Editing Roy (SSBU)

:''For information on the playable [[Koopaling]], see [[Bowser Jr. (SSBU)]].''

'''Roy''' ({{ja|ロイ|Roi}}, ''Roy'') is a playable character in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]'', officially confirmed on June 12th, 2018 and is an unlockable fighter akin to his appearance in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]''. Roy is classified as [[Fighter number|Fighter #25]].

This is the first time in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series where Roy is not voiced in Japanese in all regions. In international releases, Roy is voiced in English by {{iw|wikipedia|Ray Chase|voice actor}}, who reprises his role from ''{{iw|fireemblem|Fire Emblem Heroes}}''. {{iw|wikipedia|Jun Fukuyama}}'s portrayal of Roy from ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'' was repurposed for the Japanese version.

 

 

 

Overall, Roy is considered to be one of the best swordfighters in the game, and this has been reflected by his above-average representation in the metagame, which is spearheaded by players such as {{Sm|Kola}}, {{Sm|Goblin}}, and {{Sm|HIKARU}}.

Roy is a [[weight|middleweight]] swordsman, although his main attributes deviate heavily from other fellow middleweights. He boasts very fast [[dash]]ing, [[air speed|air]], and [[falling speed]]s, but has an only slightly above-average [[walk]]ing speed, as well as fairly low [[air acceleration]] and [[jump]]s. Roy has an attribute unique to him that other swordfighters do not have: his inverse tipper. Contrary to {{SSBU|Marth}} specifically, his Binding Blade does the most damage if attacking near the sword's hilt, although it does weak damage and knockback when otherwise tippered. While this gives Roy effectively bigger sweetspots than those who rely on a tipper to deal maximum damage, it weakens his spacing abilities despite being a swordfighter.

Roy's greatest strength is his KO potential, which is very high when compared to other middleweights, and can even be comparable to the power of some of the harder-hitting heavyweights on the roster, such as {{SSBU|Bowser}} and {{SSBU|Incineroar}}. In conjunction with his overall fast frame data for a swordfighter, he can inflict large amounts of damage in a short amount of time. [[Neutral attack]] can catch aggressive approaches due to its speed and deceptively large hitbox, and can efficiently set up into his more powerful normal attacks. His [[forward tilt]], [[up tilt]], and [[forward smash]] are all very fast startup-wise, with each being among the strongest attacks of their kind; notably, forward smash can KO under 50% with rage near the edge, even if uncharged. His [[up smash]] is an effective anti-air attack due to its quick startup, along with his sword arm gaining intangibility throughout its rather long duration.

Roy is also extremely effective at shield pressure and mix-ups. Many of his aerials and his down tilt are safe on shield against shield grabs, allowing him to pressure the opponent's shield until they choose an option to escape, which Roy can then punish. Roy's neutral attack is useful thanks to its KO confirms into his forward, back and up aerials, as well as its ability to pressure shields and to catch the enemy coming out of shield. Roy's neutral aerial is also very effective as a cross-up attack on characters who lack out of shield options that hit behind them. Up aerial can also function as a combo starter and is safe on shield, and leads into different follow-ups dependent on whether the sweetspot or the sourspot connects. Roy can also simply grab opponents for shielding against him; he has simple but efficient throw combos such as down throw into neutral aerial or up aerial depending on percent. Roy even possesses some shield break set-ups if the opponent is not careful, rewarding Roy with a Flare Blade punish.

Roy's special moveset maintains his sheer speed and KO power; [[Flare Blade]] is known for being one of the strongest single-hitting attacks in the game, with the capability to one-hit KO any fighter in the game when fully charged. Combined with its ability to be reversed and its extremely high knockback, it adds up to be a very potent [[edge-guarding]] and ledge trapping tool, and has deceptively low ending lag despite its power to avoid punishment. As a result, Roy is one of few characters who can reliably close out stocks on shield breaks regardless of the opponent's damage. [[Double-Edge Dance]] is a quick and efficient damage-racking series of high-speed sword slashes, along with being a reliable finisher at higher percentages if sweetspotted; it is fast enough for each hit to connect reliably and catch spot dodges. His main recovery move, [[Blazer]], is an excellent [[out of shield]] option, due to Roy gaining super [[armor]] on startup and having decent knockback growth when grounded. Lastly, his [[Counter]] has a short window of active frames compared to other counterattacks, but it makes up for being one of the strongest counters in the game thanks to its 1.35× damage multiplier.

Despite Roy's numerous strengths, he has noticeable weaknesses. His biggest flaw stems from his own inverse tipper attribute; by relying on close-quarters attacks to deal damage, it gives him below-average effective reach compared to other swordfighters due to the Binding Blade's tip dealing weak knockback and damage. Thus, Roy cannot rely on a spacing playstyle in spite of his status as a swordsman, since his sourspotted attacks are less reliable as combo starters. This forces him to get dangerously close to the opponent in order for his attacks to properly start combos and deal more damage. This is further worsened by many of his attacks having high ending lag, which makes Roy very punishable if his attacks are simply thrown out without caution. In all, he cannot perform optimally when spacing with the tip of his sword, but cannot afford to make mistakes when at close range without running the risk of massive punishment.

Lastly, Roy's offstage endurance is very poor. His fast falling speed makes him fairly susceptible to [[combo]]s, and as none of his moves are generally reliable enough to consistently break combos, many characters with reliable combo moves can rack up large amounts of damage and easily force him off-stage. To add to this issue, Roy's only [[recovery]] move, Blazer, is fairly ineffective despite his impressive mobility: although it offers good protection, can be angled, and covers a decent amount of horizontal distance, it covers little vertical distance, does not sweetspot edges until the latter half of its duration, lacks the grounded version's super armor, and is predictable, leaving him prone to gimping, especially against characters with a reliable gimping projectile or counter. When coupled with his fast falling speed, he is highly susceptible to meteor smashes, and even a sufficiently strong [[semi-spike]] can launch him too far away to recover. Multi-hit moves that trade with Blazer's hitboxes can also semi spike Roy and gimp him. This causes him to have one of the worst recoveries in the game and arguably across the whole series.  

Overall, Roy is an unconventional swordsman who falls under the bait-and-punish and rushdown archetypes. The objective of his playstyle is to overwhelm his enemy by closing the distance between them quickly, then to deal large amounts of damage with fast attacks without leaving Roy himself open to punishment while remaining in close-range.

Roy was infamous for being a lower-ranked character in previous appearances, with his [[Roy (SSBM)|debut appearance in ''Melee'']] being particularly egregious. Even in ''SSB4'', he still retained a committal approach and unsafe aerials (especially compared to other fellow swordfighters), and his inverse tipper attribute hindered his spacing abilities, which collectively resulted in both his lower mid tier placement and being ranked as the lowest ranked DLC fighter. Likely because of this, Roy has been drastically buffed overall in his transition to ''Ultimate'', and is the only DLC fighter from ''SSB4'' to remain mostly buffed in that transition.

Roy's most significant improvements are indirect, as he benefits noticeably from the changes to the universal gameplay mechanics in ''Ultimate''. The improved flexibility of [[dash cancel]]ing and the decreased landing lag on his aerials greatly improve his combo game, aerial offense, rushdown potential, and make his KO power consistent. Complementing this, the universal mobility increase benefits Roy's core strategy of closing the distance on his opponents and landing hits with the hilt of his sword, as well as helping counterbalance his vulnerability to camping. These changes almost fully alleviate the need to approach at dangerously close ranges in order to deal optimal damage and knockback, which was his main flaw that had plagued him in previous games and was not present in his other fellow swordfighters.

Some of Roy's useful buffs are also direct. Moves like his [[dash attack]], [[forward tilt]], [[forward aerial|forward]], [[back aerial|back]] and [[up aerial]]s, and [[Double-Edge Dance]], have increased power, significantly increasing his options at higher percentages and further toning down his trouble at KOing. Furthermore, KO confirms with his neutral attack and the first hit of neutral aerial or a sourspotted up aerial have become much more consistent and reliable. A small amount of his moves have also had their hitbox placements improved, which is notable in his forward smash and Double-Edge Dance, the former of which can now hit opponents in the lower platforms of {{SSBU|Battlefield}}. Double-Edge Dance has also been sped up greatly, making its hits link into each other much more consistently. His air game in general has directly improved, as forward aerial now auto-cancels in a short hop and has knockback and angle adjustments that make it better for both combos and KOs; neutral, back and up aerials are stronger (the lattermost of which can now KO reliably), and down aerial has larger sweetspots. These changes, compounded with his lower landing lag all-around, makes Roy's air game one of the most versatile and fearsome of any character.

However, Roy is not without a few nerfs, some of which are significant. [[Blazer]] now needs to travel half its maximum distance before it can sweetspot ledges and also deals less knockback, reducing its use as a KO option. He now boasts a less effective grab game, as his forward throw has lost its combo potential altogether, and down throw has less followups due to its increased knockback; the universal nerfs to grabs further pronounce these issues, making it riskier and less rewarding for him to grab the opponent.

Overall, Roy's core playstyle remains fundamentally the same as it was in ''SSB4'', but the changes made to the game's engine and his substantial buffs now make him less polarizing and allows him to comfortably play aggressively up close, while retaining his raw power, range, and speed mostly intact, though with a few risks added to his playstyle such as a less effective grab game. Despite this, while Roy's nerfs are comparatively few, he still has some of his flaws from past games, such as mediocre offstage survivability, a vulnerability to combos, and an ineffective spacing game. Nevertheless, Roy is considered to be much more viable than he was in any of his previous playable appearances, and is widely seen as a solid contender in competitive play and one of the best swordfighters in the game.

Roy was buffed slightly via the game updates. Down aerial auto-cancels 3 frames earlier thanks to update 2.0.0. Update 3.0.0 made the multiple hits for [[Blazer]] connect more reliably, and gave dash grab more range. Roy's approach and defense also indirectly benefit from the universal nerf of projectiles. Update 3.1.0 and 7.0.0 both buffed Roy's up smash: the former improved the consistency of the multi-hits and the latter gave the move a -100% trip chance, making it so opponents no longer trip out of the move before the final hit can land.

 

Overall, Roy fares mildly better than he did at the launch of ''Ultimate''.  

*For simplicity if, for example, Roy's blade does 6% while the tip does 4%, and the attack has no other hitboxes, it is written as 6%/4%.

|neutraldesc=A reverse-gripped upward slash. A great combo starter, due to launching at a rather high angle and having low knockback and ending lag. It can easily start combos into a grab, tilts, aerials, [[Double-Edge Dance]] or [[Blazer]]. In particular, it is notoriously effective at comboing into a [[reverse aerial rush]] back aerial for a highly potent KO confirm. It is widely considered to be one of the best neutral attacks in the game thanks to its great combo ability and relatively low risk.

|ftiltdesc=A reverse-gripped downward slash. Comes out on frame 8 with somewhat low ending lag. Very powerful for a tilt considering its speed, being capable of KOing at under 130% from center-stage when sweetspotted. Overall, it is the second strongest forward tilt in the game, narrowly beating {{SSBU|Ike}}'s and only losing slightly to {{SSBU|Incineroar}}'s.

|dtiltdesc=A kneeling thrust. Can set up a tech-chase due to launching at a semi-spike angle. Very safe on shield (-3 when sweetspotted) thanks to its good damage and very low ending lag.

|dashname=Raid Down ({{ja|レイドダウン|Reido Daun}})

|fsmashname=Power Slash ({{ja|パワー スマッシュ|Pawā Sumasshu}})

|usmashname=Flame Sword ({{ja|フレイムソード|Fureimu Sōdo}})

|nairdesc=An inward slash followed by a spinning, outward slash. Deals decent damage and is a useful combo extender, and is Roy's main aerial approach tool due to its high amount of active frames. The first hit can start guaranteed combos, though it can be difficult to setup due to how fast it ends. Interestingly, it is set apart from identical neutral aerials (including {{SSBU|Chrom}}'s) in that the second hit possesses weight-independent knockback, KOing all characters at the same percentages regardless of their [[weight]].

|bairdesc=Rotates his body to perform an upward slash. Interestingly, it turns Roy around completely, similarly to {{SSBU|Marth}} and {{SSBU|Jigglypuff}}'s back aerials. Has great KO potential at high percentages and is also a devastating edgeguarding tool.

|dairdesc=A two-handed, downward slash between his legs, similarly to Ike's down aerial. Has the capability to [[meteor smash]] when sweetspotted, though it can be very difficult to aim due to its slim hitbox. It's also risky to use offstage due to Roy's fast falling speed and poor recovery, possibly causing a [[self-destruct]]. This move has a [[flame]] effect.

|pummeldesc=A knee strike. Average power and speed.

|uthrowdesc=Heaves the opponent upward with his free hand. Roy's only throw with KO potential, starting around 185%.

|dthrowname=Slam ({{ja|グラブドロップ|Gurabo Doroppu}}, ''Grab Drop'')

|ssdesc=A sequence of sword slashes with several variations based on directional input. There are four slashes total, with each capable of being altered in direction, allowing for eighteen total possible combinations. Standard strikes are trailed red, high strikes are trailed blue, and low strikes are trailed green. Unlike [[Dancing Blade]] and {{SSBU|Chrom}}'s Double-Edge Dance, the last hit of each variation deals [[flame]] damage because of the Binding Blade igniting. The lower-held green strikes deal a fairly large amount of damage and is useful for damaging shields, the upward blue variant is useful for setting up juggle situations, while the final forward-held hit has surprisingly high KO potential when sweetspotted, being even stronger than [[Limit Charge|Limit]] [[Cross Slash]], and is able to KO opponents near the ledge at lower than 80%.

|dsdmg=1.35× (minimum 8%)

*'''Up taunt''': Triumphantly holds the Binding Blade overhead. Resembles his overworld sprite in ''The Binding Blade''.

SSBURoyIdle1.gif|Roy's first idle pose.

SSBURoyIdle2.gif|Roy's second idle pose.

*'''Up:''' Spins the Binding Blade one and a half times and then sheaths it in a pose similar to his artwork from previous games, saying "That was a fierce battle." ("{{ja|苦しい戦いだった|Kurushī tatakai datta}}", ''It was a difficult fight.'').  

==In [[competitive play]]==

''See also: [[:Category:Roy players (SSBU)]]''

*{{Sm|Flow|p=France|France}} - The best Roy player in Europe who has placed top 8 at several large European tournaments, including 5th at {{Trn|Ultimate Fighting Arena 2023}} and 7th at {{Trn|VCA 2021}}. Overseas, he also placed 17th at both {{Trn|Collision 2023}} and {{Trn|Kagaribi 11}}, the latter being one of the largest Japanese tournaments of all-time and defeating {{Sm|ProtoBanham}} and {{Sm|Jogibu}} along the way, as well as 25th at {{Trn|GENESIS X}}. His best placement was 67th on the [[OrionRank 2019]].

*{{Sm|Goblin|USA}} - The second-best Roy player of all-time who was the definitive best in 2019, being the highest ranked Roy main in that year with his 42nd placement on the [[Fall 2019 PGRU]]. He had supermajor placements such as 13th at {{Trn|2GG: Kongo Saga}} and 17th at {{Trn|Shine 2019}} with wins over {{Sm|Tweek}} and {{Sm|Samsora}}. He has continued to do well at offline tournaments after the pandemic, placing 5th at {{Trn|Riptide}} and {{Trn|Let's Make Big Moves 2022}}, but began to decline in mid-2022.

*{{Sm|HIKARU|Japan}} - Known for his other characters such as {{SSBU|Donkey Kong}}, but picked up Roy in post-pandemic tournaments and became best Roy player in Japan until his retirement, peaking at 38th on the [[OrionRank 2022]] with Roy as his primary character. He won {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 5}} with solo Roy, as well as {{Trn|Sumabato SP 27}} and {{Trn|KOWLOON 2}} with Roy as one of his characters.

*{{Sm|Kola|USA}} - The best Roy player of all-time, peaking at 5th on the [[OrionRank Mid-Year 2022]], and is the only Roy player to win majors, doing so at {{Trn|CEO 2021}} and {{Trn|Luminosity Invitational 2: Back to School}}. He is also considered one of the best online players, placing 1st at {{Trn|Soaked Series Invitational}} primarily using Roy, which to date is one of the largest online tournaments in ''Smash Bros.'' history.

When ''Ultimate'' was released, Roy looked promising in the metagame due to the universal decreased landing lag on aerials and ability to use tilts out of a dash, which drastically fixed one of his biggest weaknesses. Along with his excellent mobility and some of the strongest KO power in the game, many professionals believed that Roy could potentially be a top-tier character. However, people also noticed that his [[Echo Fighter]], {{SSBU|Chrom}}, despite having less power and a significantly worse recovery than Roy, was more consistent due to his lack of sourspots, making him better at spacing than Roy. Chrom also had a notorious sacrificial KO move from his forward aerial to Soaring Slash. Although the latter was eventually removed, Chrom was still widely agreed to be one of the best characters in the game and was considered to be better than Roy in the early metagame. Despite this, Roy has achieved many noteworthy results thanks to players such as {{Sm|Goblin}} and {{Sm|Flow|p=France}}, and is still thought to be significantly improved from ''Smash 4'', with many players ranking him as a high-tier or even top-tier character.

 

Roy's reputation continued to improve during and after the end of the online metagame. {{Sm|Kola}}, a rising star prior to the pandemic, made waves during the online metagame and ultimately placed 1st on the [[Wi-Fi Warrior Rank v5]]. He maintained this momentum after offline play returned, and consistently placed top 8 at majors. Other Roy players such as Goblin and {{Sm|HIKARU}} also saw strong results during this period, leading to an increase in Roy's representation, especially in the United States: Roy had the second-highest character usage by the end of 2021,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zTKrF1HOv70Pp8xdJKrRQy3QiMYKLTCstoVNgxymt0o/edit#gid=0|title=OrionRank Ultimate: Eclipse character usage}}</ref> and continued to be a top 10 character representation-wise in the following year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gRlzy4z_dpqb2ZRhGoqtbDcuvUKz_ROsMZHGegon53M/edit#gid=329450080|title=OrionRank 2022 character usage}}</ref> With Chrom's decline as a result to a shrinking playerbase, many players such as {{Sm|Dabuz}} and {{Sm|Tweek}} consider Roy to be one of the best, if not the best, Fire Emblem characters in the game. As such, Roy was ranked 8th on the first tier list as a top tier character.

 

Following the first tier list, Roy's representation saw a sudden decline at the top level, attributed to Kola's declining performances and months-long hiatus, Goblin's severe decline, and HIKARU's retirement from competitive ''Smash''. Although Roy remained a popular character overall, on the other hand, there were few Roy players that could match the three's performances, as {{Sm|alice}} remained rather inconsistent while Flow did not become more prominent until the latter half of 2023. Finally, Kola's results following his return were better than his results right before his hiatus; however, they were still worse than his results at his peak. This decline led to Roy dropping out of the top 10 in terms of representation by mid-2023, the first time he was outside the top 10 since the early metagame, and this drop, alongside many players questioning whether Roy's hilt sweetspot and linear recovery were becoming more of a problem, led players to believe he was overrated on the first tier list. This view was reflected in the second tier list, where he dropped 11 spots to 19th in the A-tier, tied with Chrom and {{SSBU|Ken}} as the largest drops from the first tier list.

{{clr}}

==In Spirit Battles==

|{{SpiritTableName|Garet|iw=goldensun|size=64}}

|{{SpiritTableName|Axel|iw=khwiki|size=64}}

|{{s|fireemblem|Nils}}

*Roy is the only fighter with an [[Echo Fighter]] to not be in the same {{SSBU|Classic Mode}} unlock tree as their echo; he is in {{SSBU|Mario}}'s character tree, while his echo, {{SSBU|Chrom}}, is in {{SSBU|Yoshi}}'s unlock tree.

*Like in ''SSB4'', Roy will revert to Marth's idle animation while holding a small throwable [[item]], although now he also transitions to his ''SSB4'' crouching animation.

*In Roy's character showcase video, he is seen with a new dashing animation, but in the final build of the game, he reuses his dashing animation from ''SSB4''.

*Roy's English star KO voice clip, much like {{SSBM|Zelda}}'s in ''Melee'', is infamous among the game's fanbase for being perceived as blood-curdling and realistic, to the point that his voice actor, {{s|wikipedia|Ray Chase}}, [https://www.twitter.com/RayChase/status/1093679605796397056 acknowledged this perception on Twitter].

**This also marks the second time where Roy's sheath is positioned on his side instead of on his back with the first time being his clapping animation from ''SSB4''.

*Roy is the only male character unlocked in {{b|The Final Battle|World of Light}} realm in World of Light.

**Additionally, since Roy is found in The Final Battle, he is the only character with an Echo Fighter based on them who cannot be found in [[The Light Realm]], as {{SSBU|Samus}}, {{SSBU|Peach}}, Marth, {{SSBU|Pit}}, {{SSBU|Ryu}}, and {{SSBU|Simon}} can all be found in it, while all Echo Fighters (except {{SSBU|Dark Samus}}) can be found in [[The Dark Realm]].

**This also means that Roy is the only character with an Echo Fighter that can be unlocked in World of Light first, with Chrom being found in the [[Sacred Land]] sub-world of The Dark Realm.

**Roy is the only base character in World of Light that has a higher "power level" than his Echo Fighter. Roy has a power level of 12,500, matching the remaining fighters in The Final Battle area, while Chrom's power level is 10,600, being on a similar level as most of the fighters trapped within The Dark Realm.

*Echo Fighters notwithstanding, Roy is erroneously misplaced on the back of the NTSC physical case of ''Ultimate'', where every character is meant to be displayed in order of their announcement to the series. This also applies to {{SSBU|Luigi}}, {{SSBU|Zelda}}, {{SSBU|Ike}}, {{SSBU|Toon Link}}, {{SSBU|Inkling}}, {{SSBU|Ridley}}, {{SSBU|Palutena}}, {{SSBU|Corrin}}, and {{SSBU|Cloud}}. In Roy's case, he is positioned just before {{SSBU|Diddy Kong}}, which makes him the only character with an Echo Fighter to not be placed next to them.

**The order of all of Roy's voice clips closely matches the abbreviations of their internal codenames with the only exceptions being the voice clips of his special moves (which go by the order of neutral, up, and down special move instead of down, neutral, and up) and Final Smash (which is placed between his special moves and victory lines instead of between his heavy knockback and stunned voice clips). {{SSBU|Pikachu}} shares a similar distinction in its section on the Sound Test.