I Think My First Favorite Game of 2026.
Having experienced more than 200 recent games this year, It's time to wrapping things up on 2025. My year-end list is published, and I am at peace with the ultimate rankings, even knowing a host of stellar titles probably slipped through the cracks. Now, there's plan is to except relax, disconnect briefly, and possibly go for a nice walk in the— ah crap, found another amazing experience. And just like that, goodbye to my plans!
A Surprising Favorite Surfaces
During my off-hours play, often set aside for a handful of quirky titles, I've come across what could be my first favorite game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional labyrinth explorer into a chance-driven game of significant risk risk and reward. Consider this a preview for the in-the-know: If you relish in knowing about a game before it's popular, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.
A Strategic Genre Subversion
Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I'm familiar with. The concept is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, descending floor after floor on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from its world. Mechanically, this results in some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character who has attributes and skills, defeat enemies on every stage of enemies, pick up some passive buffs (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few biome bosses. Easy to grasp!
The Novel Gameplay Loop
The method by which you truly navigate a area, is unique. Whenever you enter a new floor, the game presents a sixteen-square board of boxes. Every tile features a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To proceed, you just select on one of the four rows, but which square you land in is a matter of probability.
You may face a row with two monsters, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You begin with a 25% chance of landing on any given square in a row.
After that, the chances are recalculated. So do you take the risk, or do you click on a safer line first and attempt some more cautious selections early? That's the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's absorbing when you acquire an understanding of it.
Influencing Chance
The roguelike twist is that your percentages can be shaped through a run by gathering teeth that change what things you're more attracted to. For example, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of hitting a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a reward too.
- Creating a build is about influencing the statistics optimally to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
- On a particular session, I focused my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and chose every teeth possible that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters with that damage type.
- During a separate session, I constructed my hero around loot caches and combined that with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters every time I opened a chest.
The build options are not endless, but it provides ample to experiment with to allow you to tweak probabilities according to your strategy.
A Persistent Risk
Naturally, it remains a game of chance. You constantly face the chance that you have an 80% chance to land on the desired tile but end up landing a monster that would take out your last bit of health. All selections is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you clear a floor out and determine if to continue selecting or to proceed to the next floor instead of risking it all.
Items like explosive devices assist in minimizing the chance, as do some special skills. One hero's special power, powered up by clearing four squares, allows players to choose a vertical line rather than a horizontal row for that move. Should you use this move wisely, you can save that move for an optimal time to sidestep a dangerous choice. There's a shocking level of strategy in the simple act of clicking.
Future Development
Sol Cesto is still in development, and it has another update planned until the full version is released. Another playable adventurer and a new boss are planned for release before the conclusion of January. The 1.0 release likely won't be much later, but the studio haven't announced a concrete launch day yet.
A Concluding Thought
Regardless of when its 1.0 launch occurs, you should consider put Sol Cesto in your sights. I have been completely engrossed with it, uncovering each of hidden nuances and saving my accumulated currency per attempt to access a constant flow of meta progression rewards, featuring additional heroes and items purchasable while playing. To this day, I have not found the deepest level, and I get the feeling I will remain pursuing that objective when the official release drops. I'm committed for the complete journey.
