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Following my time with in excess of 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is published, and I feel content with the final results, accepting that a host of stellar titles probably slipped under the radar. Now, there's job is to but sit back, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a refreshing hike in the— well, shoot, found another brilliant title. There go my plans!

A Surprising Favorite Surfaces

With my off-hours play, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered potentially my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a classic labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you take pride in knowing about a game before it's cool, give Sol Cesto a try so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's a departure from all I've ever played. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has vanished from the fantasy world. In practice, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Choose an adventurer possessing unique attributes and skills, clear floor after floor of foes, collect some permanent upgrades (in the form of teeth), and overcome a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Novel Central System

How you actually clear a dungeon room, is unique. Whenever you start another stage, the game presents a 4x4 grid of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To explore a room, you just select on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you select is determined by luck.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a quarter likelihood of selecting a particular space in a row.

Subsequently, your odds shift. So do you take the risk, or do you click on a safer line first and try to make safer moves early? That's the risk-reward dynamic on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The meta-layer is that your percentages can be shaped through a run by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. As an instance, you may obtain a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of getting a reward too.

• Creating a build is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a better shot at landing where you want.
• In one run, I focused my power boosts toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth I could that would increase my odds of attracting me toward monsters of that variety.
• During a separate session, I developed my adventurer around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies whenever I opened a chest.

The customization choices are not endless, but there's enough to work with to enable you to influence the odds the way you want.

An Ever-Present Risk

Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have a likely outcome to hit the desired tile but ultimately choose on an enemy that would take out your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you navigate a level and choose whether to press onward or to advance to the next floor instead of risking it all.

Tools such as destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, as do some special skills. One hero's special power, activated once clearing four squares, lets gamers to choose a vertical line instead of a row on a turn. By employing 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 seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is still in development, and it has another update planned until the complete edition is released. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are planned for release before the conclusion of January. The full launch probably isn't long after, but the creators haven't set a specific release window yet.

A Parting Recommendation

Whenever it's fully released, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been positively obsessed with it, discovering its small details and storing my run rewards per attempt to reveal a continuous trickle of meta progression rewards, including fresh adventurers and items I can buy during a run. To this day, I have not found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I'll continue attempting that goal when the official release drops. Count me in for the entire experience.