User:Drilly Dilly/Differences between Marth and Roy in PM

Even though Roy is only a semi-clone of Marth in Project M, I still feel like doing a comparison between the two of them, especially when considering the many revamped changes to the former. Currently incomplete.

Differences between Marth and Roy in PM

Aesthetics

• Some of Roy's attacks use the fire element.
• Roy's taunts are different.
• Roy's idle pose is different.

Attributes

• Roy is shorter than Marth, shortening his hurtbox, making him slightly less easy to hit, but also reduces most of his attacks' range.
• Roy's sweetspot hitboxes are placed at the center of his sword's blade, which thwarts his ability to space and compels him to go up close to his opponents to deal maximum power, thus reducing safety; however, his sweetspots are also much larger than Marth's, making them typically easier to land.
• Contrary to Melee, Roy is overall stronger than Marth in terms of KO potential.
• Roy jumps lower than Marth.
• As a result, his short hop is also lower than Marth's, improving his SHFFL.
• Roy falls slightly faster than Marth (2.2 → 2.4) and his gravity is significantly higher, which make him easier to combo and worsen his recovery.
• However, the former also allows him to receive less vertical knockback than Marth, making his vertical endurance better overall; additionally, both his faster falling speed and much higher gravity, combined with a lower short hop, contribute to a better SHFFL.
• Roy dashes slower than Marth (1.8 → 1.61), though he still dashes fast nevertheless.
• Roy is lighter than Marth (87 → 85), thus slightly reducing his horizontal endurance; however, this allows Roy to get knocked down by Fox's shine instead of pushed back, thus nullifying the latter's waveshine combos.

Ground attacks

• Jab is stronger than Marth's.
• Jab is slightly slower and lacks both a second hit and buffer, with the latter meaning that the player must press the button one at a time instead of mashing it.
• Side tilt has more range and the sweetspot is stronger than Marth's.
• Its sourspot, however, is weaker, and it has longer startup.
• Down tilt does not semi-spike, but sends opponents at a vertical angle. While this removes its edgeguarding potential entirely, it opens up opportunities for extremely deadly combos.
• Up tilt is completely different; it starts from Roy's back instead of in front of him, and this allows him to retaliate against opponents attempting to cross him up.
• Up tilt is weaker.
• Forward smash's sweetspot is much larger, while the sourspot is much smaller.
• Despite sharing the same start lag, it has slightly more end lag, and all hitboxes are weaker than Marth's respective hitboxes.
• Up smash lacks sourspots and inflicts more damage than Marth's should all hits connect, while having fire effects along with it. The sword's tip also has a hitbox that can spike opponents within the first few frames of the attack.
• Up smash deals less knockback.
• Down smash's first hit inflicts more damage than both of Marth's hits.
• Down smash inflicts less knockback and its second hit inflicts less damage than Marth's.
• Down smash uses the flame element.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial's second hit uses the fire element.
• Neutral aerial's first hit has more range behind Roy.
• Down aerial has a large "mediumspot" that is stronger than Marth's sourspot, and its sweetspot is a spike like Marth's, only it is much stronger, and inflicts a flame effect. Also, it surprisingly has less endlag than Marth's.
• Down aerial sweetspot is smaller and thus more difficult to land than Marth's.
• Back aerial sweetspotted is much stronger than Marth's, being a reliable finisher at high percentages.
• Back aerial has less range.
• Forward aerial inflicts less knockback than Marth's, making it less reliable (if not not reliable at all) for KOing. In exchange, however, it allows Roy to link each hit together more easily, allowing him to rack up consecutive damage.
  • However, it also inflicts less damage.
• Up aerial deals less knockback than Marth's, but again, this helps Roy combo each hit into each other more easily (especially if SHFFLing is utilized in conjunction), at the cost of making it an unreliable KO move.
  • Again, it deals less damage than Marth's and has more end lag.

Special attacks

• Flare Blade is much stronger than Shield Breaker in damage and knockback, even when uncharged; it can also charge for a longer period.
• It inflicts 10% self-damage to Roy when fully charged and, despite its stronger power, less shield damage unless it be fully charged.
• Double-Edge Dance has a multitude of buffs compared to Dancing Blade: first and second hits inflict more damage, third hit upwards can meteor smash and inflicts more damage and knockback, third hit downwards has multi-hit properties, inflicts more damage, and has gimping potential, fourth hit forwards has more reach and inflicts more knockback, fourth hit upwards deals more damage and knockback, fourth hit downwards deals more knockback, and fourth hit can be reversed to punish those behind Roy.
• Double-Edge Dance's third downwards deals less knockback and fourth hit forwards deals less damage. Also, the third hit forward has higher base knockback, but lower knockback scaling, making it overall weaker at higher percentages and more difficult to link together with the fourth hit at lower percentages, albeit it is still a good finisher.
• Unlike Dancing Blade, Double-Edge Dance has sourspots, and all of these hits are weaker than the respective hits of Dancing Blade.
• Blazer can multi-hit and be extended horizontally further than Dolphin Slash, and has less landing lag than Dolphin Slash. Also, it deals more damage should all hits connect and the reversed version inflicts strong set knockback which can easily KO characters with bad vertical endurance (otherwise characters that are light and/or floaty).
• Blazer has slightly longer startup lag, and due to all hitboxes having set knockback (excluding the final one), it is unreliable at KOing; however, even if the final hitbox is landed, it is still weaker than Dolphin Slash in terms of knockback. The move also travels slightly less height than Dolphin Slash due to Roy's shorter stature.
• Rather than dealing a solid 7% damage, his counter deals 1.5x the damage of the attack countered, making it incredibly powerful against strong attacks.
• Counter's window lasts shorter and it has slightly more startup lag.