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Following Microsoft's recent announcement of Game Pass subscription updates, including a cost hike for the top tier to $30 per month, many members are looking for new methods to maximize their subscription. For those holding onto their membership or considering joining, here are this week's picks.

This weekend's titles feature a beloved Japanese role-playing game, a charming independent adventure, and a brilliant puzzle game scheduled to leave the platform soon.

Persona 4 Golden

One of the best ways to maximize value from Game Pass is by immersing yourself in a lengthy, captivating role-playing game — and Persona 4: The Golden Edition fits that description perfectly. You step into the part of a teenager who has relocated to the sleepy rural town of Inaba. During the day, your goals include making friendships, working employment, and keeping up with schoolwork. By night, you investigate a chilling serial murder case by venturing into strange locations themed around your friends' inner fears.

With a unforgettable cast of characters, tactical battle system, impeccable visuals, and a storyline full of surprises, Persona 4: The Golden Edition is considered a classic for many reasons. It also features a highly engrossing gameplay loop that will have you playing past bedtime, repeatedly.

Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato

Although major titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 are a key selling point for the service, the subscription also highlights lesser-known games. A great example of this is Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato. Inspired by Spirited Away, this enchanting indie game is a magical realist tale steeped in Latin American culture. Players join Miho, who, after helping his grandmother make soup, is transported to a vibrant world populated by potato-stealing frogs and other eccentric animals.

Sopa plays out like an learning-focused PC game from the 1990s, as Miho tackles puzzles and aids the world's inhabitants by collecting an inventory of items. Though it's a little rough around the edges, Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato is a sweet small game that proudly showcases its love 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 play it via your membership — and you absolutely must. Studio Geometric Interactive designed one of the best puzzlers of this generation in the 2023 release Cocoon. Its core puzzle mechanic focuses on transitioning between realms within additional worlds, and frequently you'll carry those worlds, in the form of vibrant orbs, with you.

While it lacks direct instructions, everything about Cocoon's puzzles is built in a highly natural way, yet they can challenge you as well. 2023 was a massive year for games, so it's understandable if Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure was a bit overlooked by many players. We should rectify that while we can.