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After Microsoft's recent news of Game Pass subscription changes, featuring a cost hike for the Ultimate Tier to $30 monthly, many members are seeking new ways to maximize their membership. If you holding onto their subscription or thinking about signing up, we present this week's recommendations.

Our selected titles include a beloved Japanese role-playing game, a charming independent journey, and a superb puzzle game scheduled to depart from the service shortly.

Persona 4: The Golden Edition

One of the best methods to maximize value from your subscription is by diving into a lengthy, captivating RPG — and Persona 4 Golden matches that bill perfectly. Players take on the role of a high school student who has relocated to the sleepy countryside of Inaba. By day, your goals include forming new friends, working employment, and keeping up with schoolwork. By night, you work to solve a disturbing string of murders by exploring strange locations themed around your companions' inner fears.

With a memorable group of heroes, tactical turn-based combat, impeccable visuals, and a plot full of surprises, Persona 4 Golden is regarded as a classic for good reason. It also boasts a highly engrossing gameplay loop that will have you playing late into the night, repeatedly.

Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato

Although major titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 are a primary attraction for the service, the platform also showcases smaller games. A perfect example of this is Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato. Drawing from Spirited Away, this charming independent game is a magical realist tale steeped in South American culture. Players join Miho, who, after assisting his grandmother prepare soup, is pulled into a colorful realm populated by potato-stealing frogs and various eccentric creatures.

Sopa unfolds like an educational PC game from the 1990s, as Miho solves puzzles and helps the realm's inhabitants by collecting an assortment of items. Though it's a bit unpolished, Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato is a heartwarming small game that openly celebrates its love for South America.

Cocoon

Cocoon is scheduled to leave the service on Oct. 15, leaving only a few days to experience it via subscription — and you absolutely must. Developer the creators designed one of the finest puzzle games of recent years in the 2023 release Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure. Its central gameplay element revolves around moving among realms within additional dimensions, and often you'll transport those realms, in the shape of vibrant orbs, with you.

While it lacks direct instructions, everything about Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure's puzzles is built in a very intuitive way, though they can challenge you as well. The year 2023 proved a massive year for games, so it's understandable if Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure was a bit missed by the masses. Let's correct that now.