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After the company's recent news of Xbox Game Pass membership changes, including a price increase for the top tier to $thirty per month, numerous members are seeking new ways to maximize their subscription. For those holding onto their subscription or considering signing up, here are this week's picks.

Our selected games feature a beloved JRPG, a charming indie journey, and a brilliant puzzler set to depart from the service soon.

Persona 4 Golden

One of the best ways to get your money's worth from your subscription is by diving into a extensive, captivating role-playing game — and Persona 4: The Golden Edition matches that description perfectly. You take on the role of a high school student who has relocated to the quiet rural town of Inaba. By day, your objectives involve making new friends, taking on employment, and keeping up with schoolwork. By night, you investigate a chilling string of murders by exploring unique dungeons based on your companions' inner fears.

With a memorable cast of characters, strategic battle system, flawless art design, and a plot full of twists, Persona 4: The Golden Edition is regarded as a classic for good reason. It also boasts a highly engrossing gameplay loop that will have you playing past bedtime, repeatedly.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato

While major titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 are a key selling point for the service, the platform also showcases lesser-known games. A great instance of this is Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato. Inspired by Spirited Away, this charming independent game is a magical realist tale rooted in Latin American traditions. You follow Miho, who, after assisting his grandma make soup, is pulled into a colorful world filled with potato-nabbing frogs and various eccentric creatures.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato unfolds like an educational PC game from the 1990s, as Miho solves challenges and aids the realm's residents by collecting an inventory of objects. Though it's a bit rough around the edges, Sopa is a sweet small game that proudly celebrates its love for South America.

Cocoon

Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure is scheduled to leave the service on October 15, giving you only a few days to play it via your membership — and you definitely must. Studio Geometric Interactive designed one of the finest puzzlers of this generation in 2023's Cocoon. Its central puzzle mechanic focuses on moving among realms within other dimensions, and often you'll transport those worlds, in the shape of colorful spheres, alongside you.

While it lacks explicit guidance, everything about Cocoon's challenges is built in a very intuitive way, though they can test you as well. The year 2023 proved a massive period for video games, so it's understandable if Cocoon was a bit missed by many players. Let's correct that while we can.