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After playing well over 200 new releases this year, I'm formally turning the page on 2025. My annual roundup is published, and I am at peace with the final results, despite being aware plenty of stellar titles likely fell under the radar. Now, there's job is to but sit back, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a refreshing hike in the— well, shoot, discovered one more brilliant title. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Premature Front-Runner Appears

During my off-hours play, often set aside for a few oddball curiosities, I've encountered what might become my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a classic dungeon crawler into a luck-based 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 cool, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I'm familiar with. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has disappeared from its world. Mechanically, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Pick a hero possessing unique stats and abilities, defeat enemies on every stage of foes, pick up some passive buffs (represented as teeth), and overcome a few area guardians. Straightforward, right!

The Novel Central System

The way you effectively complete a chamber, is unique. Each instance you enter a new floor, you see a sixteen-square board of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To make a move, you just select on one of the four rows, but the exact space you end up on is a matter of probability.

You may face a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a one-in-four probability of landing on a particular space in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. So do you take the risk, or do you click on a safer line first and aim for safer moves early? This is the risk-reward dynamic in action in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing after you develop its rhythm.

Influencing Chance

The meta-layer is that your probabilities can be influenced through a run by collecting teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will lower your chances of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of getting a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math as best you can to have a better shot at landing where you want.
• On a particular session, I put all my attribute improvements toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth I could that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• In another run, I built my character around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I claimed a reward.

The customization choices are limited, but there's enough to engage with to allow you to tweak the odds to your preference.

An Ever-Present Gamble

Of course, it remains a game of chance. There remains the possibility that you have a high probability to select the square you want but wind up hitting a monster that would take out your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you work through a stage and decide when to continue selecting or to proceed to the next floor instead of pushing your luck.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, similar to some hero powers. A particular character's signature move, activated once making four moves, allows players to select a vertical line rather than a row during that action. By employing your cards right, you can reserve that option for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in development, and it has another update to go until the full version is launched. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are expected to drop before the conclusion of January. The full launch probably isn't much later, but the studio haven't set a final date yet.

A Concluding Endorsement

Whenever the complete game arrives, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I've been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, featuring fresh adventurers and items I can buy while playing. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I'll still be working on that task when the official release drops. Count me in for the complete journey.