After Microsoft's recent news of Game Pass membership changes, featuring a cost hike for the top tier to $thirty per month, numerous members are looking for fresh ways to get the most from their subscription. If you holding onto their subscription or thinking about joining, here are this week's recommendations.
This weekend's titles include a acclaimed Japanese role-playing game, a delightful indie adventure, and a superb puzzler scheduled to depart from the service 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 bill perfectly. Players step into the role of a teenager who has just moved to the sleepy countryside of Inaba. During the day, your goals involve forming new friends, taking on part-time jobs, and managing studies. By night, you investigate a disturbing string of murders by exploring unique dungeons themed around your friends' inner fears.
With a memorable cast of characters, tactical turn-based combat, flawless art design, and a storyline packed with twists, Persona 4: The Golden Edition is considered a classic for many reasons. It also features a incredibly addictive gameplay loop that will have you playing late into the night, repeatedly.
Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato
Although big titles like Ninja Gaiden 4 are a key selling point for the service, the platform also showcases smaller indie gems. A great example of this is Sopa - Tale of the Stolen Potato. Drawing from Spirited Away, this enchanting independent game is a fantasy journey steeped in Latin American culture. You join Miho, who, after helping his grandma prepare soup, is pulled into a vibrant world filled with potato-stealing frogs and other quirky creatures.
Sopa plays out similar to an learning-focused PC game from the 1990s, as Miho solves challenges and helps the realm's inhabitants by collecting an assortment of objects. Though it's a bit unpolished, Sopa is a heartwarming little experience that proudly celebrates its appreciation for South America.
Cocoon
Cocoon is scheduled to exit the service on Oct. 15, giving you only a short time to experience it via your membership — and you absolutely must. Developer the creators designed one of the finest puzzlers of recent years in the 2023 release Cocoon. Its central gameplay element revolves around moving among worlds inside other dimensions, and often you'll carry those realms, in the form of colorful orbs, alongside you.
Although it lacks explicit guidance, everything about Cocoon: A Puzzle Adventure's challenges is built in a very intuitive manner, yet they can challenge you as well. 2023 was a big period for video games, so it's no surprise if Cocoon was a bit overlooked by many players. We should correct that while we can.
