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Following my time with in excess of 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My best-of compilation is live, and I'm satisfied with the final results, even knowing a host of fantastic releases probably slipped through the cracks. At this point, it's plan is to but sit back, unplug a little, and perhaps take a nice walk in the— oh no, stumbled upon a brilliant title. There go my plans!

An Early Favorite Surfaces

In my more off-hours play, usually reserved for a handful of quirky titles, I've encountered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's cool, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your wallet for unique titles.

A Strategic 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 vanished from its world. In practice, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character with their own stats and abilities, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, acquire some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Straightforward, right!

The Distinctive Central System

How you effectively complete a area, though. Every time you enter a new floor, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you land in is determined by luck.

You could encounter a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a one-in-four probability of hitting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you opt on a different row first and aim for less risky choices early? Herein lies the risk-reward dynamic on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire a feel for it.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're more likely to land on. To illustrate, you might get a perk that will lower your chances of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math optimally to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I put all my attribute improvements toward brute force and selected all the teeth I could that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I built my character around reward boxes and paired that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I secured loot.

The build options are limited, but it provides ample to engage with to enable you to influence probabilities according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Tension

Unsurprisingly, it's still a game of chance. There's always the chance that you have a likely outcome to land on the square you want but ultimately choose on an enemy that would eliminate your final hit point. Every move is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and decide when to keep clicking or to proceed to the following level rather than testing fate.

Consumables including explosive devices help cut down the chance, similar to some special skills. A particular character's unique ability, charged after clearing four squares, lets gamers to select a vertical line in place of a horizontal line for that move. Should you use this strategically, you can save that move for an optimal time to circumvent a perilous selection. You'll find an astonishing amount of nuance in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has at least one more update scheduled before the final game is launched. Another playable adventurer and a fresh guardian are expected to drop by the end of January. The official version probably isn't far behind, but the studio haven't set a specific release window yet.

A Final Endorsement

Regardless of when the complete game arrives, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, including new characters and items purchasable while playing. As of now, I am yet to found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I'll still be pursuing that objective when the full version launches. I'm committed for the long haul.