- "What's up y'all, my name is Marcus, also known as Epic Name Bro..."
EpicNameBro (real name Marcus Sanders) is a YouTube Let's Player and content creator, primarily known for his involvement in the Souls community. His channel took off with a vengeance due to him being one of the first people to provide content for the first Dark Souls game when it was released in Japan.
Though the Souls series is one of the main focuses of his channel, he also does videos of other games, including some newer titles such as Soul Sacrifice and Disgaea Dimension 2, and older favorites from his youth such as Vagrant Story and Valkyrie Profile 2, along with Self-Imposed Challenge videos of certain games. After returning to the US, he started a podcast called "Poison Arrows", where he discusses old-school games, game design, game news, and various other subjects. He is also working on his own Shoot 'Em Up indie game, although he hasn't released much information on it, besides his desire to innovate within the genre and introduce new mechanics seldom seen in such games. As of September of 2016, he started streaming on Twitch.
In addition to his YouTube channel, Twitch channel, and his podcast Patreon, Marcus is employed by the Germany-based video game guide publisher Future Press and has worked on the guides for Dark Souls II, Bloodborne, and the Bloodborne: The Old Hunters expansion.
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Games Marcus has Played
- Dark Souls
- Playthrough 1: Japanese version (complete)
- Playthrough 2: Prepare to Die (Artorias of the Abyss DLC, complete)
- Playthrough 3: Dark Days (abandoned)
- Playthrough 4: Dark Days Rekindled (abandoned)
- Playthrough 5: Dark Chat (abandoned)
- Playthrough 6: From the Dark (complete)
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (abandoned)
- Demon's Souls
- Playthrough 1: Japanese version (abandoned)
- Playthrough 2: North American English version (abandoned)
- Playthrough 3: Demon Days (abandoned)
- Playthrough 4: Crushing Battle Chat (abandoned)
- Playthrough 5: Demon's Chat (abandoned)
- Playthrough 6: In-Depth (planned, might be streamed)
- Dark Souls II (main game only, complete)
- Bloodborne (main game only, complete)
- #reckfast runs (
Self-Imposed Challenge: no-leveling runs with the "Waste of Skin" origin)
- #reckfast runs (
- Vagrant Story (abandoned)
- Disgaea Dimension 2 (abandoned)
- Cave Story (abandoned, footage lost)
- The Binding of Isaac original and Rebirth (showcase)
- Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (abandoned)
- Muramasa Rebirth (complete)
- Final Fantasy Tactics 1.3 mod (abandoned)
- War of the Lions PSP version (planned lore video)
- Kingdoms Of Amalur (abandoned)
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (on-hiatus/abandoned)
- Dragon's Crown (Self-Imposed Challenge: one credit clear solo challenge, complete)
- Salt and Sanctuary (abandoned, footage lost)
- Dark Souls III (main game only, complete)
Games Marcus has Streamed
- Dark Souls I
- Dark Souls III
- Demon's Souls
- Bloodborne
- Speedrun practice (replacing "Sunset to Sunrise")
- Casual "lorethrough"
- Final Fantasy Tactics PSP version (Self-Imposed Challenge: "thrifty three" - play through the game using only three characters in battle; playthrough finished)
- Hearthstone (one-off)
- Cave Story Hard mode (off-and-on Self-Imposed Challenge: complete game with Ending C and no deaths)
- Overwatch (off-and-on)
- Vagrant Story (stopped, too slow-paced for streaming)
- Soul Sacrifice Delta
- Owlboy
- Nioh (planned, February)
- Persona 5 (planned, April)
- Chrono Trigger (planned, Spring 2017)
- Project GG - a showcase of his SHMUP game on stream
Games Streamed for Princess CX
- Ninja Gaiden NES - one credit clear within a 12 hour time limit; first attempt failed, second attempt pending; October 15, 2016
- Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! - beat game within a 6 hour time limit; rage quit about 2 hours in; December 31, 2016
Tropes applicable to Epic Name Bro and his content:
- Angrish: Occasionally lapses into this when faced with a particularly infuriating moment/mistake which costs him dearly.
- Author Appeal: Old-school RPG's (mostly from the SNES to PSX era, though PS2 games aren't exempt), Dark Fantasy, challenging gameplay, music from these same games over game footage.
- Berserk Button: Is normally quite chill and affable, but he doesn't take kindly to people busybodying him about how to care for his family or how to run his YouTube channel.
- Brutal Honesty: Is known for being respectful but firm about his opinions, like saying the online multiplayer component of the first Dark Souls was just straight up bad, or him being critical of the gaming press and its closeness and reliance on game publishers to sustain itself.
- "Dear John" Letter: Actually calls
Project GG this towards the SHMUP genre in general, due to the fact that the genre has focused on solely catering to the hardcore crowd. - Heroic Mime: Discussed. He's stated that he prefers his main characters to not have definitive backstories or personalities, though it appears that it's hardly a must as many of his favorite games avert this.
- Hidden Depths: He's fluent in Japanese and actually lived in Japan for a time as an English teacher.
- Humiliating Wager: He's made a few on Twitch, now that he's started streaming.
- He made a bet with one of his Twitch chat moderators on who'd win in the Mississippi State vs Auburn University college football game. He lost and had to wear a AU shirt on-stream for one day (October 14, 2016).
- If he got 1000 subscribers, then he would stream while wearing a tiara, a result of a Tweet he made during or after a tea party with his daughter. Needless to say, he surpassed the thousand and eventually did the stream on October 15, 2016.
- If he got 2000 subscribers, then he would stream in not only the tiara, but a dress as well. However, if he got 2000 subs before the end of October 2016, then he would not only stream in the tiara-dress combo, but he'd do it once a month for a year. He surpassed this on Halloween 2016, even though he extended the deadline to November 5. The first stream from this bet was on New Years Eve 2016.
- Only in It for the Money: Averted and discussed. In the beginning of his channel he seemed to treat being a YouTuber primarily as a hobby and balked at the idea of taking money to look at and promote games, despite being a big channel which received such offers in the past. With the birth of his daughter he says that such offers are much more tempting to him now. He has become more accepting of making money off his content, using a Patreon page to fund his podcast and other endeavors, but still tries his best to maintain his integrity and only release videos he is interested in.
- Averted with his Twitch streaming, too. He's completely happy to make money through just subscription fees, to the point that he's told donators that they can reverse their charge if they want to if they donate a large enough sum of money. He has no say in donations made with Twitch Bits though. Although he has said that the amount of money he makes from streaming has made it easier to both develop his game and spend more time with his family.
- Orphaned Series: This happens quite a lot on his YouTube channel, many of his playthroughs/series have remained unfinished (including the Final Fantasy Tactics Game Mod FFT 1.3, all 5 playthroughs of Demon's Souls, Valkyrie Profile 2, etc). This can be for a multitude of reasons, such as real life keeping him busy, or him losing interest. It's gotten to the point that he feels like abandoning YouTube all together, due to the amount of negative comments on his videos.
- Podcast: Has one called Poison Arrows, in which he talks about game news and game history.
- Running Gag: Some of his Dark Souls I playthroughs had him forgetting to get poison arrows to help defeat enemies, with Marcus "admonishing" the video watchers for "not reminding him". He eventually named his podcast Poison Arrows.
- Sweet Home Alabama: Is from Mississippi and most of his recollections of the place are quite positive.
- Take That!: The thumbnail of one of his podcasts is a close-up of his face making a weird expression with devil horns photoshopped, intended to be an over-the-top parody of how a lot of YT creators present their content. He's made it pretty clear, in that same podcast and elsewhere, that he could be very well be making more money by emulating these kinds of YouTubers, but does not care for this type of content.
