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After playing well over 200 new releases this year, It's time to closing the book on 2025. My year-end list is published, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, accepting that plenty of stellar titles may have dropped under the radar. Currently, my only job is to except relax, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, found another brilliant title. So much for my plans!

A Surprising Front-Runner Appears

In my more casual gaming time, usually reserved for a handful of quirky titles, I've encountered what might become my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a classic labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of significant risk danger and payoff. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you take pride in knowing about a game before it's popular, sample Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I've previously experienced. The concept is that you need to explore a dungeon, going down level by level to find the sun, which has gone missing from its world. Mechanically, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Choose an adventurer who has stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of foes, acquire some stat improvements (in the form of teeth), and defeat a few area guardians. Straightforward, right!

The Novel Central System

How you effectively complete a area, is unique. Every time you begin a fresh level, you see a sixteen-square board of boxes. Each square features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To explore a room, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you land in is determined by luck.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a quarter likelihood of landing on any given square in a row.

Then, you'll odds shift. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a different row first and attempt some more cautious selections early? Herein lies the risk-reward dynamic 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 percentages can be shaped over the course of a session by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics as best you can to have a improved likelihood at getting your desired outcome.
• In one run, I invested my stat upgrades toward brute force and picked as many teeth I could that would boost my chances of landing on monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and coupled it with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies every time I claimed a reward.

The build options are somewhat constrained, but it provides ample to experiment with to let you manipulate the odds to your preference.

A Constant Risk

Unsurprisingly, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a high probability to select the desired tile but end up landing a foe that would deplete your remaining life. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and determine if to press onward or when to move on to the following level as opposed to pushing your luck.

Consumables including enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, similar to some hero powers. A particular character's special power, charged after clearing four squares, allows players to click on a vertical column instead of a horizontal line during that action. By employing this strategically, you can hold that ability for an optimal time to circumvent a perilous selection. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the simple act of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is remaining in early access, and it has a final update scheduled until the complete edition is launched. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The official version likely won't be far behind, but the studio haven't committed to a specific release window yet.

A Final Recommendation

No matter when it's fully released, you might want to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I have been positively obsessed with it, finding all of little secrets and storing my run rewards per attempt to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, featuring additional heroes and items available for acquisition while playing. To this day, I have not completed the dungeon, and I suspect I'll continue attempting that goal when the full version launches. Sign me up for the long haul.