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Following Microsoft's latest news of Xbox Game Pass subscription updates, featuring a price increase for the top tier to $30 per month, numerous members are looking for fresh ways to get the most from their membership. If you keeping their subscription or considering joining, here are this week's picks.

This weekend's titles feature a beloved JRPG, a charming independent adventure, and a superb puzzler set to leave the service shortly.

Persona 4 Golden

One of the best ways to maximize value from Game Pass is by diving into a extensive, captivating RPG — and Persona 4: The Golden Edition matches that bill exactly. You take on the part of a teenager who has just moved to the quiet rural town of Inaba. By day, your objectives involve making new friends, taking on employment, and keeping up with schoolwork. At night, you work to solve a chilling string of murders by exploring unique locations themed around your friends' inner fears.

With a memorable cast of characters, strategic turn-based combat, impeccable art design, and a storyline packed with surprises, Persona 4 Golden is regarded as a classic for good reason. It also features a incredibly engrossing gameplay loop that will keep you up past bedtime, night after night.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato

While major titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 are a key attraction for Game Pass, the platform also highlights lesser-known games. A great instance of this is Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato. Drawing from the animated classic, this enchanting indie adventure is a magical realist tale rooted in South American culture. You join Miho, who, after assisting his grandmother prepare soup, is pulled into a colorful world populated by potato-stealing frogs and other eccentric creatures.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato plays out similar to an learning-focused PC game from the 90s, as Miho tackles puzzles and helps the realm's inhabitants by collecting an assortment of objects. Though it's a little rough around the edges, Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato is a heartwarming little experience that openly showcases its appreciation for the region's culture.

Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure

Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure is scheduled to leave the service on Oct. 15, giving you only a few days to experience it via your membership — and you absolutely should. Studio the creators designed one of the best puzzlers of recent years in 2023's Cocoon. Its core gameplay element focuses on transitioning among realms inside other worlds, and often you'll carry those realms, in the shape of colorful orbs, alongside you.

Although it lacks explicit instructions, everything about Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure's challenges is built in a highly natural manner, though they can challenge you as well. 2023 was a big period for games, so it's no surprise if Cocoon was somewhat missed by the masses. We should correct that while we can.