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Following my time with well over 200 recent games this year, It's time to wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I am at peace with the concluding selections, accepting that numerous fantastic releases likely fell under the radar. Now, there's nothing for me to do but sit back, unplug a little, and possibly go for a refreshing hike in the— well, shoot, stumbled upon a brilliant title. There go my intentions!

An Early Contender Emerges

During my laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of significant risk risk and reward. Take this as 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 Calculated Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's unlike anything I've previously experienced. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has vanished from this mythical realm. Mechanically, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Select a character possessing unique stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of monsters, pick up some stat improvements (represented as teeth), and overcome a few area guardians. Straightforward, right!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

How you effectively complete a chamber, however. Each instance you enter a new floor, the game presents a 4x4 grid of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To make a move, you choose on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you end up on is determined by luck.

You could encounter a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a 25% chance of hitting any given square in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you click on a alternative option first and attempt some less risky choices early? This is the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The roguelike twist is that your odds can be manipulated over the course of a session by picking up teeth that change what things you're more likely to land on. To illustrate, you may obtain a perk that will lower your chances of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• In one run, I invested my attribute improvements toward brute force and selected all the teeth I could that would increase my odds of attracting me toward monsters with that damage type.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around reward boxes and paired that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes each time I secured loot.

The build options are not endless, but there's enough to work with to enable you to influence numbers the way you want.

A Constant Risk

Unsurprisingly, it remains a game of chance. You constantly face the chance that you have an 80% chance to land on the square you want but ultimately choose on an enemy that would eliminate your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you clear a floor out and decide when to continue selecting or when to move on to the following level instead of risking it all.

Consumables including destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, similar to some character abilities. A particular character's signature move, powered up by making four moves, enables you to choose a vertical column rather than a horizontal row for that move. By employing this move wisely, you can hold that ability for the right moment to circumvent a perilous selection. It's a surprising amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has another update to go until the complete edition is launched. A new character and a additional end-level foe are planned for release by the end of January. The official version likely won't be long after, but the creators haven't announced a final date yet.

A Final Recommendation

Regardless of when the complete game arrives, you might want to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I've been completely engrossed with it, finding all of hidden nuances and saving my accumulated currency every session to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, such as fresh adventurers and items I can buy during a run. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I suspect I'll still be working on that task when the full version launches. I'm committed for the complete journey.