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Following my time with in excess of 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My best-of compilation is published, and I am at peace with the final results, accepting that a host of stellar titles may have dropped through the cracks. At this point, it's job is to but sit back, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a refreshing hike in the— oh no, found another amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!

A Surprising Front-Runner Appears

With my off-hours play, often set aside for a handful of quirky titles, I've come across what might become my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a conventional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of significant risk risk and reward. Take this as a preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy in knowing about a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your gaming budget.

A Strategic Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's different from everything I've ever played. The premise is that you need to explore a dungeon, going down level by level on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. In practice, that makes for some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero possessing unique attributes and skills, fight through each level of enemies, acquire some permanent upgrades (in the form of teeth), and overcome a few area guardians. Easy to grasp!

The Unique Central System

The method by which you actually clear a dungeon room, though. Whenever you start another stage, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. All spaces holds a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To explore a room, you choose on one of the four rows, but which square you land in is determined by luck.

You may face a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a 25% chance of hitting a particular space in a row.

After that, the probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you choose on a alternative option first and try to make safer moves early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay in action in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating once you get a feel for it.

Influencing Chance

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced during an attempt by picking up teeth that change what things you're more attracted to. As an instance, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math optimally to have a improved likelihood at selecting the optimal square.
• During one attempt, I put all my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth I could that would increase my odds of being drawn to monsters of that variety.
• In another run, I built my character around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I secured loot.

The customization choices are not endless, but there's enough to experiment with to let you manipulate the odds according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Risk

Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have an 80% chance to land on the square you want but end up landing on an enemy that would eliminate your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and decide when to keep clicking or when to move on to the next floor as opposed to testing fate.

Consumables including destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, as do some character abilities. A particular character's special power, powered up by selecting four tiles, lets gamers to click on a vertical line in place of a horizontal row on a turn. By employing your cards right, you can hold that ability for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has a final update scheduled before the final game is launched. Another playable adventurer and a fresh guardian are scheduled to arrive sometime in January. The full launch probably isn't long after, but the game's developers haven't announced a concrete launch day yet.

A Final Thought

No matter when the complete game arrives, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and banking my earned gold in each run to access a constant flow of meta progression rewards, including fresh adventurers and items I can buy during a run. I still haven't found the deepest level, and I have a sense I'll continue pursuing that objective when the full version launches. Sign me up for the complete journey.