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Having experienced in excess of 200 fresh titles this year, It's time to wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, accepting that plenty of excellent games probably slipped through the cracks. At this point, it's job is to except relax, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— well, shoot, found another great game. So much for my peaceful respite!

A Premature Favorite Surfaces

In my more off-hours play, often set aside for a handful of quirky titles, I've come across potentially my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a classic labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of significant risk risk and reward. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you take pride being aware of a game before it's popular, give Sol Cesto a try so you can burn a spot in your indie credit card.

A Calculated Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's unlike anything I'm familiar with. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has disappeared from the fantasy world. In practice, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character who has stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of foes, pick up some permanent upgrades (which are teeth), and defeat a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!

The Novel Central System

The method by which you actually clear a area, is unique. Whenever you start another stage, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To proceed, you simply click on one of the four rows, but the exact space you end up on is a matter of probability.

You may face a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a 25% chance of hitting any given square in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you click on a different row first and aim for less risky choices early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay in action in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing 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 gathering teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. For example, you could acquire a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math as best you can to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• On a particular session, I put all my attribute improvements toward brute force and chose every teeth possible that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around loot caches and coupled it with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies each time I secured loot.

The customization choices are not endless, but there's enough to engage with to enable you to influence numbers to your preference.

A Persistent Risk

Unsurprisingly, it's still a game of chance. There remains the possibility that you have an 80% chance to land on the square you want but end up landing a foe that would deplete your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you clear a floor out and decide when to keep clicking or to advance to the subsequent stage instead of pushing your luck.

Items like destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, similar to some hero powers. A particular character's special power, activated once clearing four squares, enables you to choose a column instead of a horizontal row during that action. Should you use this move wisely, you can reserve that option for a crucial point to avoid a risky decision. It's a surprising level of strategy in the basic action of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is remaining in early access, and it has another update scheduled until the final game is released. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are planned for release by the end of January. The 1.0 release likely won't be far behind, but the studio haven't committed to a specific release window yet.

A Parting Endorsement

No matter when it's fully released, you ought to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I have been thoroughly captivated with it, discovering its little secrets and storing my run rewards per attempt to reveal a continuous trickle of permanent unlocks, such as new characters and items purchasable while playing. To this day, I have not completed the dungeon, and I have a sense I will remain pursuing that objective when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the entire experience.