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After Microsoft's recent announcement of Game Pass membership changes, including a cost hike for the Ultimate Tier to $thirty monthly, numerous subscribers are looking for new methods to maximize their membership. For those holding onto their subscription or thinking about signing up, here are our latest picks.

This weekend's titles feature a acclaimed Japanese role-playing game, a delightful indie journey, and a superb puzzler scheduled to depart from the service shortly.

Persona 4 Golden

One of the top ways to get your money's worth from your subscription is by diving into a extensive, engaging RPG — and Persona 4: The Golden Edition fits that bill exactly. Players take on the part of a teenager who has just moved to the quiet rural town of Inaba. During the day, your objectives involve forming new friends, working employment, and keeping up with schoolwork. By night, you work to solve a chilling string of murders by exploring strange dungeons themed around your friends' deepest insecurities.

With a memorable cast of characters, strategic battle system, flawless art design, and a storyline full of surprises, Persona 4 Golden is considered a masterpiece for good reason. It also features a incredibly addictive gameplay loop that will have you playing past bedtime, repeatedly.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato

Although major releases like Ninja Gaiden IV are a key selling point for Game Pass, the subscription also showcases smaller indie gems. A great instance of this is Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato. Inspired by the animated classic, this charming indie adventure is a magical realist journey rooted in Latin American traditions. Players follow Miho, who, after helping his grandmother make soup, is pulled into a vibrant realm populated by potato-nabbing frogs and other quirky animals.

Sopa plays out like an learning-focused computer title from the 1990s, as Miho solves puzzles and helps the realm's residents by gathering an assortment of objects. Even if it's a little unpolished, Sopa is a heartwarming little game that openly showcases its appreciation for South America.

Cocoon

Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure is set to exit the service on October 15, leaving only a short time to experience it via your membership — and you absolutely should. Developer the creators crafted one of the finest puzzle games of this generation in 2023's Cocoon. Its core gameplay element focuses on moving among worlds inside other dimensions, and often you'll carry those worlds, in the shape of colorful orbs, with you.

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