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For the past month, we have been sharing regular suggestions for what we're playing on the Game Pass service. It's an opportunity for us to highlight underrated titles or simply to talk about our preferred titles. This time around, however, we have to kick things off by addressing the elephant in the room: Microsoft's recent anti-consumer updates to the Game Pass subscription.

On Oct. 1, the company revealed a bevy of changes to the service, with the most notable coming to the service's Ultimate tier — which offers the most games available plus day-one access to latest releases from Microsoft's game studios. It'll now cost $30 a month, increased from $20. Understandably, users expressed dissatisfaction, with many being vocal on social media and in comment sections about how they were going to cancel their plans.

This marks the conclusion for the service as the once celebrated gaming bargain has ended. Now, players must consider if the annual $360 cost for the premium plan is worth it to them, particularly when daily expenses continues to rise.

Should you maintain your membership, or looking for reasons to keep it active, read on for this week's recommendations. They include a top-tier Metroidvanias of recent years, a potential award-winner from 2025, and a delightful JRPG sequel. Or, should you prefer to do away with your subscription, see our guide on modifying or ending your membership.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

If you do happen to stick with your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you might require additional reasons to justify it. The best case for the higher fee is that you’ll now have access to a suite of Ubisoft+ Classics. You’ll get plenty of Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry titles for your monthly payment, but the best perk is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

The 2D Metroidvania makes fantastic use of the series, taking it back to its platforming roots in a dangerous maze that’s a exciting to explore. Combine this with some of the deepest, most varied combat the genre offers, and you have the recipe for a premium exploration game. Add in both Hollow Knight: Silksong and The Rogue Prince of Persia and the value becomes clear on three months of your subscription cost.

The Blue Prince Mystery

The first-person puzzle game Blue Prince debuted to impressive numbers and a committed player base on Steam, but console adoption was buoyed at launch by subscription services (it also appeared on PlayStation Plus). The word of mouth combined with its ease of access eventually helped the game reach 2 million players.

Trying a title for a few hours to discover if it's your jam or not is a key advantage of Game Pass, and those seeking immersion in a puzzle should explore Blue Prince. You play as the inheritor of a property and significant wealth, but only if you can find the mansion's secret room. The challenge? The building's design is ever-shifting, making Blue Prince a procedural game with fresh clues to uncover regularly. After several sessions with it and have been gradually uncovering mysteries and puzzle clues related to the enigma at the heart of its manor, and I'm curious to see where the game goes as I progress further.

The Prince's Edition: Ni no Kuni 2

Am I recommending Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom simply since the version included on the service is the Prince's Edition version and that creates thematic harmony with our preceding two recommendations? I'll never tell. What I can share, however, is that Ni No Kuni 2 is excellent sequel to one of the best JRPGs of all time. Despite the whimsical Ghibli aesthetic and emphasis on youthful protagonists, Ni No Kuni 2 doesn't shy away from heavy topics, beginning with an apparent terrorist attack on a modern-day city before immediately throwing the main character (a world leader) into an other world where they end up smack in the middle of a violent Medieval-era coup. Compared to the first game, the battles are real-time — think more like a Tales game than a turn-based title — and includes a truly complex and detailed simulation in which you must oversee a realm. While called the Prince's Edition, but that sounds more like royal treatment to me.