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Following my time with in excess of 200 fresh titles this year, I am officially turning the page on 2025. My best-of compilation is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the ultimate rankings, accepting that numerous stellar titles likely fell under the radar. At this point, it's plan is to but sit back, take a short break, and possibly go for a nice walk in the— ah crap, discovered one more brilliant title. So much for my intentions!

A Premature Front-Runner Appears

During my casual gaming time, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've come across potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a conventional labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of high stakes peril and prize. Take this as an early adopter's heads-up: If you relish being aware of a game before it's cool, give Sol Cesto a try so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Dungeon-Crawling Innovation

Sol Cesto is a thought-provoking procedural game that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The premise is that you must venture into a dungeon, descending floor after floor on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. In practice, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero with their own parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, collect some stat improvements (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Easy to grasp!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

The method by which you actually clear a dungeon room, however. Each instance you begin a fresh level, the game presents a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To make a move, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you end up on is up to chance.

You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a 25% chance of selecting any given square in a row.

After that, the probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you click on a different row first and aim for more cautious selections early? That's the risk-reward dynamic on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop a feel for it.

Manipulating Probability

The procedural hook is that your probabilities can be influenced over the course of a session by collecting teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. To illustrate, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of landing on a trap, but will similarly reduce the odds of getting a treasure chest too.

• Creating a build is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• During one attempt, I put all my power boosts toward melee prowess and picked as many teeth possible that would improve my probability of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
• During a separate session, I developed my adventurer around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes every time I secured loot.

The strategic possibilities are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to work with to enable you to influence numbers the way you want.

A Constant Tension

Unsurprisingly, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There's always the chance that you have a high probability to land on the desired tile but ultimately choose a foe that would deplete your last bit of health. Every move is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and choose whether to continue selecting or to advance to the next floor rather than risking it all.

Consumables including destructive ordnance assist in minimizing the chance, just like some special skills. One hero's special power, activated once selecting four tiles, enables you to select a column rather than a row on a turn. Should you use this move wisely, you can hold that ability for a crucial point to avoid a risky decision. You'll find an astonishing amount of nuance in the seemingly straightforward task of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is currently in development, and it has another update to go until the full version is released. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are planned for release before the conclusion of January. The official version may not be much later, but the studio haven't set a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Thought

Regardless of when it's fully released, you should consider put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I've been thoroughly captivated with it, uncovering each of small details and storing my run rewards per attempt to access a constant flow of permanent unlocks, including fresh adventurers and items I can buy mid-attempt. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I have a sense I'll still be working on that task when the official release drops. I'm committed for the entire experience.