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Having experienced well over 200 new releases this year, It's time to closing the book on 2025. My year-end list is live, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, even knowing a host of stellar titles likely fell by the wayside. Currently, my only job is to but sit back, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— well, shoot, stumbled upon a brilliant title. So much for my peaceful respite!

A Premature Favorite Surfaces

With my casual gaming time, usually reserved for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a classic dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of significant risk peril and prize. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's cool, test out Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your wallet for unique titles.

A Tactical Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's unlike anything I'm familiar with. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has disappeared from this mythical realm. In practice, this creates some recognizable genre framework. Choose an adventurer possessing unique stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of monsters, pick up some passive buffs (which are teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Easy to grasp!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The way you actually clear a area, is unique. Each instance you enter a new floor, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To make a move, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but which square you end up on is determined by luck.

You may face a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a quarter likelihood of selecting a specific tile in a row.

Then, you'll chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you click on a different row first and attempt some less risky choices early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay in action in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop its rhythm.

Influencing Chance

The meta-layer is that your odds can be manipulated through a run by gathering teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. For example, you may obtain a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math optimally to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• In one run, I put all my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth possible that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• During a separate session, I developed my adventurer around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I secured loot.

The strategic possibilities are not endless, but there's enough to work with to let you manipulate probabilities the way you want.

A Persistent Gamble

Of course, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have a likely outcome to hit the desired tile but ultimately choose on an enemy that would deplete your final hit point. Every move is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you clear a floor out and choose whether to keep clicking or when to move on to the subsequent stage as opposed to testing fate.

Items like destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, just like some hero powers. An adventurer's special power, activated once selecting four tiles, allows players to select a vertical column instead of a horizontal line on a turn. Should you use this move wisely, you can reserve that option for a crucial point to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking amount of nuance in the simple act of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has at least one more update planned before the final game is released. An additional hero and a new boss are expected to drop sometime in January. The 1.0 release probably isn't long after, but the creators haven't set a concrete launch day yet.

A Final Thought

Whenever the complete game arrives, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been completely engrossed with it, finding all of hidden nuances and saving my accumulated currency in each run to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, featuring fresh adventurers and items available for acquisition mid-attempt. To this day, I have not reached the bottom, and I have a sense I will remain pursuing that objective when the official release drops. Count me in for the complete journey.