🔗 Share this article

Following my time with in excess of 200 new releases this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the concluding selections, despite being aware plenty of stellar titles probably slipped under the radar. Currently, my only job is to other than unwind, take a short break, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, discovered one more great game. There go my plans!

An Early Favorite Surfaces

With my off-hours play, often set aside for a few oddball curiosities, I've come across what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of high stakes peril and prize. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you take pride discovering a game before it hits the mainstream, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your wallet for unique titles.

A Tactical Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, descending floor after floor on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from the fantasy world. Mechanically, this creates some recognizable genre framework. Select a character who has stats and abilities, fight through each level of monsters, acquire some passive buffs (in the form of teeth), and vanquish a few biome bosses. Easy to grasp!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The way you actually clear a area, is unique. Each instance you start another stage, the game presents a 4x4 grid of boxes. Every tile holds a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To explore a room, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you land in is up to chance.

You may face a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a quarter likelihood of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you opt on a different row first and attempt some safer moves early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating once you get a feel for it.

Shaping the Odds

The meta-layer is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by gathering teeth that change what things you're more likely to land on. As an instance, you may obtain a perk that will lower your chances of landing on a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math optimally to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• In one run, I put all my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth I could that would improve my probability of landing on monsters of that variety.
• On a different attempt, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and paired that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes each time I claimed a reward.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but there's enough to experiment with to allow you to tweak the odds to your preference.

An Ever-Present Risk

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a high probability to hit the square you want but end up landing a foe that would take out your final hit point. All selections is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you work through a stage and decide when to continue selecting or to proceed to the following level instead of risking it all.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, as do some hero powers. An adventurer's signature move, powered up by making four moves, enables you to choose a column in place of a horizontal line during that action. Should you use this move wisely, you can save that move for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. It's a surprising degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has a final update to go until the final game is released. An additional hero and a fresh guardian are planned for release by the end of January. The 1.0 release likely won't be far behind, but the game's developers haven't committed to a specific release window yet.

A Final Thought

Regardless of when the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I've been completely engrossed with it, finding all of hidden nuances and banking my earned gold per attempt to reveal a continuous trickle of persistent upgrades, featuring additional heroes and items I can buy mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I have a sense I'll still be attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the entire experience.