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After playing more than 200 new releases this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My best-of compilation is live, and I am at peace with the concluding selections, even knowing numerous stellar titles may have dropped through the cracks. Now, there's nothing for me to do except relax, unplug a little, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, discovered one more great game. There go my intentions!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

During my casual gaming time, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've encountered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a classic dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of major consequence danger and payoff. View this a hipster's insider tip: If you relish being aware of a game before it's popular, sample Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your wallet for unique titles.

A Calculated Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's unlike anything I've ever played. The premise is that you need to explore a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has disappeared from this mythical realm. In practice, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero with their own attributes and skills, clear floor after floor of enemies, acquire some stat improvements (in the form of teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Unique Central System

The method by which you actually clear a area, is unique. Each instance you begin a fresh level, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces holds a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To make a move, you simply click on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you end up on is a matter of probability.

You may face a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a 25% chance of hitting a specific tile in a row.

After that, the probabilities change. So do you go for it, or do you choose on a alternative option first and attempt some less risky choices early? Herein lies the tension between chance and safety on display in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing when you acquire its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your probabilities can be influenced during an attempt by collecting teeth that modify the types of squares you're more likely to land on. For example, you could acquire a perk that will lower your chances of hitting a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Creating a build is about influencing the statistics as best you can to have a improved likelihood at selecting the optimal square.
• In one run, I focused my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth possible that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• On a different attempt, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but it provides ample to engage with to let you manipulate the odds to your preference.

A Constant Gamble

Of course, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There remains the risk that you have a likely outcome to land on the desired tile but ultimately choose a foe that would eliminate your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and decide when to continue selecting or when to move on to the next floor rather than testing fate.

Consumables including enemy-killing bombs assist in minimizing the chance, as do some hero powers. An adventurer's special power, activated once clearing four squares, allows players to select a vertical line rather than a horizontal row during that action. Should you use this strategically, you can hold that ability for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is remaining in development, and it has another update planned until the full version is launched. A new character and a fresh guardian are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The official version probably isn't long after, but the game's developers haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Thought

Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I've been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of small details and saving my accumulated currency every session to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, including additional heroes and items purchasable mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I get the feeling I will remain attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. Count me in for the long haul.