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Following my time with well over 200 new releases this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware numerous fantastic releases likely fell through the cracks. Currently, my only job is to except relax, take a short break, and possibly go for a refreshing hike in the— oh no, stumbled upon a great game. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

With my laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered what might become my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that breaks down a classic dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of major consequence risk and reward. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you relish being aware of a game before it's cool, test out 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 a departure from all I'm familiar with. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has disappeared from this mythical realm. In practice, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Choose an adventurer possessing unique parameters and powers, fight through each level of enemies, acquire some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and defeat a few stage-ending champions. Straightforward, right!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The way you effectively complete a dungeon room, however. Each instance you start another stage, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To explore a room, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you land in is a matter of probability.

You could encounter a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a quarter likelihood of selecting a specific tile in a row.

After that, the chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a alternative option first and attempt some safer moves early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire a feel for it.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced through a run by collecting teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. For example, you may obtain a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Creating a build is about tweaking the numbers to the utmost to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I focused my power boosts toward brute force and chose every teeth I could that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters of that variety.
• During a separate session, I developed my adventurer around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies every time I claimed a reward.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but they are sufficient to work with to allow you to tweak probabilities the way you want.

A Constant Tension

Unsurprisingly, it's still a game of chance. There's always the possibility that you have an 80% chance to hit the desired tile but ultimately choose on an enemy that would eliminate your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and determine if to press onward or when to move on to the subsequent stage rather than pushing your luck.

Tools such as destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, similar to some hero powers. A particular character's unique ability, powered up by making four moves, lets gamers to choose a vertical column rather than a horizontal row on a turn. If you play your cards right, you can save that move for the right moment to circumvent a perilous selection. It's a surprising degree of depth in the simple act of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is still in early access, and it has at least one more update scheduled until the final game is unleashed. A new character and a additional end-level foe are planned for release sometime in January. The full launch may not be much later, but the creators haven't set a specific release window yet.

A Final Recommendation

Regardless of when it's fully released, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I've been positively obsessed with it, discovering its small details and banking my earned gold per attempt to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, featuring new characters and items I can buy while playing. To this day, I have not reached the bottom, and I suspect I'll continue working on that task when the official release drops. I'm committed for the entire experience.