To Save The World You Must Stalk & Kill Your Neighbors Once A Year - Life Eater ALL ENDINGS 

Day 762 of asking Manly to play A Cold Love Story through RU-vid comments.

Year after year

Hail Zimforth

A moderate amount of All Hail Zimforth rn. I’m more of a Nyarlothotep person myself

Love your consistent high quality content man

So basically "get in the robot Shinji" the game?

I mean both fall in love with a long haired boy that they may or may not end up killing.

Yeah the protagonist was very relatable

I actually liked the movie Knock at the Cabin for this reason

I felt bad for the guy, it's too bad there isn't a more happy ending but with the nature of the game it is understandable.

I think it's not really that ambiguous. The ending implies that Johnny has only one day to be with his mom which means the ritual failed anyway which also means it didn't matter how he sacrificed himself.

@@areaxisthegurkhai don’t think it’s so clear cut. For all we know maybe ralph sacrificing himself was enough, maybe it wasn’t. We have no clue, just as Johnny doesn’t

Zimforth's ask was "you know who I want dead. You are mine alone now forever." Right? You could interpret "you are mine now forever" as Ralph sacrificing himself to Zimfort counting as staying with them forever. You know who I want dead could be Johnny but it could also be Ralph as Zimforths goal is to stay with Ralph forever, right? And it doesnt give the fail screen for abducting the wrong target either. So I think both are a fine sacrifice.

It would be vivisect then

Bro really started small with a rib and then ripped out a lung and stayed conscious enough to cut the correct intestines

Yep, I thought that loosing all time would be an ending, but sadly not

@@imperror6679 Frankly seeing the blanked out schedule made me think that was the case, allegorically and gameplay wise losing time till the end of the world. Even the flavor text implied it (talk with Johnny, delete evidence, ect). Overall the game needs a good update because it only needs a few things to become amazing

I feel like the reason there wasn't was because if we saw the world end, it would remove the ambiguity of the ending where Johnny escapes, y'know what I mean? like it would take away the lingering mystery of "is this actually an eldritch horror communicating with this guy, or are both people involved just losing their minds?"

@@TrainsTer-91 yep, exactly

Same! I wish that was an ending. Would probably be the only ending I’d have the heart to get

Ooooh, good pfp! I love my stupid star child.

he kills himself... since he's dead, he's not censoring his own name anymore since you were playing as him... also his name was very clearly ralph if you looked at it for a few seconds.

But he becomes a dead person after saving Johnny.

@@RottenPancake768"Man awarded medal for saving teenager... from himself, after holding captive for 10 years." Yikes.

yeah, the "real person" bit when he said johnny's name for the first time really stuck with me compared to how he essentially didn't have a name for the longest time

nu uh

Doin numbers?

You're what?!

🫀

Hey wait a minute-

There's gotta be some murderers who just have to use macbook

Thanks for your honesty.

That's what got me to click lol, looks pretty unique

Just edit them out of existence.

why 'ngl'? why would you lie about that in the first place? are you a pathological liar?

Agreed. Stockholm Syndrome only goes so far, and looking at Johnny's schedule shows that the guy just wants an end to the continued loss of his life, even if it means dying. Dude spends seven years sitting in a cage, and after that he gets to go upstairs to a sofa. That's not a life.

Hearing that was like watching my world crumble *badum tiss*

Agreed. Johnny does end up with Stockholm Syndrome, but acts on it in a nuanced way.

And also zimforth is real (in game)

YOU ARE SO RIGHT. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD COMMENT ITS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING!!!! the i love you madfe me audibly gasp. also based falin pfp

It's still unclear. It could be just a coincidence about earthquake.

I believe the earthquake was a coincidence, if only because the alternative is that even the better ending seems Johnny doomed.

@@NoxY_05 well they did say the ground liquified lol

the whole point was he locked johnny away from the world for years... he would obviously be biased and easily manipulated by ralph's views... stockholm syndrome.....@@NoxY_05

I think the earthquake wasn't a coincidence but I also think Johnny survives his ending. It seems like the point of Zimforth's rituals isn't that it needs or really even cares about sacrifices, rather the actual point seems to be torturing people like Ralph, who seem to be fundamentally good and have to obey Zimforth against their own conscience. Even though the last request broke Ralph, it would be pointless to end the world since there are undoubtedly still people like him to be forced into servitude, and I suspect Johnny can walk away from it since he wouldn't be useful to Zimforth as a supplicant.

(I forgot where he lives, I think he said it once. It's not on the wiki, I am not gonna go find it, I'll just say it's Florida as my headcannon)

Manly Florida man

I heard "e" actually.

As a Floridian, I concur

Off why think the last action is called shower the flower

@@wellmaruprepareduknowim3272 Aktually 🤓(aha meme) it's "Water the flower" . Still not sure what you tried to say there but the symbolism of this action for me is stil pretty blurry, except maybe Zimforth is a plant that feed on blood uh ...

Why do you think Johnny wanted headphones? To not hear them.

Gunna have to google that word

The ambiguity of the premise really sells it.

Zimforth is Real he is called dark emperor.he is a character from space warlord organ trading simulator

nah the game was dogwater lets be honest here

​@@goonmaster9000yap more lil bro

@@goonmaster9000 not listening to someone that uses outdated zoomer insulta.

I mean in the first years Ralph purposely didn’t talk to jhonny a lot to avoid growing attached, but I do think he deserved a pillow or a blanket after a year or two

Yeah, he could at least move a couch cushion into the cage or something.

4) doesn't go outside unless necessary.

You have downtime that's not sleeping with a 80 hour week?

​@sonniepronounceds-au-ni9287 Who wouldn't get shitfaced working that much? You have to have a screw loose regardless

you work 12 hours each day without break? That's tough....

and still doesn't make a decent living

And just times his deadlines with disasters so confirmation bias will happen

I bet this is it. Confirmation bias is super strong.

@@caileyrookids To be fair, that is exactly what the aztecs did to an entire civilization. "Oh no the suns missing!" "Quick rip out the heart of someone!"

@@DARKthenoble I remember there was a Twilight Zone episode that did almost exactly that but with a group of teenagers exploring a cave that run across some ancient drawings and an urn filled with blood.

ralph never skipped a year... the earthquake had nothing to do with anything lol.....@@caileyrookids

Ralph's name? If you look closely you can see his name is Ralph under the distortion in the subtitles

A different comment mentioned it could be him being a slave/not human until he retaliates

@chucklebutt4470 oh ty lol I was watching with with low res so I didn't catch that

He calls Jonny by his name because he considers him a real person, but doesn't consider himself to be one because of what he does

@@treplox4318 YEP. he even says "If i were real zimforth wouldnt want me"

I'll use a fake example, you get a target that says "They watch a lot of ANIME, a useless scourge on the world" then you'd go to the timeline of multiple people and start unlocking nodes that have randomized time costs and an unknown level required factor. You always aim for the shortest time level needed required nodes and they refresh every time you unlock another node. You'd then look for nodes that say Watching ANIME, but then you might get more than one with WATCHING ANIME so you've only narrowed it down to two, so you'd look for some unique node like WATCHING BAD ANIME or WATCHES DUBS ONLY then you know ya that's where the "scourge" part comes in. But then you get a twist, you unlock a node on someone you wrote off that has a WATCHES ANIME while posting on twitter while liking Kotaku posts, then you know aha that's the real scourge. Then you'd just narrow down details of their life for the end quiz. Sometimes they have overlap schedules where they hang together so you'd look for something distinct from the others near that time frame.

​@@ManlyBadassHerothis post is pure perfection lmao

@@ManlyBadassHero But then I found "laundering scarf" and "recording RU-vid voiceover" and decided to spare them because the world needs them. Plus the other guy had a time slot labelled "venting" so definitely not to be trusted.

​@@ManlyBadassHero "Watching Dubs Only" 💀

​@@suitovTruly sus.

There also seems to be some kind of supernatural disguising effect on him (The distortion of his name, his reaction to Johnny recognising him being to kidnap him) so it's possible when the police investigate they just wouldn't find him

Many many elders and other people are found only months later when their rotten corpses smell too foul to be ignored by neighbors. In rural areas it could be years.

As sad as it is, thousands of people simply disapears every year. To give you an idea, just in France, 175 people per day are registered disapearing. Out of those, around 8000 adults disparitions per year are considered "weird / worrisomes" (as in, not just a random person being gone for a day or two). In just one country.

Ralph stalked each of his victims for about a week before abductions, crimes itself seems too unrelated to connect them to single serial killer. One spree a year at random dates, no motive, no relations to the victims, no modus operandi discovered since bodies were never found. If we assume the area Ralph operated in had high enough crime rate that up to 3 missing persons a year wasn't an unusual spike, I'm afraid Ralph didn't even need a divine intervention from Zimforth to stay under the radar for the entire time.

@@zedetta6239 That's what I was thinking too. I had wondered if Zimforth had given him some sort of power that makes people unable to really recognize Ralph as an individual. So if any witnesses saw an abduction they wouldn't know any clear details just that 'someone' had been seen near them last. The fact that Johnny was the ONLY person who seemed to know who Ralph was as an individual and remember his name, says a lot about Johnny. I had thought Zimforth was going to select Johnny to be his next chosen, but he did not. I guess because Ralph is now with Zimforth 'forever'. I really enjoyed the story.

We’re all looking at videos, watching streams, and occasionally reading comments. We appreciate all the nice ones. Thanks. 😊

If you loved this, I'd super recommend Manly's playthrough of Hitchhiker. It's an old one, but the narrative is great. It feels no different from a recent vid, since Manly never changed. He's really introduced me to some indie gems.

Do you mean HIKEBACK from 3 years ago? Time flies.@@spaghetto9836

​@@spaghetto9836did it get deleted i can't seem to find it

@@bananafone1414 Wait, I'm sorry, the title is HIKEBACK, & it's about a hitchhiker 😭.

I swear when I read that I thought they were some weird ahh yandere or some random fan of Ralph

I believe ralph said there were 3 others that he had never met in one of the scenes.

Nope. When Zimforth demands the last sacrifice Ralph says "Anyone but him, please!" clearly referring to Johnny. Pay better attention.

​@ricardovonpepsistein3497 It's not a matter of attention, but interpretation. Ralph could've mistaken the message to refer to Johnny, when Zimforth would be satisfied with either man, being so sadistic that it only mattered that Ralph was in torment.

​ @ricardovonpepsistein3497 maybe you need to pay better attention, considering any other time where you sacrifice the wrong person, the game says "Zimforth will be displeased," while either option at the end of the tenth year gives the same "All targets abducted" response. "Oh, that's just a game mechanic," one they could have penciled in an exception for. If you sacrificed the wrong one, you could get the "Zimforth will be displeased" text, but then lead it into the ending scene. The dev was either lazy--which I don't think they were, this is a pretty intricate game--OR they intended this for ambiguity. This could be interpreted as either option being viable. Again, if the comment at the beginning of the gameplay portion IS Zimforth's exact message, then it makes sense for either to be viable. It's very possible that R̶͓̞̞̉͋ã̶̖͕͍͘l̷̝̠̋p̷͈̹̱̒̈̀h̶̯̙͔̕͠͝ went straight to Johnny as an assumption; because, he's the MOST obvious option, but Zimforth even states "You are mine alone, now and forever" meaning the bulk of the comment is focused specifically on R̴̲͍͇̿͠͠à̶̯l̵̻̰̅̀p̸̨͎̹̼̎̾h̷̳̅̎̾. In fact, the inference of Johnny COULD be a red herring, with Zimforth ACTUALLY wanting R̷̩͕͕̭̓̂a̴̠̣͊̍̌̑l̷͔͑̈́̀p̶̧͍̠̻̄͒́h̸͉̏͐̌̉. This could be considered R̴̗͂a̸̠̰̓̂l̴͓̀p̶̺͊̚h̶̰̔̚'s "final test" of sorts, as Zimforth doesn't give him any straightforward options of who to hunt, directing R̸̠͆ą̶̼͛͑l̴̲͖̣͐p̴̙̬͑̆̉h̴͓̱͍̿̀ with riddles and making him deduce which person to hunt. Since these two options are available and given RIGHT from the start, it stands to reason that this would be another test for Ŕ̷̠à̶͙l̷̢̆ṗ̶̟h̸̩͝. It also makes sense for Zimforth to do this as a form of punishment, since he'd never had to deduce between multiple targets prior to abducting Johnny; however, IMMEDIATELY following the abduction, he freaks out about how this had never happened before. If making this decision angered Zimforth and made him give R̵͉͝ͅͅä̶̮͈l̸̟̿̊̉p̵̢̟̎̑͛h̸̡̛̃̍͜ ever-harder ordeals to overcome, it'd be possible for this to be his final ordeal, consider it... a final bit of retribution for ruining this kid's life. Either end his suffering and prove your fealty to Zimforth, or give yourself--body and soul--to Zimforth, and set him free. Either way, the two are separated, Zimforth is content, and the world continues forward. So, yeah, either choice is valid under the right lens.

There were a few flash games before with that idea in mind, but it was unclear that the protags new that would happen beforehand if they failed.

There is also a black mirror episode similar to this. The protagonist has to kill I think three people within three days to save the world

@@leobe2104That was my first thought too!

That's honestly what I was expecting, too. Like, if this so-called deity is this fucked up enough as to demand someone sacrifice to it on a yearly basis and throws a world-ending tantrum if they say "no", then it's also childish enough to just...move on to someone else when that person dies. That said, given Johnny's state at the end, he might not be of any use to Zimforth...

when Johnny went blind I knew we weren't getting a typical ending of deity moving on to him as next target. Ironic how his decision to blind himself would save him from that torture.

Honestly, I thought that Zimforth was going to have Johnny replace Ralph.

@@changednamelit Too be fair. He has a day. It could still happen. zimforth could grant him the ability to see once a year.

I mean it’d be pretty hard to kill blind,I can’t imagine the pain he saved himself

the intro monologue caught me off guard right away, i was not expecting this to have voice acting like that

I wish I knew the VA's names 😭😭

Meh. It’s stage style. I hated it. It was really that bad and hearing the same royalty free synth music grew annoying very quickly. The storyline was stolen from the movie Frailty. It’s exactly the same other than the specifics of how everything is handled. A father receives messages from God to kill “demons” on a list he gave him. He abducts, questions and kills with an axe named Otis and eventually brings his sons into it. One of which has to be confined til he breaks and joins in. They grow up to be serial killers. The end. It’s a fantastic little thriller starring Bill Paxton and Matthew McConaughey.

@@icahopilm898 1:11:23 Ralph is voiced by Jarret Griffis and Johnny is voiced by Xalavier Nelson Jr.

@@Selnathorn I'm an idiot. Thank you!!

SKINNY LEGEND JOHNNY

SKINNY J

Given his legs didn’t work, I assume his legs were atrophied due to being in a cage he couldn’t even stand in

@@DeathnoteBB I would have crawled

What's even more clever about the Johnny ending, is that even if the world doesn't end after a day, it still works, as the person Zimforth describes on the last killing also fit's ralph himself, as it just says "You know who I want dead. You are mine now and forever", So despite ralph thinking it was Johnny, this also could apply to ralph, as sacrificing himself to Zimforth means that for his entire life he would have been stuck serving him and potentially into the afterlife for forever, and ralph technically knows the person Zimforth wants dead, that being himself, meaning he could have saved the world by killing himself, and set Johnny free.

"Hi there hope you have a good day! :)" >Ralph will remember that

why did he have to kidnap Johnny?

Because he said his name: Ralph

Comments like these are what make developer's day, I really hope they read this! Most devs comment on Manly's videos anyways

Agreeing with you 1000000% on this, you worded this so much better than I ever could!

Johnny's legs must've recovered after Ralph brought him upstairs. He was standing up while helping wash his dishes in a cutscene. Ralph probably helped him walk later on.

@@abandonedcharcoal5404 Johnny was stuck in that cage for years before finally being let out for brief periods. He couldn't even walk a few feet during his escape attempt. There's no way Ralph could've helped him rehabilitate his legs to the point he could walk. At best, he'd need crutches or some kind of assistance. My guess is that the dev just forgot about Johnny's legs being atrophied, which is fine. It didn't take away from the story at all.

@@MidnightSonnetwell given that the interactions we see with the characters are years apart, that’s plenty of time to learn how to walk again.

He is an alien god he is called dark emperor

It says he's a cruel god. I think he's honestly fine with either, but prefers the first one. He knows MC will kill if it means saving the world.

I like to imagine that Zimforth doesn't *need* sacrifices, he's just an asshole. When the world is destroyed, he'll just find another one.

⁠@@zacmayes2802yeah I see it as it wanting entertainment, he enjoys watching the process how it makes the main character hate himself

Is there a lore reason for this?

Ralph was such an irresponsible owner. He says he "is sorry" John had to see the rituals and yet he didn't do anything about it beforehand? My brother in Zimforth, you had entire year to build proper dungeon and you didn't even bother to set up some cheap dividers.

The way he acts and this is set up, this is very much a guy with severe delusions. Thinking he is being instructed to "save the world". And definitely kills random people imagining them as sacrifices.

Johnny says at the end he only has one day, the world is going to end because johnny didnt die

He says if he only has one day (he's going to make it count)​@@The_Sharktocrab

​@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme This is just one interpretation. The game is specifically made so that both interpretations are equally valid, otherwise the endings wouldn't have been this ambiguous in the first place. For what it's worth though, Zimforth is a real entity in the dev's other game.

@@Lernos1 i completely agree. it could be a brain tumor or something but its just as likely that an actual eldritch horror just likes screwing with this one specific guy. the whole point of the game is that you never know which one is true. im of the opinion that it was real given the fact that ralph (this probably isnt accurate but its how i interpreted him choosing specific groups of people before narrowing down to specifics) has a list of names/an idea of where to go before he knows who the people actually are, and zimforth is real in the creator's other works. any other interpretation is completely valid though

Zimforth is Real he is called dark emperor.he is a character from space warlord organ trading simulator im sorry if i ruined it

Oh, might need to go check that out. And plus, it was more of a thought experiment than a fan theory. Just something I thought was a fun concept

I think Zimforth was never going to end the world, lest they lose all the humans they could toy with. Instead, I think the earthquake was a threat effective enough to coerce Ralph into killing more people. Not saying your theory is wrong though, nothing is exactly proven

@@erihtea0719 Yeah, it wasn't meant to imitate what happened, more just a fun thought. Especially now that I know it actually has context

👍

Cry Mor

The music and the premise really hurts

@alexread6767 EXACTLY- this entire story is just really unfortunate, and everything is in the morally grey.. Johnny is the only person I feel really bad for the most, he didn't deserve any of this 😭😭

Ralph's VA knocked it out of the park with those final pleads. My heart almost clenched on his behalf. I hope those two get paid generously 😂.

Im assuming « watering the flower » is a reference to healing the Earth so an apocalypse doesn’t happen, to not water the flower will lead to its death. No not feed Zimforth a corpse will lead to Earths death

I suspect the devs were trying to keep Zimforth's existence ambiguous, so to give clear lore could've interfered with that.

The steam page refers to Ralph as a "modern day druid" and he calls Zimforth the lord of the earth in his opening monologue, so it seems pretty likely Zimforth is an ancient nature deity or something adjacent, tying in with the natural disaster aspect and the sacrificial rituals being described as to ''water the flower', but more in-game explanation or even speculation so they can still keep things vague would've been really cool.

He's the god of spiders and enemy of all life.

@@CottagecoreGoblin Imagine if Zimforth is just Earth and they go to Ralph and say "I kinda am just in some diet you can't understand so feed me these people and we will all be fine" until Johnny takes Ralph's attention and Zimforth got jealous like a greek god and said "Suddenly, I have cravings for disabled people. Equality and all y'know."

Its literally adobe premiere lmao

That's originally what I thought was going to happen if Ralph chose not to kill Johnny, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw the Johnny ending. Although, I do agree, that's another interesting concept

IRN, I hope we ain't getting the same pay with me hauling my ass here...

Well, I guess the fbi is coming for you then admitting stuff

THOSE ARE ROOKIE NUMBERS, YOU GOTTA GET THOSE NUMBERS UP.

Rookie numbers.

More than once a year and it gets hard to convince people to rent the house

I've seen people making connection between the two Was confused until I saw that both game were developed by the same company so yeah

Zimforth is real he is called dark emperor.he is a character from space warlord organ trading simulator

@@Mrhandgrenade Oh, i didn't knew that, thanks!

It really isn’t realistic, it’s just a misconception about mental illnesses

Shadow the Hedgehog taught me everything I know

@@ManlyBadassHero OH MY GOD IM LITERALLY CRYING MANLY NOTICED ME

@@ManlyBadassHero u and shadow r my spirit animals 🙏🙏

@@ManlyBadassHero I always ask myself, what would Shadow the Hedgehog do...

and Soul Eater

The people looking for Johnny would. It happens all the time in real life, a body is found and even if decades later, it can be connected to a missing person

He's definitely real in the dev's other game about the Space Warlord.

The rest of the world does not count? Also the sun sacrifices

Also the alternative is another game about a homicidal mentally ill guy, which just fuels stigma and misconceptions about mental illnesses

Yep Zimforth the dark emperor

His name is a pun on classic eldritch names and most likely just a standard reference to point at

one of the split timelines

Same

vinny if he ever gets a neurolink and chat gets access to it somehow

What's this a prime sacrifice for Zimfroth Owo

@@gerardoalvarado8425 No, it's just empty like his soul.

Zimforth probably chose good people who will suffer from their actions most (emotionly)

Earthquakes happen each day everywhere it is not too much coincidence, you would be a good Mayan

*Hol' up-*

So cool! What’s the name of the guy in your basement?

He's not mentally sane and therefore doesn't think rationally

i think it was ralph hadn't viewed himself as a person who exist to anyone but zimforth for so long that when he was actually percieved by someone else that wasnt zimforth he was afraid that he was going to be condemned for the nature of the killings

@@jhg888 Mkay... Maybe, I guess. Thanks for actually trying to help me out. 👍🏾🙏🏾

@@pulse1001 yeah that was just my interpretation of it LMAOOO could just be bro was so paranoid he was like Fuck it we ball too😭

Wild pm fan spotted?

Ughh “thumbs up”

The ladder to that basement is long as hell, I bet.

Omg I actually sung this

PM? Like, Project Moon?!

No sight of grenade