The choppy waters have started to settle after Microsoft announced changes to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service, with Ultimate Tier price rising to $30 a month drawing the most ire. People are still subscribing, of course, and those who aren’t interested in checking out this month’s Ninja Gaiden 4 might be wondering what else the Game Pass library holds.
If you’ve kept your subscription, or are still on the fence about it, read on for this week’s recommendations. They include a seminal JRPG, a new indie, and an excellent puzzler set to leave the service soon. Or, if you’re inclined to do away with Game Pass, see our guide on how to change or cancel your Game Pass subscription.
Persona 4 Golden
There are few better ways to get your money’s worth from your Game Pass subscription than sinking dozens of hours into a big, meaty RPG — and Persona 4 Golden is one of the biggest and meatiest around. You play as a high school student who’s just moved to the sleepy rural town of Inaba. During the day, your goal is to make a bunch of new friends, pick up a part-time job or two, and keep up with your schoolwork. By night, you’ll work to solve a disturbing serial murder case by exploring a bunch of weirdo dungeons themed around your friends’ deepest insecurities. Y’know, the usual teenager stuff.
With a memorable cast of characters, strategic turn-based combat, impeccable art design, and a plot with more twists than a bucket of curly fries, Persona 4 Golden is considered a classic for good reason. It also has a wickedly engrossing gameplay loop that’ll keep you up well past your bedtime, night after night. —Jen Glennon
Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato
Getting big new releases like Ninja Gaiden 4 is the main selling point for Game Pass, but I’ve always appreciated how the service occasionally gives shine to much smaller games. You can find a great example of that in Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato. Inspired by Spirited Away, the charming indie is a magical realist adventure steeped in South American culture. After being asked to help his grandmother make soup, Miho is pulled into a colorful world filled with potato-nabbing frogs and other eccentric animals. Sopa almost plays out like an educational PC game from the 90s, as Miho solves puzzles and helps the world’s residents out by gathering an inventory full of items. Even if it’s a little rough around the edges, Sopa is a sweet little game that wears its appreciation for South America on its sleeve. —Giovanni Colantonio
Cocoon
Cocoon leaves Game Pass Oct. 15, so you only have a few days left to play via a subscription — and you absolutely should. Developer Geometric Interactive crafted one of the best puzzlers of this generation in 2023’s Cocoon. Its core puzzle mechanic revolves around moving between worlds within other worlds, and often you’ll carry those worlds, in the shape of colorful orbs, with you. While it doesn’t have explicit instructions, everything about Cocoon‘s puzzles are designed in a highly intuitive manner, though they’ll challenge as well. 2023 was a big year for games, to say the least, so it’s no surprise if Cocoon was a bit overlooked by the masses. Let’s rectify that. —Austin Manchester
