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After playing well over 200 new releases this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the final results, accepting that numerous fantastic releases probably slipped through the cracks. Currently, my only plan is to other than unwind, unplug a little, and possibly go for a refreshing hike in the— well, shoot, found another amazing experience. There go my plans!

An Early Favorite Surfaces

With my laid-back sessions, often set aside for a selection of unusual games, I've come across potentially my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you relish in knowing about a game before it's cool, give Sol Cesto a try so you can burn a spot in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's a departure from all I'm familiar with. The premise is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has vanished from this mythical realm. When you play, this results in some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero with their own parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, pick up some passive buffs (which are teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!

The Novel Core Mechanic

The way you actually clear a area, is unique. Every time you begin a fresh level, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To make a move, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you select is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a quarter likelihood of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you choose on a safer line first and try to make less risky choices early? Herein lies the tension between chance and safety in action in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing once you get an understanding of it.

Influencing Chance

The meta-layer is that your probabilities can be influenced during an attempt by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. As an instance, you may obtain a perk that will reduce the probability of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of finding a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics as best you can to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• On a particular session, I invested my attribute improvements toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth I could that would increase my odds of landing on monsters of that variety.
• In another run, I built my character around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I claimed a reward.

The customization choices are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to work with to enable you to influence probabilities the way you want.

A Constant Risk

Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a likely outcome to hit the square you want but wind up hitting on an enemy that would deplete your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you work through a stage and decide when to keep clicking or when to move on to the following level instead of pushing your luck.

Consumables including enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, similar to some special skills. One hero's special power, charged after selecting four tiles, lets gamers to select a column in place of a horizontal row for that move. By employing your cards right, you can hold that ability for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. You'll find an astonishing level of strategy in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has a final update planned until the final game is unleashed. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop sometime in January. The 1.0 release likely won't be long after, but the studio haven't committed to a final date yet.

A Final Recommendation

No matter when its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. I have been positively obsessed with it, discovering its little secrets and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, such as fresh adventurers and items available for acquisition during a run. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I get the feeling I'll still be working on that task when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the entire experience.