🔗 Share this article

Having experienced well over 200 recent games this year, I am officially turning the page on 2025. My year-end list is published, and I'm satisfied with the final results, accepting that numerous stellar titles likely fell under the radar. Currently, my only nothing for me to do other than unwind, take a short break, and maybe enjoy a pleasant stroll in the— ah crap, found another amazing experience. There go my intentions!

An Early Front-Runner Appears

In my more casual gaming time, usually reserved for a selection of unusual games, I've discovered potentially my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a classic labyrinth explorer into a chance-driven game of high stakes danger and payoff. Take this as an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy discovering a game before it's popular, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your wallet for unique titles.

A Strategic Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's a departure from all I've ever played. The concept is that you must venture into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has vanished from this mythical realm. Mechanically, this creates some standard crawl progression. Select a character who has parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of monsters, acquire some stat improvements (in the form of teeth), and defeat a few area guardians. Straightforward, right!

The Distinctive Central System

The method by which you actually clear a dungeon room, though. Every time you begin a fresh level, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To explore a room, you simply click on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you end up on is a matter of probability.

You might see a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a 25% chance 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 different row first and aim for safer moves early? Herein lies the push-your-luck gameplay on display in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing after you develop an understanding of it.

Influencing Chance

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced over the course of a session by picking up teeth that modify the types of squares you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics to the utmost to have a improved likelihood at getting your desired outcome.
• In one run, I invested my power boosts toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth possible that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters aligned with that strength.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters each time I opened a chest.

The customization choices are limited, but it provides ample to engage with to allow you to tweak the odds according to your strategy.

A Persistent Gamble

Naturally, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There remains the chance that you have an 80% chance to hit the square you want but ultimately choose a foe that would take out your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and determine if to press onward or to proceed to the next floor instead of testing fate.

Items like explosive devices help cut down the chance, similar to some special skills. An adventurer's unique ability, activated once selecting four tiles, allows players to click on a vertical column in place of a row on a turn. If you play your cards right, you can save that move for a crucial point to sidestep a dangerous choice. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is currently in early access, and it has a final update scheduled until the full version is released. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are expected to drop by the end of January. The official version probably isn't far behind, but the game's developers haven't committed to a final date yet.

A Parting Thought

No matter when the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I have been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of little secrets and banking my earned gold in each run to reveal a continuous trickle of meta progression rewards, such as new characters and items available for acquisition mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to found the deepest level, and I suspect I will remain pursuing that objective when the full version launches. Count me in for the entire experience.