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Having experienced in excess of 200 new releases this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I feel content with the concluding selections, despite being aware numerous stellar titles probably slipped by the wayside. Now, there's nothing for me to do except relax, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a refreshing hike in the— oh no, stumbled upon a amazing experience. So much for my plans!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

In my more off-hours play, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've encountered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you relish in knowing about a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've ever played. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, going down level by level on a quest for the sun, which has vanished from the fantasy world. When you play, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Pick a hero with their own attributes and skills, clear floor after floor of enemies, pick up some permanent upgrades (which are teeth), and vanquish a few biome bosses. Straightforward, right!

The Novel Central System

The method by which you actually clear a dungeon room, however. Whenever you start another stage, the game presents a sixteen-square board of boxes. All spaces holds a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you choose on one of the four rows, but which square you land in is a matter of probability.

You may face a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a quarter likelihood of landing on any given square in a row.

Then, you'll odds shift. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you choose on a different row first and aim for less risky choices early? This is the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing after you develop its rhythm.

Shaping the Odds

The meta-layer is that your percentages can be shaped over the course of a session by collecting teeth that modify the types of squares you're drawn toward. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of finding a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics to the utmost to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• On a particular session, I put all my stat upgrades toward brute force and picked as many teeth possible that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I opened a chest.

The customization choices are somewhat constrained, but they are sufficient to engage with to enable you to influence probabilities to your preference.

A Persistent Gamble

Of course, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the possibility that you have a likely outcome to land on the square you want but wind up hitting on an enemy that would take out your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you work through a stage and determine if to press onward or to advance to the next floor as opposed to testing fate.

Items like explosive devices assist in minimizing the chance, similar to some hero powers. An adventurer's unique ability, powered up by making four moves, allows players to click on a column instead of a horizontal row on a turn. By employing your cards right, you can hold that ability for a crucial point to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the simple act of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has at least one more update scheduled before the complete edition is released. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop sometime in January. The 1.0 release probably isn't much later, but the creators haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Recommendation

Regardless of when the complete game arrives, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your radar. I have been positively obsessed with it, discovering its little secrets and banking my earned gold per attempt to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, including additional heroes and items available for acquisition mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I suspect I will remain pursuing that objective when the full version launches. Sign me up for the complete journey.