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Having experienced more than 200 recent games 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 concluding selections, despite being aware a host of stellar titles likely fell through the cracks. Currently, my only job is to but sit back, disconnect briefly, and possibly go for a nice walk in the— oh no, discovered one more great game. So much for my plans!

A Premature Favorite Surfaces

With my casual gaming time, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've encountered potentially my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that breaks down a conventional labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of high stakes risk and reward. View this an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy discovering a game before it hits the mainstream, test out Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Calculated Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The premise is that you need to explore a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has gone missing from the fantasy world. When you play, this creates some recognizable genre framework. Select a character with their own parameters and powers, clear floor after floor of foes, pick up some permanent upgrades (in the form of teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The method by which you effectively complete a dungeon room, is unique. Each instance you start another stage, you see a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To explore a room, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you land in is a matter of probability.

You may face a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your probabilities change. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a safer line first and aim for safer moves early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay in action in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing after you develop its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by picking up 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 hitting a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics to the utmost to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• On a particular session, I invested my attribute improvements toward physical attack/defense and selected all the teeth I could that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• On a different attempt, I built my character around reward boxes and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are limited, but they are sufficient to work with to allow you to tweak the odds according to your strategy.

A Persistent 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 preferred space but wind up hitting a monster that would take out your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you clear a floor out and determine if to keep clicking or when to move on to the subsequent stage as opposed to pushing your luck.

Items like enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, similar to some character abilities. A particular character's unique ability, powered up by making four moves, enables you to select a vertical column rather than a horizontal row during that action. By employing this strategically, you can reserve that option for the right moment to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the simple act of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is remaining in early access, and it has at least one more update planned until the full version is released. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The full launch likely won't be far behind, but the game's developers haven't set a concrete launch day yet.

A Parting Recommendation

Whenever the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I have been completely engrossed with it, uncovering each of small details and banking my earned gold in each run to reveal a continuous trickle of permanent unlocks, such as additional heroes and items purchasable mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I suspect I'll continue working on that task when the official release drops. I'm committed for the long haul.