Sol Cesto

Man, I really loved this game, then I liked this game, and now I kind of hate it. The beggining is fantastic. I love the theme and the art style. The mechanics are also innovative and interesting, while remaining familiar enough to be comfortable to learn. Then, the mid-game hits, where you unlocked most of the stuff and most characters and are now getting more familiar with the game loop. That's when you start noticing the little annoyances: [list] [*]The fact that the animations are unskippable, so every time you click on a row, the camera zooms-in, shows the animation of the cell you got, and zooms-out. This also applies to other animations, like the floor clear animation, or the boss intros and outros. [*]The fact that even if the whole floor is beatable with your base stats and no damage taken, you have to manually pick each row 4 times and watch the whole animation every time to get the chests/floor clear. [*]The fact that many of the items and power-ups are garbage and should be rerolled every time you encounter them. [*]The barebones options menu [*]The fact that money just loses all meaning in the mid-game, because you already have all the permanent upgrades, so the whole money-retrieving system just makes no sense anymore, pads out your runs and adds unnecessary clutter. [*]And each run takes around 30-45 minutes, but 80% of the runtime is just tedious. There isn't enough enemy/environment variety to make them interesting. The biomes play-out exactly the same each time. [/list] And then, the cherry on top. (Spoilers for the "end-game", even though I haven't finished the game as I got too bored to do it.) [spoiler] It turns out, that to progress and, I'm guessing, get to the ending, you have to get through the whole game 4 more times, while collecting a different gem in each of the biomes to open the next gate. [/spoiler] Brother... You couldn't think of a less engaging progress-lock if you tried. I got around half-way there and just gave up. The runs take too much time, are too similar to each other from the lack of variety, and are extremely punishing (especially in the last biome). You can slog through the first 3 biomes for 40 minutes, and then get unlucky with 3 rooms in a row in the fourth biome, and get reset. And honestly, 90% of this wouldn't be a problem, if only there was an option to skip the cell-picking and floor-changing animations. Then the runs wouldn't feel as boring, because you could just click through them a lot faster. There's nothing entertaining in clicking through the first 2 biomes on autopilot every time in the run. I hope they add some QoL features, because with some improvements, this would be a really good game. As of right now, the end-game feels very cheap and the UX is quite poor after a few hours.

TLDR: Beautiful game, too random. I don't regret my purchase because I came here for art and vibes and they're impeccable. But based on the gameplay I find it incredibly hard to recommend. The Art? Heavily stylized. Weird. A bit gross. I have a strange love for medieval drolleries, so I absolutely love this. And the little interactables hidden about in the art? Love them so much. The style is impeccable. The gameplay? Excessively random. What's in the room? Random. Sometimes a room is just statistically likely to kill you, if not guaranteed death. This includes the first floor. Where do I go? Pick a row and let the random take over. What's in the shop? Random. I'm pretty certain I need an item plus a candle to do something. And I want to try a few other things with the candle. But, I haven't seen a candle in... I think 6+ hours of gameplay. Run, after run, after run, I spend every coin I earn to reroll the shop at every opportunity in an effort to brute force a candle (yes its unlocked). Still, nothing. The mid-run upgrades to try and gain some control over the randomness? Random. The one's from the stone statue even have randomized drawbacks. Gotta pick one, so if they're all bad for you, well... thank random for that. Some days you make it to the upgrades and realize your run basically ends when you pick a tooth. My greatest successes are largely credited to the RNG. My greatest failures... largely RNG. Some floors though, they work our less like RNG and more like a puzzle. Switching mobs create a fun challenge. First the top row, then the 3rd row. Back to the top. Down to the 4th, Then we'll hit the left column. We'll take a hit next row, but then we bounce back and forth on row 2 until we hit the strawberry. Cleaning a a floor like this is a sublime experience, and failing it just makes you want to go back for another to get it. But sadly, getting a floor like this is... random. There isn't "no skill." But the sheer absurd volume of the random currently overwhelms the game IMHO. To my knowledge there is only one chance to upgrade either your Strength or Magic by 1 point. Nothing feels as bad as reaching this point, making your choice, finally getting that one real power boost, and the RNG just laughs as it selects mobs to invalidate your newfound power and wipe you out. As it exists too much (almost everything) is left to chance. I'll keep playing it here and there, because there are aspects of the gameplay that are enjoyable. But I'm done trying. If I ever do reach the bottom it will have some, but not much to do with me. It'll mostly be the RNG deciding that this time is the time. Which is a shame, because I want more of this art, more of these vibes, more little secrets, more weird comments from more disturbing beings... just, not so heavily tainted with RNG. Oh, and as other reviewers have noted, you either finish a run or you don't. One does not simply save and quit during a run. You either play to the end, or you close it and lose everything. So if you need to do anything else, best make sure you can leave the game running until you get back to it if you want to finish that run.

I think this game 4 out of 5. I don't like late game. It's become grinding and attempts to finish with different characters to fulfill every achievement and see every story. Characters are different, but after long play they become almost the same so it's very repetitive and dull. All this related only to late game after you reach the sun. All other is good or even excellent. I like visual style, I like music. And mechanics of the game may sometimes feels unfair but I adore it.

[h1]Overall Verdict[/h1] Juice isn’t worth the squeeze - if you like the art style it’s probably more fun (and definitely cheaper) to watch a few runs on youtube and then look up each character’s ending rather than playing through the game yourself. The gameplay is uninteresting because of slow progression and bad balance, and there's not enough narrative payoff to justify the time investment. [h1]The Good[/h1] [h3]1: The art is amazing[/h3] All of the artwork in the game is great. The style is unique and makes me think of Felix Colgrave mashed together with a precolonial mesoamerican vibe. It’s consistent and of high quality, and all of the animations and character designs have a lot of soul in them. I laugh every time I see the wizard’s idle animation or the freezeframe of a character comes up. [h3]2: The UI and performance is good[/h3] I was never confused about what an item or enemy did, attacks/effects are clearly telegraphed, and the game controls very well. The game ran well, has a very small file size, and never crashed on me. [h1]The Bad[/h1] [h3]1: There’s no narrative or lore payoff[/h3] The developers created such an engaging world and premise, but then you never learn anything about it! The following major questions are never answered: -why did the sun vanish? -what is the dungeon? Who built it? What the hell is going on in area five? -what or who is the first/final boss? -who are the friendly NPCs (shopkeeper/stat upgrader/goblin) and what are they doing in the dungeon? -who or what are the enemies? All you get is vague snippets from the beggar, a bit of flavor text about the characters, and an ending slideshow once you beat the game with each of them - tiny crumbs not worth the effort of shaking out of the bag. [h3]2: Early game is repetitive[/h3] You earn money from landing on treasure chests during runs, and you can use it to either buy items that help during the run or save it to spend on meta progression. Thus, you ignore the shop and don’t get to use items in every early-game run because you’re saving for the meta progression. Two of the three early-game characters (Peasant, Warrior) are item-based! Thus, unless you want to kneecap yourself, every run is a Knight run, using the same character with the same stat spread and the same special ability. All that’s left is buildmaking via teeth, but at the start of the game this is heavily limited too. Upgrading teeth is the longest and most expensive form of meta progression because it’s divided up into two duplicate progression trees with the same cost, so it takes a long time before you really get meaningful choice and agency in your buildmaking. Because of all of this, the first several hours of runs are just money-farming monotony where the only difference between runs is how hard RNGesus ♥♥♥♥♥ you. [h3]3:Progression is too slow (and I hate doors)[/h3] The game vastly overstayed its welcome in my opinion. There’s very little player agency or skill expression, and the near total reliance on random chance means that things get old very fast. It took me about 9 hours to finish most of the main progression and unlock the chance to win, and by the time I did the game was starting to wear very thin - I had long since seen every room type, enemy, trap, and environmental modifier by the time I won. The gem hunt was the most egregious aspect. To get to the final area of the game you need to collect four gems by killing monsters and insert them into a door to open it. You can only get one gem per run, and you only get one opportunity to do it. Gem spawned on a monster you can’t kill? Gem spawned in a dark level where you couldn’t see it? Got the gem but died before reaching the gate? Tough luck, you just wasted half an hour on a run that made no progress! It's pointless as a progression gate because if you’re getting that deep into the dungeon you already have a strong enough character to beat the final boss and area (I won on my first run that got past it using a fairly weak build), and thus don’t need the money inserting each gem gives for more meta progression. [b]my first five winning runs totaling ~2 hours of time died to a [i]♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ door[/i][/b]. There’s other problems - your first run that gets to the second area is forcibly killed in a similar way, character progression is very slow (only got one new one in the ~7 hours between the first three and beating the game), the game tempts you with big-ticket purchases in the meta progression that turn out to be worthless or even detrimental - but that damn door is the big one. [h3]4: Balance is terrible[/h3] On the player’s end, the most egregious issue is in the teeth. Healing every two floors is better than every other option on every build, and teeth that improve your odds of landing on bonus tiles or weaken enemies when you land on bonus tiles tend to win out because they pull double-duty as risk prevention AND resource management instead of just being risk management like most teeth. Some teeth, like the one that increases the chances of getting a single extra coin in the shop, are completely useless. Characters are also unbalanced. Even once you’re out of the early game and buying items, the Peasant and Warrior are weak compared to the Huntress and especially the Knight because having higher stats and/or a sun power that gives you more control are more valuable than extra HP or inventory space (given extra stats prevent damage that would otherwise be absorbed by HP and a better sun power gives you the safety that items normally would without a monetary cost). Items are unbalanced. Keys give you a free floor (including skipping whole boss fights!) but cost nearly the same as items that only help you win a floor. Seeds are usually just a worse version of the other two healing items unless you have a strawberry-focused build. The dice is very cheap for how effective it is as both a stalling and RNG-mitigation tool. [b]All of these together mean that most of the time you’re less making impactful choices and more just going down a hierarchy of value.[/b] You don’t really choose between item X and item Y; If X is offered you always take it; if not and Y is offered you always take that, and if neither is offered you make do with Z. Same for teeth and pond items. [h3]5: Other disappointments[/h3] 1: the final boss is a repeat of the first boss with a single new mechanic. It’s incredibly disappointing 2: the final area had only a single new gimmick and no enemies that weren’t just stat checks. 3: you can’t choose to pass on taking teeth at a statue, so sometimes you can be forced into taking a tooth that hurts you or conflicts with your build if there aren’t any other options. 4: first area hounds and second area wolves are direct reskins of one another 5: certain meta progression items can be actively detrimental to unlock because they compete with better options in the spawn pools. The goblin sword, flute-restoring bird, and second bomb in the shop are all like this. 6: tips for unlocking additional characters and music for the flute are too vague (when you get them at all) 7: can't save in the middle of a run WHYYYY!???

Reminds me a lot of Felix Colgraves art style in the best way possible. Gameplay is simple and may feel a bit mundane if you really want something with a lot of depth. I for one enjoyed myself a lot and find the game easily worth the cost even if just to stare at the wonderful horrors that await in the dungeon.

I am writing this to collect my thoughts after 100% completing this charming, fun and frustrating game. I beat the game with all characters and got all achievements after slightly under 30 hours. I think I spent about 10 hours unlocking the most important unlocks, and then the rest on finding the secrets and figuring out how to consistently beat the game with all characters. In the end, I find the game has nothing more to offer after that. This compares poorly to something like Slay the Spire, which takes like 100+ hours to get all the achievements, and is still highly playable after that (over 1400 hours at the time of writing). I have two points related to this that I want to expand on. My first point, and my main complaint about the game (as with every game that implements this mechanic), is the meta unlock/upgrade system. I really wish developers would stop implementing this. In Sol Cesto this problem is exaggerated by the fact that unlocks are made by setting aside currency you earn throughout the run, that you would ohterwise use to buy items that are essential to beating the run. In theory there might be an interesting decision of whether to spend gold on items or save it for upgrades. But because a lot of upgrades are pretty essential to beating the game, you really do not have a choice. If you spend your gold on items, you are probably going to lose your run anyways with nothing to show for it. So this leads to about 10 hours of (mostly) grinding to unlock the actual game. There are so many other problems with this system, but the bottom line is that the game: -does not reward actual run progress -has a wonky difficulty curve My second point is that of replayability. I am not quite sure whether the game is not deep enough, or if it is just poorly balanced. Regardless, the game ends up having a very dominant strategy that allows you to consistently win with every character. This completely diminishes the interest in replaying the game after beating it. While it was fun figuring out and executing this strategy, every run feels the same once you figure it out. Apart from these two points, the game mostly holds up for the amount of time it lasts. Would I recommend the game? If you expect a highly replayable game where you do not have to go through a bunch of grinding just to unlock the full game, then no. But if you just want a small, interesting challenge with an uncanny atmosphere, and can forgive the developers for wasting your time unlocking its features, I will absolutely recommend it.

Genuinely best art direction of any game i've played in awhile highly recommend for that alone. Game gets a little bit monotonous mid game not enough variety run to run

It's a pretty looking, quite simplistic, risk-reward mitigating kind of a rougelite. There is some metaprogression that makes runs easier, but there isn't any endgame really, like ascension levels. I am teethering between recommend or not recommend, however because of the complete lack of QoL features - cannot save & quit mid run, no controller support (would be perfect for the Steam Deck!), cannot change animation speed - I am giving it a thumbs down.

Didn't click for me -- some original concepts but each run is very similar. Virtually identical with same character but even between characters the difference isn't huge (only unlocked the first 3). Ultimately I lost interest rather quickly

Finally a game for me!!! You get to roleplay as a quantum particle BEST art and animations I have seen in a long long time, trully surreal