Editing Roy (SSBM)

{{ArticleIcons|melee=y}}

{{Disambig2|Roy's appearance in ''Super Smash Bros. Melee''|the character in other contexts|Roy}}

|name = Roy

|image = [[File:Roy SSBM.jpg]]

|game = SSBM

|tier = D

|ranking = 21

'''Roy''' ({{ja|ロイ|Roi}}, ''Roy'') is a [[unlockable character]] in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]''. He is a [[clone]] of {{SSBM|Marth}}, differentiated primarily by his [[sweetspot]]s being located near the center of his blade rather than the tip. Although ''Fire Emblem'' games were Japan-exclusive at the time, this did not stop Roy from being added to ''Melee''{{'}}s non-Japanese versions, since Nintendo of America found him fun to play as.<ref>[http://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/12/13/sakurai-fe25/ Sakurai Interview: Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary - Source Gaming]</ref> His design in ''Melee'' comes the version of ''Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade'' shown at Nintendo Space World 2001, though it has minor changes. Additionally, he is one of two ''Melee'' characters that only speak Japanese in all its versions (the other being Marth), and he is voiced by {{s|wikipedia|Jun Fukuyama}}.

Roy currently ranks 21st on the ''Melee'' [[tier list]], in the D tier, which is his worst placement in the series. Roy's advantages include an above average approach due to having one of the best [[SHFFL]]s in the game, as well as a good grab game, and among the best [[reach|reaches]] in the game thanks to his sword. However, Roy's flaws are significant, which include having poor flexibility in his combo game, attacks that are difficult to properly land, generally possessing significantly [[lag]]gy attacks, having few moves that can KO reliably and only one of which (forward smash) that is an adequate finisher. He also possesses one of the worst recoveries in the game as [[Blazer]] travels a very short distance vertically, and being a light character that is heavily susceptible to combos; as a result, Roy has significant KOing problems while being easy to KO himself. These flaws overpower Roy's strengths, leading to him struggle against the vast majority of the cast, especially against those who are higher ranked than him on the tier list.

[[File:Roy's Melee Dash Attack.gif|thumb|Roy's [[dash attack]] infamously [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kht7deE4Zyw doesn't work properly] because the hitboxes are active for the same amount of frames as Marth while being much slower.]]

Overall, Roy does not fall into any specific fighter archetype; while having a slew of powerful attacks, Roy himself is rather nimble, boasting a relatively fast dash and a long [[dash dance]], combined with very high falling speed. However, Roy has a relatively below-average air speed, similar to {{SSBM|Marth}}. A combination of a fast falling speed and low traction gives Roy a somewhat long wavedash (sixth longest in the game).

Being a clone of Marth in ''Melee'', Roy inherits some positive properties emblematic of Marth's game plan. Due to his movement properties and long wavedash, Roy has excellent ground-based movement. His down tilt also serves as a respectable poke and combo starter, as it will send opponents straight up when hit, allowing for potential follow-ups. Combined with an effective grab game, with the second-largest non-disjointed grab range (behind only Marth), Roy can somewhat emulate one portion of Marth's effective [[neutral game]] play: threatening grabs and down tilt out of his dash dance. With his ability to [[chaingrab]] some fastfallers such as {{SSBM|Fox}} and {{SSBM|Falco}} with his up throw, [[tech chase]] opponents and set up [[edgeguard]]s with his down and forward throws, as well as perform a handful of other combo setups that stem from his grab, Roy can force his opponents to respect him in the neutral while creating tangible threats as well. Roy also has a very fast [[SHFFL]] due to his fast falling speed and low-startup aerials, allowing him to further protect his space as needed.

Roy also boasts high power in most of his ground-based attacks. Roy's forward smash, like Marth's, has quick startup and covers a large range; this is his primary KO move, and most of Roy's combos will end with a sweetspotted forward smash to send opponents off-stage. Its greater power up close can also punish overzealous opponents who carelessly step into Roy's threat zone, allowing for reversal situations. His other two smash attacks are more situational, but both his down and up smashes are strong when landed; the latter even has multi-hit properties and can [[spike]] when struck at the tip, although this is very situational. Roy's specials are also quite strong as well; [[Flare Blade]] is a decent edgeguarding tactic and has huge knockback nearing [[one-hit KO]] thresholds when fully charged, [[Double-Edge Dance]] can serve as a backup neutral poke with strong third and fourth hits, and [[Counter]] can be used as a devastating surprise option, turning the tables against single, strong hits when the opponent least expects it. Counter can also intercept linear recoveries, and because it scales based on move power, it will almost assuredly KO most recovering opponents if landed, unlike Marth's Counter, which often simply resets the situation.

However, Roy's primary flaw is the [[sweetspot]] placement of his moves. While it may seem that Roy has great reach on paper due to his disjointed hitbox offered by the [[Binding Blade]], this is all merely an illusion in practice. Unlike Marth, who can safely attack opponents from a distance, Roy must still go into close proximity with the opponent to deliver strong damage and knockback, as the sweetspot on his sword is closer to the hilt rather than at the tip. While attacks can become incredibly powerful at this close of a range, this causes Roy to become very vulnerable, especially against characters with powerful close-range threats. This would not be as much of a problem if Roy's sourspots had utility in setting up KOs or extending combos, but many of them do not, greatly exacerbating this weakness. While Marth's weakest sourspots actually complement his game plan, using his weaker hitboxes to precisely set up for his stronger ones, Roy's sourspots fail to threaten the opponent in terms of knockback or damage.

As a result of this very close sweetspot, Roy himself lacks a particularly reliable KO move. With the exception of his forward smash, his down smash, and the later hits of his Double Edge Dance, Roy has few options to quickly KO, and even these attacks need to connect in close ranges in order for them to have any reasonable KOing power. Further compounding Roy's problems with KOing are his aerials; even when sweetspotted, none of these aerials can reliably KO under 200%, they require good setups in order to properly connect, and none of them can easily inflict damage in the first place. While he may have two meteor smashes (the third hit of his upward Double-Edge Dance and his down air) and one spike (tippered up smash), all three are highly situational, requiring particularly lucky or skilled setups in order to properly connect. When combined with poor offstage options from having high-lag aerials that are risky offstage and a poor recovery, Roy is almost completely dependent racking up damage with brief combo strings, culminating in a reliance on hard reads and unforced errors by the opponent to garner KOs.

Because of his poor sweetspot hatboxes, Roy also has limited combo ability, in stark contrast with Marth. Roy has slightly below-average air speed like Marth, though Roy cannot move fast enough in the air to compensate hitting with the hilt of his blade, frequently causing sourspotted attacks, resulting in low hitstun and hitlag attacks, impairing Roy's combo and aerial games, and even giving him a poor edgeguarding game, unlike Marth. Roy's moveset is only suitable for aggravating fastfallers, since he at least has chaingrabs and tech chases against them, and can juggle them on stages with few or no platforms such as [[Pokémon Stadium]] or {{SSBM|Final Destination}}. However, that is the extent of Roy's high-level punish game against the cast, and he has no reliable method of achieving any combos or KO setups on [[floaty]] characters such as {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}} or {{SSBM|Peach}}. Roy's combo potential is thus below-average at best, being both stage- and character-dependent unlike Marth, and has led to completely losing matchups against the aforementioned floaty characters.

Roy himself is easy to combo and edgeguard; like other fastfalling characters, his high falling speed harms him by making him extremely vulnerable to juggling. Even with fast falling speed, Roy's vertical survivability from the upper blast line is merely average due to a combination of his lighter weight than characters such as {{SSBM|Captain Falcon}} and much slower falling speed than characters like {{SSBM|Falco}}. Like Marth, Roy also has a non-stellar recovery, though his faster falling speed and higher gravity only exacerbate it to make it far worse than Marth's and among the worst in the game; adding to this, his high falling speed makes him extremely vulnerable to edgeguarding, as well as being easy to [[gimp]]. While Roy's [[Blazer]] is slightly more effective than Marth's [[Dolphin Slash]], due to its greater horizontal distance, multi-hit properties that can aggravate edgeguarders, and its ability to be controlled to an extent, it still has high ending lag, leaving him open to punishes as he lands. Additionally, while Roy can still use Double-Edge Dance to recover horizontally, it is not as effective as Marth's Dancing Blade due to his higher falling speed.

 

While Roy may appear like he has enough tools as a character to function, in reality, he struggles with nearly every aspect of ''Melee''. His excellent movement is not only outclassed by Marth, but simply does not compensate for his many weaknesses in both the advantage and disadvantage states. Roy's moveset is full of low-impact hitboxes that struggle to push any sort of advantage against non-fastfalling opponents, while he himself is almost trivial to combo, edgeguard, and KO himself. While Roy's raw power up close can punish careless opponents, hoping that opponents make unforced errors is not a reliable strategy. As such, unlike Marth, Roy is a poor character at higher levels of play with sparse representation.

 

*{{bugfix|Fixed the [[Whispy blink glitch]].}}

 

Roy is overall a considerably less effective character than Marth. All of his sweetspots are placed at the hilt or center of his blade, making it hard for him to space, and his down aerial's spike is a meteor smash hitbox that is difficult to hit with. Almost all of Roy's moves have hitboxes that come out slower, remain active for fewer frames, or stay out for the same period as Marth's, but with slower animation speed (leading to unfortunate hitbox timing on moves like his dash attack, the upper part of his neutral attack, three of his aerials and Blazer). Roy's sourspot does far less knockback and damage than Marth's, and his sweetspots do somewhere in between the knockback and damage of Marth's sour- and sweetspots, making his KO potential much worse than Marth's. Additionally, his wavedash and moonwalk are both shorter than Marth's, resulting in him being less mobile.

 

However, Roy does have some advantages. As he is slightly shorter than Marth, he is slightly harder to hit (although this makes his range shorter as a result); his up smash hits multiple times and can spike, making it more reliable than Marth's, and Flare Blade is much stronger than [[Shield Breaker]], being a one-hit KO when fully charged. Additionally, unlike [[Dolphin Slash]], Blazer has multi-hit properties and can OHKO most lightweight fighters, like Mewtwo and Jigglypuff.

 

Overall, Roy's advantages are not enough to alleviate his significant weaknesses, and it results in him having far less successful tournament results and a much smaller playerbase in comparison to Marth.

 

*{{change|Roy's idle animation, taunt and victory animations are different from Marth's.}}

 

*{{change|Roy's sweetspot is placed at the hilt of his blade, meaning he fights at close range in order to be most efficient. Roy's sweetspot is larger than Marth's, but Marth can [[space]] the tipper sweetspot of his sword for maximum safety and damage.}}

*{{change|Some of Roy's attacks use the [[flame]] effect.}}

*{{change|Roy is lighter than Marth (NTSC 87 → 85). It hinders his survivability slightly but makes him less susceptible to [[waveshine]] followups from {{SSBM|Fox}} as he is knocked down by the shine.}}

*{{change|Roy is shorter than Marth. This shortens his hurtbox, making him harder to hit, but also slightly reduces the range in his attacks.}}

**{{buff|Due to his shorter height, Roy can grab smaller characters such as {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}} and {{SSBM|Kirby}} while they are [[crouch]]ing with his standing grab, unlike Marth.}}

*{{buff|Roy's [[air speed]] is slightly faster than Marth (PAL 0.85 → 0.9).}}

 

 

 

 

**{{change|Roy has two unique voice clips when he successfully uses [[Counter]] instead of three like Marth's. Roy may either say "{{ja|今だ!|Imada!}}" ("''Now!''") or "{{ja|そこ!|Soko!}}" ("''There!''").}}

|game=SSBM

|neutralcount=1

|neutralname=Slash ({{ja|スラッシュ|Surasshu}})

|neutral1dmg=5% (blade), 3% (tip), 6% (body)

|neutraldesc=Identical to Marth's; he slashes in front of himself. However, Roy only slashes once, and at a slower rate than Marth. Additionally, Roy's version is devoid of [[buffer]], meaning the player has to press the attack button one at a time instead of mashing it.

|ftiltname=Sharp Edge ({{ja|ハードエッジ|Hādo Ejji}}, ''Hard Edge'')

|ftiltdmg=10% (blade), 7% (tip), 12% (body)

|ftiltdesc=A fast upward swipe with the Binding Blade while leaning forward. Deals more damage if the opponent is closer to Roy. Can KO at high percentages or when the [[blast line]] is close by.

|utiltdmg=Clean: 8% (blade & arm), 6% (tip), 10% (body)<br/>Late: 8% (blade & arm), 6% (tip), 10% (body)

|utiltdesc=Swings his sword in a large arc above his head. Despite generally covering Roy's hurtboxes, it is less powerful and has less combo potential than Marth's.

|dtiltdmg=10% (blade), 6% (tip), 12% (body)

|dtiltdesc=A sword poke to the ground. Has longer hitstun than most of Roy's other attacks, and also sends opponents upward, making it a good combo starter overall. Its range and speed makes it a very favorable move to use in the neutral game and spacing, as well as [[edgeguarding]].

|usmashdmg={{ChargedSmashDmgSSBM|2}} (hits 1-4), {{ChargedSmashDmgSSBM|10}} (hit 5)

|nairdmg=4% (hit 1), 8% (hit 2 base), 5% (hit 2 tip)

|nairdesc=Two swipes around him via an inward slash then a full outward spin, with decent knockback and damage if sweetspotted.

|uairdesc=Swipes above outward while doing a delayed backflip. Meant to be a [[juggle]] tool, but is often subpar due to its low early knockback.

|dairdesc=Swipes below via an outward wide slash. [[Meteor smash]]es opponents who come in contact with Roy's body, but is rather weak and has nearly unrecoverable ending lag. The move's sweetspot is extremely tiny; which is located at Roy's right arm and left shoulder (meaning that Roy has to overlap the opponent significantly), making it more difficult to hit with than {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}}'s [[Rest]].

|edgefdesc=Flips onto ledge with a quick downward diagonal slash downwards. Hitbox only exists on Roy's right arm and his sword, meaning that foes close to the ledge Roy is hanging on can avoid the attack.

|edgesdmg=8% (sword), 6% (hilt)

|nsdesc=Roy holds the Binding Blade over his head before doing a powerful overhead slash in a similar fashion to his forward smash. When the move is fully charged, Roy slams his sword on the ground, creating a large explosion that can [[one-hit KO]] any character in the game, but he takes 10% recoil damage as a side effect. This attack has [[Priority#Transcendent_priority|transcendent priority]].

{|class="wikitable"

|+Double-Edge Dance

|-

| First Hit (Neutral) || 5% (base), 4% (tip) || Does a vertical slash, has little knockback: incapable of KOing.

| Second Hit (Up) || 6% (base), 4% (tip) || Does an upwards slash.

| Second Hit (Neutral) || 6% (base), 4% (tip) || Does a stab, has a little more knockback then the first slash, but still not much.

| Third Hit (Up) || Clean: 10% (base), 8% (tip)<br/>Late: 7% (base), 5% (tip) || Does a downwards vertical slash. Can [[meteor smash]] at the beginning of the move, but only when used on the ground.

| Third Hit (Neutral) || 10% (base), 8% (tip) || Does a fairly powerful horizontal slash.

| Third Hit (Down) || 3% (hits 1-3), 5% (hit 4) || Stabs his sword at the ground, dealing multiple [[flame]] damage.

| Fourth Hit (Up) || 13% (base), 10% (tip) || Does a jumping slash. Deals [[flame]] damage.

| Fourth Hit (Neutral) || 13% (base), 10% (tip) || Does a powerful vertical slash. Deals [[flame]] damage. Slightly slower but more powerful than fourth hit (up).

|-

| Fourth Hit (Down) || 3% (hit 1-4), 5% (hit 5) || Does a flurry of lower stabs, each stab dealing [[flame]] damage.

===Stats===

|cast = 26

|weight = 85

|rweight = 17-19

|rdash = 14-18

|run = 1.61

|walk = 1.2

|rwalk = 6-10

|trac = 0.06

|rtrac = 15-23

|airfric = 0.005

|rairfric = 21-26

|air = 0.9

|rair = 12-14

|baseaccel = 0.02

|rbaseaccel = 2-23

|addaccel = 0.03

|gravity = 0.114

|rgravity = 7

|fall = 2.4

|ff = 2.9

|jumpheight = 30.958

|shorthop = 10.626

|djump = 21.82

|cast = 26

|weight = 85

|rweight = 16-19

|dash = 1.4

|rdash = 14-18

|run = 1.61

|rrun = 7

|walk = 1.2

|rwalk = 6-10

|trac = 0.06

|rtrac = 15-23

|airfric = 0.005

|air = 0.9

|baseaccel = 0.02

|addaccel = 0.03

|raddaccel = 13-19

|gravity = 0.114

|fall = 2.4

|rfall = 4-5

|ff = 2.9

|jumpheight = 30.958

|shorthop = 10.626

|djump = 21.82

===[[Announcer]] call===

[[File: Roy Announcer SSBM.wav]]

===[[Taunt]]===

{{Taunt/SSBM|char=Roy|desc=Leans back and holds his sword behind him in an attack position, shouting "Heee-ya!"}}

===[[Idle pose]]===

{{Idle|desc=Gets in a ready pose.|image=Roy Idle Pose Melee.gif}}

{{Crowd

|char=Roy

|game=Melee

|desc-us=Roy's-Our-Boy!

|desc-jp=Roy! Roy! Roy!

|pitch-us=Group chant

|pitch-jp=Male}}

===[[Victory pose]]s===

|victory-theme=FireEmblemThemeMelee.ogg

|victory-desc=A rendition of a portion of the main theme of the ''Fire Emblem'' series.

|desc-1=Swipes his sword once over his shoulder, then swipes it down and behind him while facing left, saying "{{ja|守るべきもののために、負けられない!|Mamoru beki mono no tame ni, makerarenai!}}", which is localized as: "For those whom I must protect, I cannot lose!".

|desc-2=Spins the Binding Blade one and a half times and then thrusts it into the ground in front of him, looking to slightly to the left, and says either of the following lines: "{{ja|苦しい戦いだった。|Kurushī tatakai datta.}}", which translates to: "It was a painful fight", or "{{ja|僕 は 負けない。|Boku wa Makenai.}}", which translates to: "I won't lose".

|desc-3=Flourishes his sword and poses with it by his side, saying "{{ja|真の戦いは、これからだ。|Shin no tatakai wa, korekara da.}}", which translates to: "The true battle, is soon to begin".

|char=Roy}}

==In [[competitive play]]==

===Most historically significant players===

*{{Sm|LAG|Mexico}} - Currently considered one of the best active Roy players in the world. Mainly places in online tournaments, although has been ranked in offline rankings, such 50th on the [[Mexican Power Rankings]].

*{{Sm|Leon|France}} - Although better known for his {{SSBB|Marth}} in ''[[Brawl]]'', he placed well in many French tournaments with Roy. He won a smaller French tournament in {{Trn|Bushido Nibaï Impact II}} and still used the character at some of the more populated regionals in the country, placing 13th at {{Trn|Avalon I}}.

*{{Sm|NEO|USA}} - Considered to be the best Roy player of all time with many results other Roy players still have yet to match. He was the closest a Roy player has gotten to winning a North American regional with his 2nd place at {{Trn|Pound}} and made other peaks with Roy such as 4th at {{Trn|MLG DC 2005}}.

*{{Sm|Sethlon|USA}} - Was considered to be the current best Roy player in the world after NEO's retirement, due to his popularity and widely acclaimed combo video ''Ashes to Ashes.'' While his results were not at the same caliber as NEO, he made some respectable placements such as 49th at {{Trn|GENESIS}}.

*{{Sm|Zain|USA}} - Uses Roy under the moniker "DontTestMe"; started using Roy in the Slippi era to moderate success, defeating {{Sm|2saint}}, {{Sm|Ginger}}, and {{Sm|bobby big ballz}} in online tournaments. His 7th place finish at {{Trn|Wavedash 2023}} marked Roy's most notable offline tournament placing since NEO's results in the Golden Age. Has wins over {{Sm|Nickemwit}} and {{Sm|Kürv}} offline.

On the current tier list, Roy ranks 21st, in the D tier. Roy has consistently ranked very low on most revisions of the [[tier list]], with his highest being only 15th on two separate occasions. His severe weaknesses, such as his poor effective threat range, fast-falling physics coupled with very poor recovery, and nearly nonexistent combo game on floaty characters, have resulted in terrible matchups against many top- and high-tiered characters (particularly non-fastfallers) that completely stop his mains from progressing far into tournaments. His numerous flaws hold him back far too much in competitive play to place consistently in high-level tournaments without the use of a secondary character.

Roy's moveset also does not boast the potential creativity of other characters, especially Marth, owing to his over-reliance on his very few good combo extenders and KO moves. This has resulted in much less nuance and optimization possible in Roy's [[metagame]], making the Roy matchup very easy to learn and catch up with. Additionally, because he is very similar to Marth, a top-tiered character that any competitive player knows how to fight against, Roy players cannot rely on matchup inexperience to win sets, unlike mains of other uncommon characters. While {{Sm|NEO}}, arguably the greatest Roy player of all time, managed to place top 8 consistently in the early ''Melee'' metagame, even he had to use Marth and Sheik secondaries to succeed at higher-stakes tournaments such as MLG. NEO, and many of Roy's best representatives, have either become inactive in the tournament scene or have dropped him for other characters (or other ''Smash'' games altogether), further hurting Roy's results in tournaments.

Roy's only notable results in the current ''Melee'' metagame have been through Marth players, such as {{Sm|Zain}} and {{Sm|Mew2King}}, [[sandbagging]] with him in lower-stakes tournaments or matches. Zain has seen a notable amount of success with Roy in online tournaments and at the regional level; notably, he placed 7th at {{Trn|Wavedash 2023}}, the character's best performance since NEO's placements in the Golden Age. However, the majority of Zain's best wins have been against fastfallers, outside of a handful of fringe sets where he barely scraped out wins against {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}} players, some of them not even ranked in the top 100. Thus, his tournament runs with Roy only reinforce what has been known about him for years already, both in terms of strengths and limitations, and it is clear that Zain's success with Roy is entirely due to his phenomenal abilities as a player rather than Roy offering any unique positive qualities as a character to fuel that success. Despite Zain's attempts to push the character, Roy's current metagame prospects still remains rather stagnant, with players' opinions of him only marginally improving overall compared to the early metagame.

===The "Tier Wars" and comparison to Marth===

{{SSBM|Marth}}'s and Roy's differences became the center of controversy and discussion on [[GameFAQs]]' [[tier list]] debates, specifically in 2003 and 2004, when the competitive scene was still new. Marth players who generally supported the tier list claimed Marth had overall better attributes, in terms of speed, weight, and recovery capabilities. They also cited tournament results as proof of his superiority, with a multitude of professional Marth users such as {{Sm|Ken}} placing extremely high in major tournaments, while Roy lacked any such representation to back up the anti-tiers' arguments. Roy players who generally opposed the tier list, however, claimed that Roy's different attributes, such as his larger sweetspot in the center of his blade and general "superiority" in power, were enough to allow him to be as efficient of a character as Marth was; they also argued that professionals needed to learn how to use Roy as a different character from Marth in an attempt to disprove the tournament results.

Owing to the fact that these debates took place before extensive testing of ''Melee's'' engine, the debates were plagued by numerous inaccuracies that have since been disproven with time. The point about Marth's extra weight, for instance, is now considered moot; his extra weight is decidedly negligible, and can even be interpreted as a disadvantage, considering his extra weight makes him susceptible to {{SSBM|Fox}}'s [[shine]] combos, while Roy's lighter weight makes him immune to such combos. More importantly, pro-tiers made a common assumption that Marth is faster than Roy. While Marth indeed has a faster dashing speed, this claim is questionable, considering that Roy's [[SHFFL]] is faster than Marth's due to his falling speed and lower short hop. Similarly, some points brought up about Roy's viability are also now considered inaccurate. For instance, Roy's "superiority" in power has been disproven, as many of Marth's attacks, tippered and non-tippered, deal more knockback and damage than Roy's respective centered and non-sweetspotted strikes. The sweetspot in the hilt of the blade is now considered a disadvantage and one of the main reasons for Roy's poor tier placement; while Marth can attack from afar and still deal respectable damage, Roy cannot do so, lest his attacks hit with extremely low knockback; Roy's sourspot on the entire length of the Binding Blade, besides the hilt, is also much weaker than Marth's sourspot on the hilt of the Falchion.

Overall, the primary reason for Roy's named inferiority is precisely the one that anti-tiers attempted to refute: Roy has too much trouble trying to KO his opponents. Marth has far more creative and flexible ways to string together moves, deal damage, KO, and edgeguard (especially due to his {{mvsub|Marth|SSBM|down aerial}} [[spike]]). Roy, however, lacks the same flexibility in his comboing and KOing games, and is instead heavily reliant on predictable and repetitive chain grab and down tilt setups, with almost all of his viable combos ending in a forward smash. Roy's edgeguarding game is also considerably worse than Marth's; while Roy's down tilt is more useful for combos, it is not at all useful for intercepting the majority of recoveries (unlike Marth's). Additionally, Roy has a notoriously poor offstage game due to his falling speed and terrible aerials, that are both incredibly weak even when sweetspotted and have a high amount of ending lag, which severely hinders his ability to effectively edge-guard offstage without self-destructing. The current metagame for ''Melee'' reflects these differences and conclusions: Marth ranks in the S tier at 2nd place and features numerous dedicated mains, while Roy ranks in the D tier at 21st, and has very few dedicated mains of his own.

===In {{SSBM|Classic Mode}}===

[[File:BetaAllStarIntro.png|thumb|Roy's unused intro image.]]

Unusually, Roy does not appear in Classic Mode when unlocked, neither as an ally, nor as an opponent, making him the only fighter who never appears at all; the reason for this is unknown. Despite this, Roy does have an introduction image for the "Now Loading..." screen between matches in the game files.

*'''[[Event 46: Fire Emblem Pride]]''': The player battles and must defeat a team of Marth and Roy in an untimed match on [[Temple]], with all three characters receiving 3 stock.

*'''[[Event 49: All-Star Match Deluxe]]''': Roy is the fifth opponent fought in this series of staged battles. The selected character battles him on Temple with a stock of 2 while Roy has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him and the other five characters one-by-one with the overall time and damage: {{SSBM|Dr. Mario}}, {{SSBM|Falco}}, {{SSBM|Pichu}}, {{SSBM|Young Link}} and {{SSBM|Ganondorf}}.

===[[Congratulations_screen#Super_Smash_Bros._Melee|Congratulations Screens]]===

RoyClassicMode.jpg|Classic Mode

RoyAdventureMode.jpg|Adventure Mode

RoyAllStarMode.jpg|All-Star Mode

==[[Trophies]]==

In addition to the normal trophy about Roy as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing the [[Adventure]] and [[All-Star]] modes respectively with Roy on any difficulty:

 

|desc=The son of the lord of Pharae Principality, Roy was studying in Ostia when the Kingdom of Bern invaded League of Lycia. [[fireemblemwiki:Eliwood|His father]] fell ill at this time, so Roy assumed leadership of Pharae's armies. After his fateful meeting with the Princess Guinevere, his destiny became inextricably linked with the fate of the entire continent.

|desc=While Roy's moves are well balanced, he's a little on the slow side, and doesn't excel at midair combat. His blade, the Sword of Seals, gives him excellent reach, and makes his Double-Edge Dance slightly different than Marth's Dancing Blade. When it's fully charged, Roy's destructive Flare Blade delivers an instant KO.

:Smash B: Double-Edge Dance

{{Trophy/Fighter

|name=Roy

|image=Roy Trophy (Smash 2).png

|desc=Roy's blade is different than Marth's; he does the most damage hitting with the center of his sword. So, a fearless advance into the arms of his foe is Roy's best bet. Blazer is a bit slower than Marth's Dolphin Slash, but it's still a mighty attack that sets anyone it strikes aflame. Roy's attack after using Counter differs slightly from Marth's.

|gamelist=:Up & B: Blazer

|game=Melee

}}

{{clrl}}

==[[Alternate costume (SSBM)#Roy|Alternate costumes]]==

{|style="margin:1em auto 1em auto;text-align:center"

|colspan=5|[[File:Roy Palette (SSBM).png]]

|{{Head|Roy|g=SSBM|s=25px}}

|{{Head|Roy|g=SSBM|s=25px|cl=Red}}

|{{Head|Roy|g=SSBM|s=25px|cl=Blue}}

|{{Head|Roy|g=SSBM|s=25px|cl=Green}}

Roy SSBM Artwork.png|Official artwork of Roy.

SSBMWebsiteRoy1.jpg|[[Idle|Idling]] on [[Fourside]].

SSBMWebsiteRoy2.jpg|Using his [[forward smash]] on {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}} on [[Mute City]].

Blazer.jpg|Using [[Blazer]] on {{SSBM|Bowser}} on [[Brinstar]].

Roy's B move.jpg|Using his fully-[[charge]]d [[Flare Blade]] on Bowser and {{SSBM|Donkey Kong}} on Fourside.

[[File:Royhal.png|thumb|Closeup of Roy's sword, showing the text "©HAL LABRATORY.INC"]]

*Roy does not feature a sheath during gameplay and his "Challenger Approaching" screen like Marth does; this is considered unusual, as Roy has a sheath in his victory poses, official art, character select portrait and all three of his trophies, as well as his unused Classic Mode introduction. This also happens in ''Smash 4'' and ''Ultimate'', but the sheath appears when he uses his [[Critical Hit|Final Smash]].

*Possibly as a result for his somewhat high learning curve and being a popular low-tier substitute for high-level smashers such as {{Sm|Mew2King}} and {{Sm|Ken}}, the term "skilled Roy" is a common gag inside the ''Melee'' community for being an unbeatable character, with the phrase "A skilled Roy can beat any {{SSBM|Fox}}. This is why I main Roy." being a good example of it.

*Roy and Marth are the only playable characters in ''Melee'' that do not have a stage representing their universe, though hacked data shows that [[AKANEIA|one was planned]].

**In ''Melee''{{'}}s [[All-Star Mode]], Roy is fought on {{SSBM|Final Destination}}. In his two Event Match appearances and his unlock battle, he appears on [[Temple]].

*Roy and {{SSBM|Young Link}} are the only fighters to use their KO cry for other uses. Roy's is used when fully charging [[Flare Blade]] and Young Link's is used during his Star KO animation. {{SSBM|Kirby}} also mimics this unique property when he copies Roy and releases a fully-charged Flare Blade.

*Roy with his Flare Blade, {{SSBM|Mr. Game & Watch}} with his [[Judge]], and {{SSBM|Pichu}} with most of its electric attacks are the only characters in ''Melee'' to have attacks that directly inflict recoil damage. {{SSBM|Kirby}} can also harm himself if he copies either Roy or Pichu.

*Ironically, Roy's sword trails indicate that the sweetspot is at the tip of the sword.

 

{{reflist}}

 

*[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/0115/index.html Roy's page at Smabura-Ken] ([[smashwiki:26TP/Roy|Translation]])

[[Category:Roy (SSBM)| ]]

[[Category:Trophies (SSBM)]]

[[es:Roy (SSBM)]]