🔗 Share this article

After the company's latest news of Xbox Game Pass subscription updates, including a cost hike for the top tier to $30 monthly, many members are looking for new methods to maximize their subscription. If you keeping their membership or thinking about signing up, we present this week's recommendations.

Our selected games include a beloved JRPG, a charming independent journey, and a superb puzzle game set to leave the platform soon.

Persona 4 Golden

Among the top ways to maximize value from your subscription is by immersing yourself in a extensive, captivating RPG — and Persona 4 Golden fits that description exactly. Players step into the role of a teenager who has just moved to the sleepy countryside of Inaba. During the day, your objectives involve forming friendships, working employment, and keeping up with schoolwork. At night, you work to solve a chilling string of murders by venturing into strange locations based on your companions' deepest insecurities.

With a memorable group of heroes, tactical battle system, flawless art design, and a plot full of surprises, Persona 4 Golden is considered a classic for good reason. It also features a incredibly addictive cycle that will have you playing past bedtime, repeatedly.

Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato

While big titles like Ninja Gaiden IV are a primary selling point for the service, the subscription also showcases lesser-known games. A perfect instance of this is Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato. Inspired by Spirited Away, this charming indie adventure is a magical realist journey steeped in South American culture. Players join Miho, who, after helping his grandmother make soup, is transported to a colorful realm filled with potato-nabbing frogs and various quirky creatures.

Sopa unfolds similar to an educational PC game from the 1990s, as Miho tackles challenges and aids the world's residents by gathering an assortment of objects. Even if it's a bit rough around the edges, Sopa is a sweet little game that proudly showcases its appreciation for the region's culture.

Cocoon

Cocoon is scheduled to leave the service on October 15, leaving only a few days to play it via subscription — and you definitely must. Developer the creators designed one of the best puzzle games of this generation in 2023's Cocoon. Its central puzzle mechanic revolves around moving between realms inside other worlds, and often you'll transport those worlds, in the shape of colorful orbs, alongside you.

While it lacks direct guidance, everything about Cocoon's challenges is designed in a highly natural way, though they will challenge you as well. The year 2023 proved a big period for video games, so it's no surprise if Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure was a bit missed by the masses. We should rectify that while we can.