🔗 Share this article

Following my time with more than 200 new releases this year, I am officially wrapping things up on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the concluding selections, even knowing a host of fantastic releases probably slipped through the cracks. Currently, my only nothing for me to do other than unwind, take a short break, and perhaps take a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, found another great game. So much for my intentions!

A Surprising Contender Emerges

With my laid-back sessions, often set aside for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a conventional labyrinth explorer into a chance-driven game of significant risk danger and payoff. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you relish being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your wallet for unique titles.

A Calculated Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's different from everything I've ever played. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper to find the sun, which has disappeared from this mythical realm. When you play, this results in some standard crawl progression. Select a character with their own parameters and powers, fight through each level of monsters, collect some passive buffs (in the form of teeth), and defeat a few stage-ending champions. Easy to grasp!

The Distinctive Core Mechanic

The method by which you actually clear a area, however. Each instance you start another stage, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. All spaces features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you just select on one of the four rows, but the exact space you land in is determined by luck.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a one-in-four probability of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll odds shift. So do you go for it, or do you click on a safer line first and aim for less risky choices early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing when you acquire an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by picking up teeth that change what things you're drawn toward. For example, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of landing on a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of getting a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• During one attempt, I put all my attribute improvements toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth I could that would increase my odds of being drawn to monsters of that variety.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and coupled it with a perk that would debuff nearby foes every time I secured loot.

The customization choices are not endless, but it provides ample to experiment with to enable you to influence probabilities according to your strategy.

A Constant Tension

Of course, at its heart, it's a game of chance. You constantly face the possibility that you have an 80% chance to land on the square you want but ultimately choose a foe that would deplete your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and decide when to keep clicking or to proceed to the subsequent stage as opposed to testing fate.

Tools such as destructive ordnance aid in reducing the chance, similar to some character abilities. An adventurer's unique ability, powered up by making four moves, lets gamers to click on a column instead of a row on a turn. Should you use this move wisely, you can save that move for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. You'll find an astonishing amount of nuance in the simple act of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is still in development, and it has at least one more update planned until the final game is unleashed. Another playable adventurer and a additional end-level foe are scheduled to arrive before the conclusion of January. The 1.0 release likely won't be long after, but the game's developers haven't set a final date yet.

A Concluding Endorsement

Whenever the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto in your sights. I have been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and storing my run rewards every session to reveal a continuous trickle of permanent unlocks, featuring new characters and items available for acquisition mid-attempt. I still haven't found the deepest level, and I suspect I'll still be pursuing that objective when the official release drops. I'm committed for the long haul.