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After playing more than 200 fresh titles this year, I am officially wrapping things up on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, even knowing numerous stellar titles likely fell by the wayside. At this point, it's nothing for me to do other than unwind, take a short break, and possibly go for a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, stumbled upon a great game. So much for my plans!

A Premature Favorite Surfaces

During my laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered what could be my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a traditional dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of high stakes risk and reward. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you take pride being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can punch a hole in your wallet for unique titles.

A Strategic Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The concept is that you need to explore a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from the fantasy world. When you play, that makes for some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character possessing unique parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of foes, acquire some passive buffs (which are teeth), and defeat a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Novel Central System

The way you truly navigate a area, though. Each instance you begin a fresh level, the game presents a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile holds a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To explore a room, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you end up on is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a quarter likelihood of hitting a particular space in a row.

After that, the odds shift. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you opt on a alternative option first and attempt some less risky choices early? That's the risk-reward dynamic on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire a feel for it.

Influencing Chance

The meta-layer is that your probabilities can be influenced over the course of a session by collecting teeth that alter which objects you're drawn toward. To illustrate, you might get a perk that will decrease your odds of landing on a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• In one run, I focused my power boosts toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth I could that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I built my character around loot caches and paired that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I secured loot.

The customization choices are limited, but it provides ample to experiment with to let you manipulate numbers the way you want.

An Ever-Present Risk

Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There remains the risk that you have an 80% chance to select the desired tile but ultimately choose a foe that would take out your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and determine if to press onward or to advance to the following level rather than testing fate.

Tools such as destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, similar to some hero powers. An adventurer's special power, charged after clearing four squares, lets gamers to click on a column instead of a horizontal row on a turn. If you play this move wisely, you can reserve that option for an optimal time to avoid a risky decision. You'll find an astonishing amount of nuance in the basic action of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has a final update scheduled until the final game is launched. Another playable adventurer and a fresh guardian are expected to drop sometime in January. The 1.0 release likely won't be much later, but the game's developers haven't set a final date yet.

A Concluding Thought

Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I have been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and storing my run rewards per attempt to reveal a continuous trickle of meta progression rewards, including additional heroes and items available for acquisition mid-attempt. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I suspect I'll continue working on that task when the full version launches. I'm committed for the complete journey.