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After playing more than 200 fresh titles this year, It's time to closing the book on 2025. My best-of compilation is live, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, even knowing plenty of stellar titles likely fell through the cracks. Now, there's nothing for me to do other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, stumbled upon a brilliant title. There go my peaceful respite!

An Early Front-Runner Appears

During my casual gaming time, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've encountered what might become my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar 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 preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy in knowing about a game before it's cool, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your wallet for unique titles.

A Strategic Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's unlike anything 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 disappeared from this mythical realm. Mechanically, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Choose an adventurer possessing unique parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, collect some stat improvements (which are teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Straightforward, right!

The Novel Central System

The way you truly navigate a dungeon room, is unique. Whenever you begin a fresh level, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you end up on is up to chance.

You could encounter a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a one-in-four probability of selecting any given square in a row.

Subsequently, your odds shift. So do you go for it, or do you choose on a safer line first and attempt some safer moves early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The roguelike twist is that your probabilities can be influenced over the course of a session by picking up teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of encountering a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of finding a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics to the utmost to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I focused my stat upgrades toward brute force and selected all the teeth possible that would improve my probability of landing on monsters aligned with that strength.
• On a different attempt, I developed my adventurer around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I secured loot.

The build options are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to engage with to let you manipulate the odds according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Risk

Unsurprisingly, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the possibility that you have a high probability to select the desired tile but wind up hitting a foe that would deplete your remaining life. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you clear a floor out and determine if to press onward or to advance to the next floor rather than testing fate.

Consumables including destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, similar to some special skills. One hero's signature move, charged after clearing four squares, enables you to click on a vertical column rather than a horizontal line for that move. Should you use your cards right, you can hold that ability for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking degree of depth in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is still in early access, and it has another update scheduled until the final game is launched. A new character and a fresh guardian are expected to drop by the end of January. The 1.0 release probably isn't far behind, but the game's developers haven't committed to a final date yet.

A Parting Thought

Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been completely engrossed with it, uncovering each of hidden nuances and storing my run rewards per attempt to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, including additional heroes and items I can buy mid-attempt. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I suspect I'll still be pursuing that objective when the official release drops. Count me in for the complete journey.