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Following the company's recent announcement of Xbox Game Pass subscription changes, featuring a cost hike for the Ultimate Tier to $30 per month, many members are seeking new ways to get the most from their membership. For those keeping their subscription or considering joining, here are this week's recommendations.

This weekend's titles include a beloved Japanese role-playing game, a delightful indie adventure, and a superb puzzler scheduled to depart from the platform soon.

Persona 4: The Golden Edition

Among the best ways to get your money's worth from Game Pass is by immersing yourself in a lengthy, captivating role-playing game — and Persona 4 Golden matches that description exactly. You step into the part of a teenager who has relocated to the quiet rural town of Inaba. By day, your objectives involve making friendships, taking on part-time jobs, and keeping up with studies. At night, you work to solve a chilling serial murder case by exploring strange dungeons based on your companions' deepest insecurities.

With a memorable group of heroes, strategic turn-based combat, flawless visuals, and a storyline full of surprises, Persona 4: The Golden Edition is regarded as a masterpiece for many reasons. It also boasts a highly engrossing cycle that will keep you up past bedtime, repeatedly.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato

While major titles like Ninja Gaiden IV are a key attraction for the service, the subscription also showcases smaller games. A great instance of this is Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato. Drawing from Spirited Away, this charming indie game is a fantasy journey steeped in Latin American culture. Players join Miho, who, after helping his grandma prepare soup, is transported to a colorful realm populated by potato-stealing frogs and various eccentric creatures.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato unfolds similar to an educational computer title from the 90s, as Miho tackles puzzles and aids the realm's residents by collecting an assortment of objects. Even if it's a bit rough around the edges, Sopa is a sweet little game that proudly showcases its love for South America.

Cocoon

Cocoon is scheduled to exit the service on October 15, leaving only a few days to play it via your membership — and you absolutely should. Studio the creators designed one of the finest puzzle games of this generation in the 2023 release Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure. Its core puzzle mechanic focuses on moving among realms inside additional dimensions, and often you'll carry those worlds, in the form of colorful spheres, with you.

While it doesn't have direct guidance, everything about Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure's challenges is built in a very intuitive manner, though they can challenge you as well. The year 2023 proved a massive period for video games, so it's understandable if Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure was somewhat overlooked by many players. We should correct that now.