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Having experienced in excess of 200 new releases this year, It's time to wrapping things up on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I feel content with the concluding selections, accepting that plenty of fantastic releases probably slipped under the radar. Currently, my only nothing for me to do other than unwind, take a short break, and maybe enjoy a nice walk in the— oh no, found another amazing experience. So much for my intentions!

An Early Favorite Surfaces

In my more off-hours play, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've come across what might become my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that reimagines a classic dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of significant risk danger and payoff. View this an early adopter's heads-up: If you relish being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can burn a spot in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's unlike anything I've ever played. The premise is that you must venture into a dungeon, going down level by level in search of the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. When you play, this creates some standard crawl progression. Pick a hero possessing unique attributes and skills, clear floor after floor of foes, acquire some passive buffs (in the form of teeth), and defeat a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The way you actually clear a area, however. Whenever you begin a fresh level, you see a 4x4 grid of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a health-restoring fruit. To proceed, you choose on one of the four rows, but which square you select is determined by luck.

You might see a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You begin with a one-in-four probability of landing on a specific tile in a row.

Subsequently, your odds shift. The question becomes: Do you go for it, or do you click on a different row first and try to make safer moves early? Herein lies the tension between chance and safety at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop its rhythm.

Influencing Chance

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated during an attempt by collecting teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. As an instance, you might get a perk that will decrease your odds of landing on a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math as best you can to have a better shot at getting your desired outcome.
• On a particular session, I put all my power boosts toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth I could that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I developed my adventurer around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes whenever I opened a chest.

The customization choices are somewhat constrained, but they are sufficient to work with to allow you to tweak numbers according to your strategy.

A Persistent Tension

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have a high probability to hit the square you want but wind up hitting on an enemy that would deplete your remaining life. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and choose whether to press onward or to advance to the following level instead of risking it all.

Items like enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, similar to some special skills. One hero's special power, powered up by clearing four squares, allows players to choose a vertical column rather than a row for that move. Should you use your cards right, you can hold that ability for an optimal time to circumvent a perilous selection. It's a surprising degree of depth in the simple act of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is still in early access, and it has at least one more update planned before the final game is released. A new character and a fresh guardian are scheduled to arrive before the conclusion of January. The full launch may not be long after, but the game's developers haven't announced a final date yet.

A Final Recommendation

Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. I've been positively obsessed with it, discovering its small details and saving my accumulated currency every session to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, including fresh adventurers and items I can buy while playing. As of now, I am yet to completed the dungeon, and I get the feeling I'll continue working on that task when 1.0 finally hits. Sign me up for the complete journey.