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Having experienced in excess of 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My year-end list is live, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, accepting that numerous stellar titles may have dropped by the wayside. Now, there's nothing for me to do except relax, unplug a little, and possibly go for a nice walk in the— ah crap, stumbled upon a great game. So much for my plans!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

During my off-hours play, usually reserved for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered what could be my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of major consequence risk and reward. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you relish in knowing about a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've ever played. The concept is that you must venture into a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. Mechanically, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Choose an adventurer with their own stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of monsters, acquire some permanent upgrades (in the form of teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Straightforward, right!

The Distinctive Core Mechanic

How you effectively complete a chamber, though. Every time you start another stage, the game presents a 4x4 grid of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you land in is up to chance.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You initially will have a 25% chance of hitting a specific tile in a row.

After that, the chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a different row first and aim for safer moves early? Herein lies the risk-reward dynamic in action in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your probabilities can be influenced over the course of a session by gathering teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of encountering a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of finding a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a better shot at getting your desired outcome.
• During one attempt, I put all my stat upgrades toward brute force and picked as many teeth possible that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• During a separate session, I built my character around reward boxes and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I claimed a reward.

The build options are not endless, but they are sufficient to work with to enable you to influence numbers the way you want.

A Constant Tension

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. There remains the possibility that you have an 80% chance to land on the preferred space but end up landing a foe that would deplete your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you clear a floor out and decide when to press onward or to advance to the following level as opposed to risking it all.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs assist in minimizing the chance, as do some character abilities. One hero's special power, charged after clearing four squares, allows players to choose a column rather than a horizontal row during that action. If you play your cards right, you can reserve that option for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. You'll find an astonishing level of strategy in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has another update to go until the complete edition is launched. An additional hero and a fresh guardian are expected to drop by the end of January. The full launch likely won't be much later, but the creators haven't announced a concrete launch day yet.

A Parting Endorsement

Regardless of when it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your radar. I've been thoroughly captivated with it, finding all of hidden nuances and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, featuring fresh adventurers and items purchasable mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I will remain working on that task when the full version launches. Count me in for the complete journey.