🔗 Share this article I'm Convinced I Already Have Must-Play Title of 2026. Following my time with well over 200 recent games this year, I am officially wrapping things up on 2025. My year-end list is published, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware a host of fantastic releases likely fell through the cracks. At this point, it's plan is to except relax, take a short break, and possibly go for a nice walk in the— oh no, stumbled upon a brilliant title. There go my plans! A Premature Front-Runner Appears In my more laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've come across potentially my earliest beloved game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional dungeon crawler into a probability-fueled game of high stakes risk and reward. Take this as a preview for the in-the-know: If you enjoy being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, sample Sol Cesto so you can burn a spot in your indie credit card. A Strategic Roguelike Twist Sol Cesto is a tactical roguelike that's unlike anything I've ever played. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, descending floor after floor in search of the sun, which has disappeared from its world. In practice, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character with their own stats and abilities, defeat enemies on every stage of monsters, pick up some stat improvements (which are teeth), and vanquish a few area guardians. Easy to grasp! The Novel Central System The way you effectively complete a chamber, however. Whenever you begin a fresh level, you see a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To make a move, you simply click on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you end up on is a matter of probability. You could encounter a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a quarter likelihood of hitting a specific tile in a row. Subsequently, your probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you take the risk, or do you choose on a safer line first and aim for safer moves early? Herein lies the tension between chance and safety at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating after you develop an understanding of it. Influencing Chance The procedural hook is that your percentages can be shaped over the course of a session by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. For example, you could acquire a perk that will decrease your odds of hitting a trap, but will also decrease the odds of getting a reward too. Crafting a loadout is about tweaking the numbers optimally to have a improved likelihood at selecting the optimal square. During one attempt, I invested my power boosts toward physical attack/defense and selected all the teeth I could that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters with that damage type. In another run, I built my character around reward boxes and paired that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I opened a chest. The customization choices are not endless, but there's enough to work with to allow you to tweak the odds according to your strategy. A Persistent Gamble Unsurprisingly, at its heart, it's a game of chance. There's always the possibility that you have a high probability to hit the preferred space but end up landing a foe that would eliminate your remaining life. Every move is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and determine if to continue selecting or to advance to the following level instead of testing fate. Tools such as explosive devices aid in reducing the chance, as do some character abilities. One hero's unique ability, activated once making four moves, allows players to click on a column rather than a horizontal line on a turn. By employing this move wisely, you can reserve that option for a crucial point to avoid a risky decision. You'll find an astonishing degree of depth in the basic action of clicking. Looking Ahead Sol Cesto is currently in its preview phase, and it has at least one more update planned before the final game is released. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are planned for release by the end of January. The 1.0 release may not be much later, but the game's developers haven't announced a final date yet. A Concluding Thought Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been thoroughly captivated with it, finding all of small details and saving my accumulated currency every session to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, including new characters and items available for acquisition while playing. To this day, I have not completed the dungeon, and I suspect I will remain working on that task when the full version launches. I'm committed for the long haul.