Sol Cesto is my favorite roguelite of 2026 (so far)

I’ve written about quite a few roguelites in 2026 already, and a lot of them are stellar. There’s been Raccoin, Mewgenics, Minos, and even the beloved Slay the Spire 2. But Sol Cesto — an absolutely gorgeous game from developers Tambouille, Géraud Zucchini, and Chariospirale — takes the cake for me so far.

The first thing you’ll notice about Sol Cesto is that it’s creepy. Not in a true horror sense, but in a “this weird, gothic art style looks ripped from the pages of an ancient monster book.” It almost reminds me of Ghibli the way it takes what looks to be folklore, and twists it into something grotesque without ever being too graphic. [Jeff described it as “if the Voynich Manuscript was clipart,” which is perfect]. It’s filled with scary things you don’t want to meet down in the dark, but that’s exactly what you’ll spend your time doing.

Sol Cesto is a game about diving into a dark dungeon that’s over 100 floors deep. At the start of the game, the only class you can choose is the Peasant, but by successfully diving in and placing any gold you find into a well bucket that comes back to the surface, you can extract that money to unlock stars — aka permanent upgrades. These stars will attract new talent, other fantasy classes like warriors, knights, and wizards to dive into the dungeon and return the sun to the sky.

As for Sol Cesto’s gameplay loop, it’s extremely unique and pretty simple.