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Having experienced well over 200 new releases this year, I am officially turning the page on 2025. My year-end list is live, and I am at peace with the final results, accepting that numerous excellent games may have dropped through the cracks. At this point, it's job is to except relax, disconnect briefly, and possibly go for a nice walk in the— well, shoot, discovered one more amazing experience. So much for my plans!

A Premature Favorite Surfaces

With my casual gaming time, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a classic dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of significant risk risk and reward. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you relish being aware of a game before it's popular, sample Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I've ever played. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, descending floor after floor on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from its world. When you play, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character with their own stats and abilities, fight through each level of foes, acquire some passive buffs (represented as teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!

The Unique Gameplay Loop

The method by which you actually clear a area, though. Each instance you begin a fresh level, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Each square holds a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To explore a room, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you land in is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you opt on a different row first and aim for more cautious selections early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay in action in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing after you develop a feel for it.

Influencing Chance

The roguelike twist is that your percentages can be shaped during an attempt by gathering teeth that change what things you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will lower your chances of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about tweaking the numbers to the utmost to have a improved likelihood at selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I invested my stat upgrades toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth I could that would boost my chances of landing on monsters with that damage type.
• On a different attempt, I built my character around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I claimed a reward.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but it provides ample to experiment with to allow you to tweak probabilities according to your strategy.

A Constant Tension

Naturally, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a high probability to land on the desired tile but end up landing on an enemy that would deplete your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and choose whether to continue selecting or to advance to the subsequent stage instead of risking it all.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, as do some special skills. An adventurer's unique ability, powered up by selecting four tiles, allows players to choose a column in place of a row for that move. If you play this move wisely, you can save that move for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has a final update to go until the full version is launched. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are planned for release by the end of January. The full launch may not be long after, but the creators haven't announced a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Thought

Whenever it's fully released, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been thoroughly captivated with it, discovering its little secrets and storing my run rewards in each run to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, such as additional heroes and items purchasable while playing. I still haven't reached the bottom, and I suspect I'll continue pursuing that objective when the official release drops. Count me in for the complete journey.