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Following my time with well over 200 new releases this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, even knowing plenty of stellar titles may have dropped under the radar. Now, there's plan is to but sit back, unplug a little, and possibly go for a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, found another great game. There go my plans!

A Premature Contender Emerges

In my more off-hours play, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've come across what could be my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of high stakes danger and payoff. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you take pride being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The setup is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has gone missing from its world. When you play, that makes for some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero possessing unique stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of foes, acquire some passive buffs (represented as teeth), and overcome a few stage-ending champions. Easy to grasp!

The Unique Core Mechanic

How you truly navigate a area, though. Each instance you begin a fresh level, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces holds a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you land in is determined by luck.

You could encounter a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a quarter likelihood of hitting any given square in a row.

After that, the chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you click on a different row first and try to make less risky choices early? This is the tension between chance and safety on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop its rhythm.

Influencing Chance

The roguelike twist is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you may obtain a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics as best you can to have a better shot at getting your desired outcome.
• In one run, I focused my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and selected all the teeth possible that would increase my odds of landing on monsters aligned with that strength.
• On a different attempt, I built my character around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I secured loot.

The strategic possibilities are not endless, but it provides ample to work with to allow you to tweak the odds the way you want.

A Persistent Gamble

Unsurprisingly, it remains a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a high probability to select the preferred space but ultimately choose a foe that would eliminate your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and determine if to keep clicking or to advance to the next floor as opposed to testing fate.

Consumables including destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, as do some character abilities. An adventurer's signature move, charged after clearing four squares, enables you to select a vertical line rather than a row during that action. If you play this strategically, you can reserve that option for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is currently in development, and it has another update to go until the final game is launched. An additional hero and a fresh guardian are expected to drop by the end of January. The official version probably isn't much later, but the studio haven't committed to a final date yet.

A Concluding Endorsement

Regardless of when it's fully released, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I've been completely engrossed with it, discovering its small details and banking my earned gold every session to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, including new characters and items I can buy mid-attempt. I still haven't found the deepest level, and I have a sense I'll still be working on that task when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the complete journey.