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Having experienced more than 200 recent games this year, I am officially closing the book on 2025. My best-of compilation is published, and I am at peace with the concluding selections, even knowing plenty of stellar titles likely fell by the wayside. Currently, my only nothing for me to do but sit back, take a short break, and possibly go for a refreshing hike in the— ah crap, found another brilliant title. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!

A Surprising Front-Runner Appears

During my off-hours play, 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 procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of major consequence danger and payoff. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you relish discovering a game before it hits the mainstream, test out Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've ever played. The premise is that you must venture into a dungeon, going down level by level to find the sun, which has disappeared from the fantasy world. Mechanically, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero possessing unique stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of foes, collect some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and overcome a few area guardians. Easy to grasp!

The Unique Core Mechanic

How you effectively complete a area, though. Whenever you begin a fresh level, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To explore a room, you choose on one of the four rows, but the exact space you land in is up to chance.

You may face a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a 25% chance of landing on a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your probabilities change. So do you take the risk, or do you click on a different row first and aim for safer moves early? That's the tension between chance and safety on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire a feel for it.

Influencing Chance

The roguelike twist is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by collecting teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. As an instance, you may obtain a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics to the utmost to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• In one run, I invested my attribute improvements toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth possible that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around loot caches and coupled it with a perk that would debuff nearby foes whenever I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to work with to enable you to influence probabilities to your preference.

An Ever-Present Gamble

Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There remains the risk that you have a high probability to hit the preferred space but wind up hitting a monster that would deplete your remaining life. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and choose whether to continue selecting or to proceed to the next floor instead of risking it all.

Consumables including destructive ordnance aid in reducing the chance, as do some hero powers. One hero's special power, powered up by clearing four squares, allows players to select a vertical line instead of a row for that move. By employing your cards right, you can save that move for an optimal time to avoid a risky decision. It's a surprising degree of depth in the simple act of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has at least one more update scheduled until the complete edition is released. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The official version probably isn't far behind, but the studio haven't announced a final date yet.

A Concluding Thought

No matter when the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto in your sights. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, discovering its small details and saving my accumulated currency every session to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, featuring fresh adventurers and items available for acquisition during a run. To this day, I have not reached the bottom, and I have a sense I'll continue pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the long haul.