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After Microsoft's recent news of Xbox Game Pass membership updates, featuring a cost hike for the top tier to $30 per month, numerous subscribers are looking for new methods to get the most from their subscription. If you holding onto their membership or thinking about signing up, here are this week's recommendations.

Our selected games include a beloved Japanese role-playing game, a charming independent adventure, and a brilliant puzzle game set to leave the platform shortly.

Persona 4 Golden

Among the best methods to get your money's worth from your subscription is by immersing yourself in a lengthy, engaging RPG — and Persona 4: The Golden Edition matches that bill perfectly. You step into the part of a high school student who has just moved to the sleepy rural town of Inaba. During the day, your goals involve making friendships, working employment, and keeping up with studies. At night, you work to solve a chilling string of murders by exploring unique locations based on your friends' deepest insecurities.

With a unforgettable group of heroes, tactical turn-based combat, flawless visuals, and a plot packed with surprises, Persona 4 Golden is regarded as a classic for good reason. It also features a highly addictive cycle that will keep you up late into the night, night after night.

Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato

Although big titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 are a primary attraction for the service, the subscription also highlights smaller games. A great example of this is Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato. Drawing from the animated classic, this charming indie adventure is a magical realist journey steeped in South American culture. Players follow Miho, who, after helping his grandma prepare soup, is transported to a colorful world populated by potato-nabbing frogs and other quirky animals.

Sopa plays out similar to an educational computer title from the 1990s, as Miho tackles challenges and helps the world's inhabitants by collecting an assortment of items. Though it's a bit rough around the edges, Sopa is a sweet small game that proudly celebrates its appreciation for South America.

Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure

Cocoon is set to leave the service on October 15, leaving only a short time to experience it via your membership — and you absolutely should. Developer Geometric Interactive designed one of the best puzzle games of this generation in the 2023 release Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure. Its central gameplay element revolves around transitioning among realms within other worlds, and often you'll transport those realms, in the form of colorful spheres, with you.

While it doesn't have explicit instructions, everything about Cocoon's puzzles is built in a highly intuitive way, though they can challenge you as well. The year 2023 proved a big period for games, so it's understandable if Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure was somewhat missed by many players. We should correct that while we can.