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After the company's recent news of Xbox Game Pass subscription changes, featuring a cost hike for the top tier to $30 per month, numerous members are seeking new ways to maximize their subscription. If you holding onto their subscription or considering signing up, we present this week's picks.

This weekend's titles feature a beloved Japanese role-playing game, a charming indie adventure, and a brilliant puzzle game set to depart from the service shortly.

Persona 4: The Golden Edition

One of the best ways to get your money's worth from your subscription is by diving into a lengthy, captivating role-playing game — and Persona 4: The Golden Edition fits that bill exactly. You step into the role of a teenager who has relocated to the sleepy rural town of Inaba. By day, your objectives involve forming friendships, taking on employment, and keeping up with schoolwork. By night, you investigate a chilling serial murder case by exploring unique dungeons based on your companions' deepest insecurities.

With a unforgettable cast of characters, tactical turn-based combat, impeccable visuals, and a plot full of surprises, Persona 4 Golden is considered a classic for good reason. It also features a highly addictive cycle that will have you playing past bedtime, repeatedly.

Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato

Although major releases like Ninja Gaiden 4 are a key selling point for Game Pass, the subscription also highlights smaller indie gems. A perfect instance of this is Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato. Inspired by the animated classic, this charming indie adventure is a fantasy tale rooted in South American culture. You follow Miho, who, after helping his grandmother prepare soup, is transported to a colorful realm filled with potato-stealing frogs and other eccentric animals.

Sopa unfolds like an educational PC game from the 90s, as Miho solves puzzles and aids the world's residents by gathering an inventory of objects. Even if it's a bit rough around the edges, Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato is a sweet small game that openly celebrates its appreciation for the region's culture.

Cocoon

Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure is set to leave the service on Oct. 15, giving you only a few days to play it via your membership — and you definitely should. Studio the creators designed one of the finest puzzlers of this generation in 2023's Cocoon. Its central gameplay element focuses on moving among realms within other dimensions, and often you'll transport those realms, in the form of colorful spheres, with you.

Although it doesn't have explicit guidance, everything about Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure's challenges is built in a very natural way, yet they will challenge you as well. 2023 was a big year for video games, so it's no surprise if Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure was somewhat overlooked by the masses. Let's correct that now.