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Having experienced well over 200 fresh titles this year, I am officially wrapping things up on 2025. My year-end list is out in the world, and I'm satisfied with the concluding selections, despite being aware plenty of excellent games likely fell under the radar. Now, there's plan is to except relax, take a short break, and possibly go for a pleasant stroll in the— oh no, discovered one more amazing experience. So much for my plans!

A Premature Front-Runner Appears

In my more off-hours play, usually reserved for a handful of quirky titles, I've discovered what could be my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is an unusual procedural dungeon crawler for Windows PC that deconstructs a conventional dungeon crawler into a chance-driven game of high stakes peril and prize. Take this as an early adopter's heads-up: If you enjoy in knowing about a game before it's popular, sample Sol Cesto so you can make a dent in your wallet for unique titles.

A Tactical Genre Subversion

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's a departure from all I've previously experienced. The setup is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, progressing deeper and deeper on a quest for the sun, which has disappeared from its world. In practice, this creates some standard crawl progression. Select a character who has attributes and skills, fight through each level of enemies, pick up some passive buffs (which are teeth), and defeat a few biome bosses. Simple enough!

The Unique Gameplay Loop

The method by which you truly navigate a dungeon room, is unique. Every time you enter a new floor, the game presents a 4x4 grid of boxes. Every tile either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a life-giving berry. To make a move, you choose on one of the horizontal lines, but the exact space you land in is determined by luck.

You might see a row with a pair of enemies, a strawberry, and a reward box in it. You start with a 25% chance of hitting a particular space in a row.

After that, the probabilities change. The question becomes: Do you press your luck, or do you choose on a different row first and attempt some more cautious selections early? Herein lies the risk-reward dynamic at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating when you acquire a feel for it.

Influencing Chance

The procedural hook is that your odds can be manipulated over the course of a session by collecting teeth that alter which objects you're more attracted to. To illustrate, you might get a perk that will lower your chances of encountering a trap, but will concurrently lower the odds of landing on a reward too.

• Crafting a loadout is about manipulating math to the utmost to have a higher chance at landing where you want.
• During one attempt, I invested my power boosts toward melee prowess and chose every teeth possible that would increase my odds of attracting me toward monsters aligned with that strength.
• During a separate session, I constructed my hero around treasure chests and combined that with a perk that would debuff nearby foes whenever I opened a chest.

The build options are somewhat constrained, but there's enough to work with to allow you to tweak numbers the way you want.

An Ever-Present Gamble

Naturally, it's still a game of chance. You constantly face the chance that you have a high probability to land on the desired tile but ultimately choose a monster that would deplete your final hit point. Every move is a gamble, so there's a constant tension as you clear a floor out and determine if to keep clicking or when to move on to the next floor instead of testing fate.

Consumables including enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, similar to some special skills. One hero's signature move, activated once making four moves, lets gamers to choose a vertical line instead of a row during that action. By employing your cards right, you can hold that ability for a crucial point to circumvent a perilous selection. It's a surprising level of strategy in the simple act of clicking.

Looking Ahead

Sol Cesto is remaining in development, and it has a final update planned until the complete edition is released. Another playable adventurer and a fresh guardian are planned for release sometime in January. The official version may not be far behind, but the creators haven't set a final date yet.

A Final Recommendation

Whenever it's fully released, you might want to put Sol Cesto on your radar. I've been positively obsessed with it, uncovering each of small details and saving my accumulated currency in each run to unlock a steady stream of permanent unlocks, featuring fresh adventurers and items purchasable mid-attempt. I still haven't reached the bottom, and I have a sense I'll continue attempting that goal when the full version launches. Count me in for the long haul.