Following my time with well over 200 recent games this year, It's time to turning the page on 2025. My best-of compilation is live, and I feel content with the concluding selections, accepting that a host of excellent games likely fell by the wayside. At this point, it's nothing for me to do except relax, unplug a little, and maybe enjoy a refreshing hike in the— ah crap, found another amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my peaceful respite!
A Surprising Favorite Surfaces
In my more laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered what could be my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that breaks down a classic dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of high stakes danger and payoff. Take this as a preview for the in-the-know: If you relish in knowing about a game before it's cool, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your indie credit card.
A Tactical Roguelike Twist
Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I've ever played. The concept is that you need to explore a dungeon, descending floor after floor in search of the sun, which has gone missing from its world. When you play, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character with their own attributes and skills, defeat enemies on every stage of monsters, acquire some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Easy to grasp!
The Novel Central System
The way you effectively complete a dungeon room, however. Every time you enter a new floor, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To proceed, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you select is a matter of probability.
You may face a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a 25% chance of selecting any given square in a row.
Then, you'll odds shift. So do you take the risk, or do you click on a safer line first and aim for less risky choices early? Herein lies the risk-reward dynamic in action in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop a feel for it.
Shaping the Odds
The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. For example, you may obtain a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of finding a treasure chest too.
- Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a better shot at landing where you want.
- During one attempt, I put all my stat upgrades toward brute force and chose every teeth I could that would increase my odds of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
- In another run, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes whenever I opened a chest.
The customization choices are not endless, but it provides ample to engage with to enable you to influence numbers the way you want.
An Ever-Present Risk
Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There's always the possibility that you have an 80% chance to hit the desired tile but wind up hitting on an enemy that would take out your final hit point. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and decide when to continue selecting or to proceed to the next floor as opposed to risking it all.
Consumables including enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, similar to some character abilities. One hero's signature move, charged after selecting four tiles, enables you to choose a vertical column instead of a row during that action. If you play this move wisely, you can hold that ability for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. It's a surprising level of strategy in the simple act of clicking.
The Road to 1.0
Sol Cesto is remaining in development, and it has a final update scheduled before the complete edition is launched. A new character and a new boss are expected to drop before the conclusion of January. The official version probably isn't long after, but the game's developers haven't announced a concrete launch day yet.
A Parting Thought
Whenever it's fully released, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I have been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of hidden nuances and saving my accumulated currency in each run to reveal a continuous trickle of meta progression rewards, featuring new characters and items I can buy during a run. To this day, I have not found the deepest level, and I suspect I'll continue attempting that goal when the full version launches. Count me in for the entire experience.
