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Following Microsoft's latest announcement of Xbox Game Pass membership updates, featuring a cost hike for the Ultimate Tier to $30 per month, numerous members are seeking new ways to get the most from their subscription. If you holding onto their membership or thinking about joining, here are this week's recommendations.

This weekend's titles feature a beloved JRPG, a delightful independent journey, and a brilliant puzzle game set to leave the platform soon.

Persona 4 Golden

One of the top ways to get your money's worth from Game Pass is by immersing yourself in a lengthy, captivating RPG — and Persona 4: The Golden Edition matches that bill perfectly. Players take on the role of a teenager who has just moved to the sleepy rural town of Inaba. During the day, your goals include forming friendships, taking on part-time jobs, and keeping up with schoolwork. At night, you work to solve a disturbing serial murder case by venturing into strange locations themed around your friends' deepest insecurities.

With a memorable cast of characters, strategic turn-based combat, flawless visuals, and a plot full of twists, Persona 4 Golden is considered a masterpiece for good reason. It also features a highly engrossing gameplay loop that will keep you up past bedtime, night after night.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato

While big titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 are a key attraction for Game Pass, the subscription also showcases lesser-known indie gems. A perfect example of this is Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato. Drawing from Spirited Away, this charming independent game is a magical realist tale rooted in Latin American culture. You follow Miho, who, after assisting his grandmother make soup, is pulled into a vibrant realm populated by potato-stealing frogs and various quirky animals.

Sopa plays out similar to an learning-focused PC game from the 90s, as Miho solves challenges and helps the realm's inhabitants by collecting an inventory of items. Even if it's a little unpolished, Sopa is a heartwarming little experience that openly showcases its appreciation for South America.

Cocoon

Cocoon is scheduled to leave the service on October 15, giving you only a short time to play it via your membership — and you absolutely should. Developer Geometric Interactive crafted one of the best puzzle games of recent years in the 2023 release Cocoon. Its central gameplay element revolves around moving between realms inside additional dimensions, and often you'll carry those worlds, in the form of vibrant spheres, with you.

Although it lacks explicit instructions, everything about Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure's puzzles is designed in a highly intuitive way, though they will test you as well. 2023 was a massive period for video games, so it's no surprise if Cocoon was a bit missed by the masses. We should rectify that while we can.