character accounts and monsters. In particular, Roe2 took over Shiroe's alt account on the Mare Tranquillitatis server (and other Observers have likely taken over other accounts there) while Harvesters have taken over Geniuses (see below).
Roe2 was able to get to Yamato by swapping positions with a summoned creature, but most Observers are still on the moon. She told Shiroe that if he contacted them, they could help him find a way home.

Genius

Geniuses seem to be a new type of quest/raid boss that were introduced in the Novasphere Pioneers expansion pack. They have a common theme of being disguised as People of the Land (including all the appropriate menu pop-ups), and are only revealed as monsters after certain triggers or once confronted.
Most, but not all, of them become powerful raid bosses once revealed.
Easily identified (once unmasked) by them all having a "Genius of " title.
They have all been taken over by Harvesters, used in Harvester plots to thwart Adventurers and increase the rate of Adventurer death so that more empathions are collected. And this means they can show up anytime as new adversaries rather than only as part of quests or events.
Their abilities and tactics vary wildly. Some are simple combat adversaries, another was stealthily kidnapping Adventurers through hypnosis.
One Genius/Harvester referred to Elias, an Ancient, as "a survivor" suggesting that they are related to the disappearance of the Ancients.
While they aren't as intelligent as Adventurers/Observers, don't think of them as mindless foes. As soon as Akiba started planning to use the Shibuya antenna station, the Geniuses setup an Eternal Moth hive around it blocking the Adventurers' attempts to use it and potentially forcing them to destroy the antenna along with the hive.

The Third/Fourth Party

Since The Apocalypse, Shiroe was searching for evidence of "the third party" - that is, people or things other than Adventurers and People of the Land, and who presumably caused The Apocalypse. He believes that The Apocalypse must have been caused with some motive, and therefore whoever is responsible should be out there somewhere. However, all his various investigations could not find any evidence that a third party exists until Roe2's letter.
However, Roe2 says that the Navigators did not cause The Apocalypse, leaving this still an open-ended question.
Since the Navigators are "artificial" lifeforms, it hasn't been ruled out yet that whoever created the Navigators is also the ones that caused The Apocalypse.

A Way Home

Of course, the big question always looming over the Adventurers has always been "can we go home?" As they learn more about the world and create even more advanced new magics and technologies, they may find such a way.
At the end of season 1, Nureha suggests that Shiroe is on the verge of finding a way home. Shiroe says he doesn't know if whatever technique he's cooked up yet really does send someone home, yet, all he knows is that it makes them disappear.
Following the letter from Roe2, Akiba is now trying to contact the moon where they may be able to learn more about how to get home from the Observers.
Some Adventurers are truly desperate to return to their old life and feel that Theldesia is their prison, especially those who feel disenfranchised by the current socioeconomic structure of Akiba. At its most extreme are the Odyssey Knights, who intentionally get themselves killed in order to glimpse the old world in the mid-revival dreams.
On the other hand, many Adventurers have adapted to life in Theldesia. Many enjoy their life here better than their old life and have no wish to return.
Shiroe was torn on this issue, seeing no good option. Either undo The Apocalypse, separating thousands of happy Adventurers from their friends, their new lives, sending many back to misery... or don't, forcing the other miserable thousands to remain imprisoned in Theldesia. But a well-timed inspiring conversation with Kanami reminded Shiroe of what Log Horizon is all about - achieving the impossible third option. Hence, Shiroe and Log Horizon aren't trying to undo The Apocalypse anymore, they want to find a way to merge the two worlds so people can travel freely between them.

Other Mysteries

The fast-travel gates between Adventurer Cities have been offline since The Apocalypse. Regan says it has something to do with the moon phases.
Does old Shiro really drink that much juice in one night, or are those bottles for pissing mid-raid?
Will Akatsuki ever sit on a chair normally? Does she always sit seiza because of ninja roleplay, or because it makes her taller?
Goat slimes?

The Crushes

Shiroe and Kanami almost certainly had a mutual crush back in the Tea Party days. Shiroe wasn't over it for most of the series but he is now.
Akatsuki has a crush on Shiroe but is shy about admitting it/pushing it and Shiroe is pretty oblivious to it.
Minori also crushes on Shiroe. She's more upfront about it, but he's even more oblivious to this one, though pretty much everyone else has noticed it. (Shiroe and Akatsuki are both college-aged while Minori is like 14 or something so this isn't much of a love triangle per se, more of a character development for Minori plus a way to pressure Akatsuki into taking more initiative.)
Nureha is unhealthily obsessesing over Shiroe from afar.
Serera has a little-girls-first-admiration sort of crush for Nyanta, and absolutely everyone knows it. Nyanta is a perfect gentleman.
Marielle and Naotsugu started out as just platonic friends that get along well, but this has gradually evolved into something vaguely resembling the start of a relationship. They were even long-distance-calling each other every night to share their day with each other for a bit.
Shōryū has a crush on Marielle, which Marielle is oblvious about. Shōryū gets jealous when Marielle pays attention to other boys (particularly Naotsugu), which Hien loves to tease him about.
Henrietta likes dressing up cute girls in cosplay as a hobby/obsession. She has a squad of subjects for her obsession in her guild, but she is especially fond of doing so to Akatsuki.
Henrietta has had a couple moments of thought about crushing on Shiroe, but has no intention to pursue the idea further.
Sōjiro is a harem protagonist.
Nazuna is Sōjiro's one true love, or else the childhood bestfriend character that hangs out in the harem but ultimately only loves him platonically.
Naotsugu must decide who he loves more, Marielle or panties.
Krusty and Princess Lenessia have a pretty good thing going. I dunno what it is, but it's good and it was going, until he disappeared.
Rudy is an eager puppy and Isuzu is his proud owner.

Best

Best boy: Nyanta
Best girl: Kurinon
Best speech: Shiroe (sorry William, yours was good, too)
Best faces: Akatsuki
Best smile: Nazuna
Best hat: The other giraffe girl
Best pants: Kushiyatama

Afterword

I'm really glad I rewatched all of Log Horizon. In my opinion, it is a series that has gotten even better with age. If you are debating about delaying season 3 to rewatch the first two seasons or not, I say do it.
There was no shortage of isekai series when Log Horizon first aired, and that number has only increased since. But how many isekai series actually want to seriously engage with their premise? Having the protagonist recognize that they've been transported into a video game world only to immediately shrug off all possible ramifications of this is funny, sure, but it's also definitely taking the easy way out. Nowadays, many series don't even bother with the 5-minute isekai-and-forget-it routine and just opt to pitch it as a fantasy tale in a nonsensically video game-themed setting, but even then the characters rarely engage with the consequences of the setting being game-ified.
Not so Log Horizon.
Log Horizon never forgets that its characters are real people and real gamers, worried far more about the existential unknown than yet another goblin king. It's not just that the story dabbles into politics, economics, and social reform, though that's great, too. It's the constant fear of the unknown, the optimism to rally against it, and the heart to learn lessons from it.

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