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Having experienced more than 200 recent games this year, I am officially turning the page on 2025. My best-of compilation is published, and I am at peace with the concluding selections, despite being aware plenty of stellar titles probably slipped through the cracks. At this point, it's job is to except relax, take a short break, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, stumbled upon a great game. So much for my intentions!

An Early Favorite Surfaces

With my laid-back sessions, often set aside for a selection of unusual games, I've encountered potentially my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a conventional labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of high stakes peril and prize. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you take pride in knowing about a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I've ever played. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, going down level by level on a quest for the sun, which has vanished from its world. In practice, this results in some standard crawl progression. Pick a hero with their own parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, pick up some passive buffs (in the form of teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Straightforward, right!

The Distinctive Core Mechanic

The method by which you truly navigate a chamber, however. Each instance you begin a fresh level, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Each square features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you choose on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you select is up to chance.

You may face a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a quarter likelihood of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you choose on a safer line first and aim for less risky choices early? This is the risk-reward dynamic on display 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 collecting teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. For example, you may obtain a perk that will reduce the probability of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of getting a reward too.

• Creating a build is about tweaking the numbers optimally to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• During one attempt, I put all my stat upgrades toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth possible that would increase my odds of landing on monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are somewhat constrained, but they are sufficient to engage with to enable you to influence numbers to your preference.

An Ever-Present Risk

Of course, it's still a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have an 80% chance to land on the desired tile but wind up hitting a foe that would deplete your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you clear a floor out and determine if to press onward or to advance to the next floor instead of risking it all.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, just like some character abilities. A particular character's unique ability, activated once selecting four tiles, enables you to select a column in place of a horizontal line on a turn. If you play this strategically, you can save that move 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 remaining in development, and it has a final update to go before the complete edition is launched. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive sometime in January. The official version likely won't be much later, but the game's developers haven't announced a final date yet.

A Parting Endorsement

Whenever it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I've been completely engrossed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and storing my run rewards per attempt to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, featuring additional heroes and items I can buy while playing. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I suspect I will remain attempting that goal when the official release drops. Count me in for the complete journey.