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Following my time with in excess of 200 fresh titles this year, I'm formally turning the page on 2025. My annual roundup is out in the world, and I feel content with the concluding selections, even knowing numerous fantastic releases may have dropped under the radar. Currently, my only nothing for me to do other than unwind, disconnect briefly, and perhaps take a nice walk in the— well, shoot, found another great game. And just like that, goodbye to my peaceful respite!

An Early Favorite Surfaces

In my more laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that reimagines a traditional dungeon crawler into a luck-based game of significant risk peril and prize. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you relish discovering a game before it hits the mainstream, test out Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's unlike anything I've ever played. The premise is that you must venture into a dungeon, descending floor after floor in search of the sun, which has vanished from this mythical realm. In practice, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Pick a hero who has parameters and powers, defeat enemies on every stage of monsters, acquire some passive buffs (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Simple enough!

The Unique Central System

How you actually clear a chamber, though. Every time you start another stage, you see a sixteen-square board of boxes. All spaces either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To make a move, you just select on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you land in is up to chance.

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

Then, you'll probabilities change. So do you take the risk, or do you click on a alternative option first and try to make safer moves early? Herein lies the push-your-luck gameplay on display in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop its rhythm.

Shaping the Odds

The procedural hook is that your percentages can be shaped during an attempt by collecting teeth that alter which objects you're drawn toward. For example, you might get a perk that will decrease your odds of landing on a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of finding a reward too.

• Developing a strategy is about manipulating math optimally to have a better shot at selecting the optimal square.
• During one attempt, I put all my stat upgrades toward melee prowess and selected all the teeth I could that would increase my odds of landing on monsters aligned with that strength.
• In another run, I constructed my hero around reward boxes and combined that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies whenever I claimed a reward.

The build options are limited, but there's enough to experiment with to enable you to influence probabilities according to your strategy.

A Constant Risk

Of course, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the possibility that you have a likely outcome to select the preferred space but ultimately choose on an enemy that would eliminate your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so a persistent nervousness exists as you clear a floor out and determine if to keep clicking or to proceed to the following level rather than pushing your luck.

Items like enemy-killing bombs aid in reducing the chance, as do some character abilities. An adventurer's signature move, charged after making four moves, enables you to choose a column in place of a row for that move. Should you use this strategically, you can hold that ability for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. There's a shocking degree of depth in the simple act of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has at least one more update scheduled before the complete edition is released. An additional hero and a fresh guardian are expected to drop by the end of January. The 1.0 release probably isn't long after, but the game's developers haven't committed to a specific release window yet.

A Final Recommendation

Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of hidden nuances and banking my earned gold in each run to unlock a steady stream of meta progression rewards, featuring fresh adventurers and items purchasable during a run. As of now, I am yet to found the deepest level, and I suspect I will remain pursuing that objective when the official release drops. I'm committed for the complete journey.