🔗 Share this article

After playing in excess of 200 new releases this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My best-of compilation is published, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware a host of excellent games may have dropped through the cracks. Currently, my only plan is to other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a nice walk in the— ah crap, stumbled upon a amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!

An Early Front-Runner Appears

During my casual gaming time, usually reserved for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered potentially my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a classic dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of significant risk danger and payoff. Take this as a hipster's insider tip: If you enjoy in knowing about a game before it's popular, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Calculated Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's a departure from all I've ever played. The concept is that you need to explore a dungeon, descending floor after floor on a quest for the sun, which has vanished from this mythical realm. When you play, this creates some standard crawl progression. Choose an adventurer possessing unique attributes and skills, fight through each level of monsters, collect some permanent upgrades (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few biome bosses. Straightforward, right!

The Unique Central System

The way you effectively complete a dungeon room, is unique. Every time you start another stage, you're shown a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Each square features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you choose on one of the four rows, but the exact space you land in is up to chance.

You may face a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a one-in-four probability of hitting a particular space in a row.

Subsequently, your odds shift. So do you go for it, or do you click on a alternative option first and attempt some less risky choices early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay on display in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing after you develop its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated over the course of a session by picking up teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. As an instance, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of finding a treasure chest too.

• Developing a strategy is about influencing the statistics as best you can to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• In one run, I put all my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth possible that would improve my probability of attracting me toward monsters with that damage type.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and paired that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies whenever I claimed a reward.

The customization choices are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to engage with to let you manipulate numbers according to your strategy.

An Ever-Present Gamble

Naturally, at its heart, it's a game of chance. You constantly face the risk that you have an 80% chance to hit the preferred space but ultimately choose a foe that would take out your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you navigate a level and choose whether to keep clicking or when to move on to the following level as opposed to testing fate.

Tools such as explosive devices aid in reducing the chance, just like some character abilities. One hero's unique ability, powered up by making four moves, allows players to select a column rather than a horizontal row on a turn. Should you use this move wisely, you can hold that ability for the right moment to circumvent a perilous selection. It's a surprising level of strategy in the simple act of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has a final update to go before the final game is unleashed. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The full launch may not be long after, but the studio haven't announced a final date yet.

A Final Endorsement

No matter when the complete game arrives, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I have been positively obsessed with it, finding all of little secrets and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, such as new characters and items I can buy during a run. I still haven't completed the dungeon, and I get the feeling I will remain attempting that goal when the official release drops. Sign me up for the complete journey.