I'm Convinced My First Favorite Game of 2026.

Following my time with in excess of 200 recent games this year, It's time to closing the book on 2025. My annual roundup is live, and I am at peace with the final results, accepting that a host of stellar titles may have dropped under the radar. At this point, it's nothing for me to do other than unwind, unplug a little, and possibly go for a refreshing hike in the— well, shoot, found another brilliant title. So much for my intentions!

An Early Front-Runner Appears

During my laid-back sessions, typically earmarked for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered what could be my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a conventional labyrinth explorer into a probability-fueled game of significant risk peril and prize. Consider this a hipster's insider tip: If you take pride being aware of a game before it's popular, test out Sol Cesto so you can punch a hole in your indie credit card.

A Tactical Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I've previously experienced. The setup is that you need to explore a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has gone missing from the fantasy world. Mechanically, this results in some recognizable genre framework. Pick a hero with their own stats and abilities, defeat enemies on every stage of monsters, collect some passive buffs (represented as teeth), and vanquish a few biome bosses. Simple enough!

The Novel Gameplay Loop

How you effectively complete a area, is unique. Every time you start another stage, you're shown a 4x4 grid of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a reward cache, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To make a move, you just select on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you land in is up to chance.

You could encounter a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You initially will have a one-in-four probability of hitting any given square in a row.

After that, the chances are recalculated. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you choose on a safer line first and aim for more cautious selections early? That's the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating once you get an understanding of it.

Shaping the Odds

The roguelike twist is that your percentages can be shaped through a run by picking up teeth that change what things you're drawn toward. For example, you might get a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of landing on a treasure chest too.

• Crafting a loadout is about influencing the statistics to the utmost to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• In one run, I put all my attribute improvements toward brute force and chose every teeth possible that would boost my chances of attracting me toward monsters of that variety.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around reward boxes and paired that with a perk that would weaken adjacent enemies whenever I secured loot.

The build options are somewhat constrained, but it provides ample to engage with to enable you to influence the odds according to your strategy.

A Persistent Risk

Naturally, it remains a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a likely outcome to land on the preferred space but end up landing a foe that would eliminate your final hit point. Every move is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you navigate a level and determine if to press onward or to advance to the next floor as opposed to pushing your luck.

Consumables including explosive devices help cut down the chance, as do some character abilities. A particular character's special power, charged after making four moves, allows players to select a column instead of a horizontal line for that move. If you play your cards right, you can reserve that option for a crucial point to avoid a risky decision. It's a surprising degree of depth in the basic action of clicking.

Future Development

Sol Cesto is still in its preview phase, and it has another update scheduled before the final game is released. An additional hero and a fresh guardian are planned for release sometime in January. The official version may not be much later, but the game's developers haven't set a concrete launch day yet.

A Concluding Endorsement

Whenever its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your wishlist. I have been positively obsessed with it, finding all of hidden nuances and storing my run rewards in each run to reveal a continuous trickle of permanent unlocks, including fresh adventurers and items I can buy while playing. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I get the feeling I will remain attempting that goal when the full version launches. Count me in for the long haul.