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After playing well over 200 new releases this year, It's time to wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I feel content with the concluding selections, even knowing numerous fantastic releases probably slipped under the radar. Currently, my only plan is to except relax, take a short break, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— well, shoot, stumbled upon a great game. There go my peaceful respite!

A Premature Front-Runner Appears

In my more off-hours play, often set aside for a handful of quirky titles, I've encountered what could be my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of significant risk danger and payoff. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you take pride in knowing about a game before it's popular, test out Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your wallet for unique titles.

A Tactical Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's different from everything I've ever played. The premise is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper in search of the sun, which has disappeared from the fantasy world. When you play, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero with their own parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of monsters, acquire some passive buffs (which are teeth), and defeat a few stage-ending champions. Simple enough!

The Unique Core Mechanic

The way you truly navigate a dungeon room, is unique. Each instance you enter a new floor, you see a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To make a move, you simply click on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you land in is determined by luck.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of hitting any given square in a row.

Then, you'll probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you click on a different row first and attempt some less risky choices early? That's the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing after you develop its rhythm.

Influencing Chance

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by gathering teeth that change what things you're more likely to land on. For example, you might get a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of finding a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics as best you can to have a improved likelihood at landing where you want.
• During one attempt, I focused my attribute improvements toward melee prowess and picked as many teeth I could that would increase my odds of landing on monsters of that variety.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I claimed a reward.

The strategic possibilities are somewhat constrained, but it provides ample to work with to let you manipulate the odds the way you want.

An Ever-Present Risk

Naturally, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There's always the chance that you have a likely outcome to select the preferred space but ultimately choose on an enemy that would deplete your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you clear a floor out and decide when to press onward or to proceed to the following level instead of testing fate.

Items like destructive ordnance help cut down the chance, similar to some hero powers. A particular character's special power, charged after selecting four tiles, allows players to click on a vertical column rather than a horizontal row on a turn. By employing this strategically, you can hold that ability for the right moment to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the simple act of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is remaining in development, and it has another update to go before the full version is released. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are expected to drop sometime in January. The 1.0 release may not be much later, but the creators haven't announced a specific release window yet.

A Parting Thought

Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I've been positively obsessed with it, finding all of small details and saving my accumulated currency in each run to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, such as fresh adventurers and items purchasable during a run. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I suspect I'll continue pursuing that objective when the official release drops. Count me in for the complete journey.