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'''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''' ({{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]] | 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. | ||
==How to unlock== | ==How to unlock== | ||
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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). | 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 | 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. | 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 | 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. Roy also lacks any quick KO options. 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. Coupled with poor offstage options as a result of high-lag aerials that are all of high risk off the edge and a poor recovery, Roy is almost completely dependent on attempting to rack up damage with brief combo strings, culminating in a reliance on hard reads and unforced errors by the opponent to garner KOs. | 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. Roy also lacks any quick KO options. 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. Coupled with poor offstage options as a result of high-lag aerials that are all of high risk off the edge and a poor recovery, Roy is almost completely dependent on attempting to rack up damage with brief combo strings, culminating in a reliance on hard reads and unforced errors by the opponent to garner KOs. | ||
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===Tier placement and history=== | ===Tier placement and history=== | ||
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 | 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 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 metagame still remains rather stagnant, with players' opinions of him only marginally improving overall. | 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=== | ===The "Tier Wars" and comparison to Marth=== | ||