CMON is taking up the mantle for Mythic Games to deliver Anastyr and HEL: The Last Saga, two of the studio’s unfulfilled board game Kickstarters. Originally expected in 2021 and 2023 respectively, Mythic has now acknowledged that these games are “excessively difficult, if not impossible, to complete with our current means” and sold the IPs to Zombicide publisher CMON.
In its January 26 statement, CMON says it’s committed to providing a “free” copy of the games to those who pledged for these Kickstarters. The bad news is that it’s also “concluded that neither HEL: The Last Saga nor Anastyr are currently ready for publication in their current state”, adding that “substantial effort” will be required to complete them.
As a result, CMON says it has no solid estimates for when their versions of the games will be completed, and adds that the finished products they produce “will not be the same Mythic games you initially backed”. The company plans to “stay true to the original vision”, while reworking the games significantly. It suggests that the Viking-themed narrative campaign game HEL will focus on fewer but more robust stories, while fantasy board game Anastyr will be reduced in complexity, with fewer regions.
Mythic Games released its own statement shortly before CMON, explaining that it could find no other way of developing the games without asking for an extra contributions larger than the ones requested for Six Siege and Darkest Dungeon, which “did not seem like an acceptable solution”.
“Given the quality of the games produced by this publisher, their experience and high standards, we are not only reassured, but certain that this new version of HEL/Anastyr will live up to your expectations,” it said.
These developments have not soothed the savage beast; indeed, Mythic Game’s Kickstarter comment sections are more full of fury than ever. From the remarks made by numerous backers, it seems lots of fans would rather have a refund at this stage.
Specific grievances include the fact that CMON’s offer does not include any of the extras or expansions that backers pledged for. Furthermore, some members of the community were angry that they’ll have to pay for VAT and shipping again, when they say they already paid Mythic Games for these costs.
However, most of the anger seems firmly directed at Mythic, and some commenters have expressed thanks to CMON for pledging to provide the games to backers. “Mythic games failed us but CMON to the rescue and I stand by them,” wrote James Southall, on HEL’s Kickstarter page, while Josh Stevens said “CMON is a class act.”
Last year, Mythic Games angered backers of Six Siege and Darkest Dungeon when it asked for additional payments before releasing these games to them. We spoke to the studio at the time about how it had cut staff and sold off IPs to try and raise funds for its ongoing projects.
Mythic has previously attributed its struggles to rising prices sparked by both the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Right now it has an additional unfulfilled Kickstarter in Monsterpocalypse, whose Kickstarter page has not received an update since March 2023.
Check out our Darkest Dungeon review to see what we thought of this dungeon crawler title, and for more tabletop content, check out our picks for the best board games.