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Following my time with more than 200 new releases 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 concluding selections, despite being aware numerous fantastic releases likely fell by the wayside. Now, there's job is to except relax, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, discovered one more brilliant title. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!

A Premature Contender Emerges

With my laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a conventional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of significant risk peril and prize. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: 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 Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's different from everything I've ever played. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. In practice, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Choose an adventurer with their own stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of foes, pick up some passive buffs (which are teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!

The Unique Gameplay Loop

How you effectively complete a area, is unique. Whenever you enter a new floor, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Each square features a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To explore a room, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you select is up to chance.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a 25% chance of selecting any given square in a row.

After that, the probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you opt on a alternative option first and aim for less risky choices early? That's the tension between chance and safety on display in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing once you get an understanding of it.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your probabilities can be influenced through a run by collecting teeth that alter which objects you're drawn toward. For example, you might get a perk that will lower your chances of landing on a trap, but will also decrease the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about tweaking the numbers as best you can to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• During one attempt, I put all my attribute improvements toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth I could that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• On a different attempt, I constructed my hero around loot caches and paired that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies whenever I opened a chest.

The build options are somewhat constrained, but they are sufficient to engage with to enable you to influence the odds the way you want.

An Ever-Present Risk

Unsurprisingly, it remains a game of chance. There's always the possibility that you have a likely outcome to land on the square you want but end up landing on an enemy that would deplete your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you clear a floor out and choose whether to continue selecting or to proceed to the next floor as opposed to testing fate.

Tools such as explosive devices help cut down the chance, as do some hero powers. A particular character's special power, charged after making four moves, enables you to choose a vertical column rather than a row during that action. Should you use your cards right, you can reserve that option for an optimal time to circumvent a perilous selection. You'll find an astonishing level of strategy in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is remaining in early access, and it has a final update to go before the complete edition is released. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The 1.0 release may not be long after, but the studio haven't committed to a specific release window yet.

A Concluding Endorsement

Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. For the past week, I've been thoroughly captivated with it, discovering its little secrets and storing my run rewards in each run to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, including fresh adventurers and items purchasable while playing. As of now, I am yet to found the deepest level, and I have a sense I'll continue attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the complete journey.