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Having experienced in excess of 200 new releases this year, I'm formally turning the page on 2025. My year-end list is published, and I feel content with the concluding selections, accepting that a host of fantastic releases probably slipped through the cracks. Now, there's plan is to but sit back, unplug a little, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— well, shoot, stumbled upon a brilliant title. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

An Early Contender Emerges

In my more laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've encountered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a traditional dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of significant risk peril and prize. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you relish discovering a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Calculated Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's a departure from all I'm familiar with. The setup is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from the fantasy world. Mechanically, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Choose an adventurer who has attributes and skills, fight through each level of foes, collect some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Straightforward, right!

The Distinctive Gameplay Loop

How you actually clear a dungeon room, is unique. Every time you begin a fresh level, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To proceed, you choose on one of the four rows, but the exact space you select is determined by luck.

You might see a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a quarter likelihood of selecting a specific tile in a row.

After that, the probabilities change. So do you press your luck, or do you opt on a alternative option first and attempt some more cautious selections early? Herein lies the risk-reward dynamic in action in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing when you acquire its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by collecting teeth that modify the types of squares you're drawn toward. For example, you might get a perk that will decrease your odds of landing on a trap, but will also decrease the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about tweaking the numbers optimally to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• In one run, I put all my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth possible that would increase my odds of landing on monsters with that damage type.
• On a different attempt, I built my character around treasure chests and paired that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I secured loot.

The customization choices are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to work with to allow you to tweak the odds to your preference.

A Persistent Risk

Of course, at its heart, it's a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have a likely outcome to select the desired tile but ultimately choose a monster that would deplete your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you navigate a level and decide when to press onward or when to move on to the next floor as opposed to pushing your luck.

Tools such as destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, as do some character abilities. An adventurer's special power, activated once selecting four tiles, lets gamers to select a vertical line rather than a horizontal line during that action. By employing this move wisely, you can save that move for the right moment to sidestep a dangerous choice. It's a surprising amount of nuance in the basic action of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has another update to go before the complete edition is launched. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop before the conclusion of January. The official version may not be far behind, but the creators haven't committed to a concrete launch day yet.

A Final Recommendation

Whenever it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your radar. For the past week, I've been completely engrossed with it, finding all of little secrets and storing my run rewards per attempt to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, such as fresh adventurers and items purchasable during a run. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I suspect I will remain pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the entire experience.