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Following my time with well over 200 new releases this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My best-of compilation is published, and I feel content with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware plenty of fantastic releases probably slipped by the wayside. Now, there's job is to other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a nice walk in the— ah crap, discovered one more great game. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Premature Front-Runner Appears

With my laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered what might become my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a conventional labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of major consequence danger and payoff. Take this as a preview for the in-the-know: If you relish being aware of a game before it's cool, give Sol Cesto a try so you can punch a hole in your gaming budget.

A Tactical Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I'm familiar with. The premise is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has disappeared from its world. In practice, this results in some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero possessing unique parameters and powers, clear floor after floor of enemies, collect some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Distinctive Gameplay Loop

The way you actually clear a chamber, though. Each instance you enter a new floor, you're shown a sixteen-square board of boxes. All spaces holds a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the specific tile you end up on is up to chance.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a one-in-four probability of landing on a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your odds shift. So do you go for it, or do you choose on a safer line first and try to make more cautious selections early? This is the tension between chance and safety in action in Sol Cesto, and it's engrossing when you acquire its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your percentages can be shaped over the course of a session by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're drawn toward. For example, you could acquire a perk that will lower your chances of landing on a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a higher chance at selecting the optimal square.
• On a particular session, I put all my power boosts toward brute force and selected all the teeth I could that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters of that variety.
• During a separate session, I built my character around loot caches and paired that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes each time I opened a chest.

The strategic possibilities are somewhat constrained, but they are sufficient to engage with to enable you to influence numbers according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Risk

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. There remains the risk that you have an 80% chance to hit the desired tile but ultimately choose on an enemy that would eliminate your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and determine if to continue selecting or to advance to the subsequent stage instead of pushing your luck.

Consumables including destructive ordnance aid in reducing the chance, just like some character abilities. A particular character's signature move, activated once making four moves, enables you to select a vertical line rather than a row for that move. If you play this strategically, you can hold that ability for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking level of strategy in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has another update planned until the complete edition is unleashed. An additional hero and a fresh guardian are scheduled to arrive before the conclusion of January. The official version likely won't be far behind, but the creators haven't set a final date yet.

A Final Endorsement

Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been positively obsessed with it, finding all of hidden nuances and storing my run rewards every session to reveal a continuous trickle of permanent unlocks, featuring fresh adventurers and items available for acquisition mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I have a sense I'll continue pursuing that objective when the full version launches. Sign me up for the entire experience.