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Following my time with well over 200 fresh titles this year, I am officially turning the page on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I am at peace with the final results, accepting that a host of fantastic releases may have dropped through the cracks. Now, there's job is to other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a refreshing hike in the— oh no, stumbled upon a brilliant title. So much for my intentions!

An Early Front-Runner Appears

During my laid-back sessions, often set aside for a selection of unusual games, I've come across potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a conventional labyrinth explorer into a chance-driven game of significant risk risk and reward. View this a hipster's insider tip: If you enjoy being aware of a game before it's cool, test out Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Calculated Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've ever played. The premise 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, this results in some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero possessing unique parameters and powers, clear floor after floor of foes, pick up some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Easy to grasp!

The Distinctive Gameplay Loop

How you truly navigate a dungeon room, however. Every time you begin a fresh level, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Each square holds a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To make a move, you just select on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you end up on is determined by luck.

You may face a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a 25% chance of hitting a particular space in a row.

Then, you'll odds shift. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you choose on a different row first and aim for less risky choices early? This is the risk-reward dynamic on display in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing once you get a feel for it.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your probabilities can be influenced over the course of a session by collecting teeth that change what things you're more attracted to. For example, you may obtain a perk that will reduce the probability of landing on a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of landing on a treasure chest too.

• Developing a strategy is about tweaking the numbers optimally to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• During one attempt, I invested my stat upgrades toward melee prowess and picked as many teeth I could that would boost my chances of landing on monsters with that damage type.
• On a different attempt, I built my character around loot caches and paired that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes each time I secured loot.

The customization choices are not endless, but there's enough to engage with to allow you to tweak the odds to your preference.

A Constant Tension

Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a high probability to select the preferred space but ultimately choose a foe that would take out your final hit point. Every move is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you clear a floor out and choose whether to keep clicking or to advance to the subsequent stage instead of pushing your luck.

Consumables including enemy-killing bombs assist in minimizing the chance, similar to some hero powers. An adventurer's signature move, charged after selecting four tiles, enables you to choose a vertical line instead of a horizontal line during that action. Should you use this strategically, you can hold that ability for the right moment to circumvent a perilous selection. You'll find an astonishing level of strategy in the basic action of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is remaining in its preview phase, and it has another update scheduled before the full version is launched. A new character and a new boss are planned for release by the end of January. The official version may not be long after, but the studio haven't committed to a final date yet.

A Parting Thought

Whenever the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, discovering its small details and banking my earned gold every session to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, featuring additional heroes and items I can buy mid-attempt. I still haven't found the deepest level, and I have a sense I'll still be attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the long haul.