To be perfectly honest with you, there are quite a few Soulslike games out there that arguably offer a better overall experience than Lords of the Fallen. However, few of those other Soulslike games offer the GoW-like dark fantasy setting and gory combat that Lords of the Fallen so gleefully features. 

Indeed, as a dark fantasy action RPG that revolves around a fight against the gods, Lords of the Fallen successfully scratches quite a few God of War itches. Granted, it’s tough as nails, somewhat shallow, and a bit lacking in terms of its story and characters, but this thing absolutely nails its atmosphere and methodical style of combat. 

Yakuza 0

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PC

Don’t be fooled by your initial skepticism of this suggestion. Despite their obvious differences, 2018’s GoW and Yakuza 0 actually benefit from a lot of the same design philosophies, storytelling concepts, and gameplay mechanics. 

After all, both games feature semi-open-world environments, a ton of side activities, hard-hitting fights, epic narratives, memorable characters, and a surprising amount of heart that seemingly represents the love that went into them. Granted, there’s no guarantee that loving one of these games means that you’ll even like the other, but many GoW fans may be surprised by how hard they fall for Yakuza 0 and the Yakuza franchise in general. 

Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

George Lucas is infamous for constantly changing minor details in the first two Star Wars trilogies. In fact, you could go on writing a whole novella about the things that changed with each consecutive release of the original trilogy. And don’t even get us started on the whole “who shot first?” controversy.

One scene that Lucas apparently took particular issue with involves the final moments of Return of the Jedi. The Empire is collapsing, Palpatine is (seemingly) dead, and Darth Vader has found redemption. Now is the time for our heroes to gather around a fire on the forest moon of Endor and celebrate their triumphant victory.

Except, the original score that John Williams devised for that scene, the iconic “Yub Nub” song, apparently didn’t have enough gravitas to carry the scene forward. And thus, it was changed. But why stop there when you have a free pass to literally determine what Star Wars should be? So, Lucas went through that scene again and decided that instead of the older Anakin Skywalker (portrayed by Sebastian Shaw) making an appearance as a Force Ghost alongside Yoda and Obi-Wan, we should give the honor to Hayden Christensen’s younger version because that’s who fans recognize from the prequels.

Pretty reasonable, right? The only catch is that many fans found the decision nonsensical, especially since Obi-Wan and Yoda still retained their older apparatus. Well, besides convenience, one Star Wars fan recently put forth an interesting proposition. What if Anakin appeared as his younger self so that Luke could see him as the man he was before turning into Darth Vader?

The proposition definitely makes sense from a canonical standpoint. When Anakin turned to the dark side, he buried Anakin entirely. He even made it a point to constantly remind everyone, whether it be Ahsoka or Obi-Wan, that Anakin Skywalker is dead, and Vader is “all that remains.” That is until Luke came along and redeemed him in Return of the Jedi, once again allowing his spirit to proudly embody Anakin.

All right, that still doesn’t make Hayden’s creepy stare any more bearable, but as explanations go, that’s definitely the best one we’ve heard about this particular scene to date.

What does it mean to leave a life of quiet desperation? The quote’s originator might have been referring to people’s values, but we could take our own interpretation, of how too many people are unable to find happiness and contentment. Much to do with the pressures of existence, increasing immesurably in recent years, but it can also come from family, tradition, and attending expectations. And sometimes, perhaps inevitably, that desperation will leak, or explode.

Clara Sola tells the story of just such an explosion. Costa Rican-Swedish director Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s feature debut simmers with anger, longing, and lust; the story of a woman repressed her entire life by tradition, who discovers the pwoer that others thought to use for themselves, might be far more powerful in her own hands. But that power can make things worse before they are better.

When we first meet Clara (Wendy Chinchilla Araya), she is trying to get her horse Yuca to come back to her. Clara is stopped by a non-existent line, a purple ribbon tied to a postd beyond which she is not allowed to cross by herself. She is allowed to do very little by herself, even at 40 years old. Born with a severe curvature in her spine, Clara is said to have healing powers, and so her mother Fresia keeps her effectively locked away, physically and mentally – Clara only leaves the property with others, and lives with Fresia and her niece Maria (Ana Julia Porras Espinoza). But one day, Santiago (Daniel Castañeda Rincón) comes to look after Yuca, and Clara feels something she only vaguely understands, but soon overpowers her.

There is something fantastical in the woods, whether seeping into Clara or from her – or perhaps it is a circle. She has a connection to the earth, to animals, to insects that others do not, and cannot explain. And as much as her mother and Maria love her, they also exploit this gift, as a source of income. The mother will not allow Clara to have surgery that would help her back and her constant pain; everyone infantilizes her, so it’s impossible to know whether her seeming immaturity and inability to understand social cues comes from a developmental problem, or the way her growth has been stunted. Only Santiago treats her as a whole individual.

Likening her to the Virgin Mary becomes a curse; Clara is punished for pursuing her sexual pleasure, to ask for anything that might give her happiness, and so naturally her reaction is that of a angry child.  Her magic reveals itself in subtle ways, with changes in the colour of plants, literally breathing life back into the dead. We want to hold her, help her run away, and yet we are in more than a little awe of her growing power, that her desire drags out of her.

For her family, everything relates to the Virgin Mary, a religious idol that leaves no room for Clara to be her own person; perhaps Mary too longed to release some understandable anger in the face of a role thrust upon her against her will. Fresia rubs chillis on Clara’s hands when she catches her masturbating; Clara responds by stealing Maria’s quinciñera dress. Clara is not afraid to rasie the stakes when she realizes just how trapped she is in this broken, pained body, that her mother refuses to assist. And any little sympathy is perhaps blown into larger proportion than Clara should expect.

Chinchilla Araya is astonishing as Clara, never making her without sympathy, showing us the justification for her sullenness, her dangerous dreaming, the ignorance forced upon her. She knows that what is inside her is not the result of some singular god who expects conformity, but as she finds her longing and jealousy growing, she understands this is part of what the conformity has tried to repress, and what she and her nature, and this fantastical nature that connects her, is trying to bring out.

Like a slow, pained moan that slowly builds into a furious scream, Clara Sola is a remarkable feature debut from Álvarez Mesén, full of desire, anger, love, and magic, with a heroine you want to protect even as you are in slight fearful awe.

Clara Sola opens theatrically in New York on July 1st, and Los Angeles on July 8th.