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After playing in excess of 200 new releases this year, I'm formally closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is live, and I'm satisfied with the final results, despite being aware a host of fantastic releases likely fell by the wayside. Now, there's nothing for me to do other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and maybe enjoy a nice walk in the— well, shoot, discovered one more brilliant title. And just like that, goodbye to my intentions!

A Surprising Front-Runner Appears

During my casual gaming time, typically earmarked for a selection of unusual games, I've encountered what might become my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a distinctive procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of high stakes peril and prize. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy in knowing about a game before it's popular, sample Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your wallet for unique titles.

A Calculated Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's unlike anything I'm familiar with. The setup is that you need to explore a dungeon, descending floor after floor in search of the sun, which has disappeared from its world. Mechanically, that makes for some standard crawl progression. Pick a hero possessing unique attributes and skills, fight through each level of foes, pick up some passive buffs (which are teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Easy to grasp!

The Novel Central System

How you actually clear a chamber, however. Every time you begin a fresh level, the game presents a 4x4 grid of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a treasure chest, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To make a move, you simply click on one of the four rows, but which square you end up on is determined by luck.

You could encounter a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a 25% chance of selecting a specific tile in a row.

After that, the chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you opt on a safer line first and try to make more cautious selections early? Herein lies the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing once you get an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated over the course of a session by gathering teeth that change what things you're drawn toward. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a better shot at getting your desired outcome.
• During one attempt, I invested my attribute improvements toward physical attack/defense and picked as many teeth I could that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• On a different attempt, I built my character around reward boxes and paired that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes whenever I secured loot.

The customization choices are limited, but they are sufficient to experiment with to let you manipulate probabilities according to your strategy.

A Constant Risk

Naturally, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There's always the chance that you have a likely outcome to hit the square you want but end up landing a monster that would eliminate your final hit point. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you work through a stage and choose whether to keep clicking or to advance to the next floor instead of testing fate.

Items like enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, just like some character abilities. A particular character's signature move, charged after selecting four tiles, enables you to select a vertical line rather than a row on a turn. By employing your cards right, you can reserve that option for the right moment to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking level of strategy in the basic action of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has another update scheduled until the complete edition is launched. A new character and a new boss are scheduled to arrive by the end of January. The 1.0 release probably isn't far behind, but the creators haven't announced a specific release window yet.

A Parting Thought

Regardless of when it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your radar. I've been completely engrossed with it, discovering its small details and banking my earned gold in each run to access a constant flow of meta progression rewards, including new characters and items purchasable during a run. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I have a sense I'll still be pursuing that objective when the official release drops. Count me in for the complete journey.