Roy (SSBU)

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For information on the playable Koopaling, see Bowser Jr. (SSBU).

Roy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Fire Emblem
Other playable appearances	in Melee in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Critical Hit

“	Get up close and personal for major damage! Unlike Marth, Roy's attacks are more powerful the closer you get to the base of his blade. For his Final Smash, his sword bursts into flame and sends anyone caught in the blast flying.	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Roy (ロイ, Roy) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, officially confirmed on June 12th, 2018. Roy is classified as fighter #25.

Jun Fukuyama's portrayal of Roy from Smash 4 was recycled for the Japanese release of Ultimate. In international versions, Roy is now voiced by Ray Chase, who reprises his role from Fire Emblem Heroes.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Roy being the 29th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Mario or any character in his unlock tree, being the sixth character unlocked after Luigi.
• Have Roy join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Roy must then be defeated on Castle Siege.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Roy has been substantially buffed in his transition to Ultimate, his most significant improvements being from the general universal changes to Ultimate, such as the ability to dash cancel into any grounded move and decreased landing lag on his aerials, which greatly improve his approach, air game, and rushdown ability. His buffed speed and the generally faster pace of Ultimate also benefit Roy's core strategy of closing the distance on his opponents and landing hits with the Binding Blade's powerful sweet spots. This helps to further counterbalance his main weakness of needing to approach at dangerously close ranges to opponents in order to deal optimal damage and knockback; a flaw not present in other sword-fighters that had plagued him in previous games. On top of that, the sweet spots themselves have been made bigger, slightly increasing Roy's effective range and allowing him to be even more consistent with attacks.

Some of Roy's moves, like up aerial and Double-Edge Dance have been buffed to have improved KO potential, increasing his options at higher percentages. Furthermore, KO confirms with move likes his jab and the first hit of neutral aerial have become much more consistent and reliable. Overall, Roy is considered to be more viable and much less polarizing than he was in any of his previous playable appearances.

Aesthetics

• As with all veterans returning from SSB4, Roy's model features a more subdued color scheme.
• Roy has a new crouching animation.
• Some of Roy's moves, such as his down aerial, have fire effects added to them.
• Roy's sweetspotted sword attacks now adopt the sound effects from Ike's sword, Ragnell.
• Roy's side taunt has been dubbed in English and now has him saying "I won't lose!"
• All of Roy's victory animations have been slightly altered with new camera angles. In addition, all of his victory lines have been dubbed in English, "That was a fierce battle!", "Failure is not an option!", and "Now the true battle begins!" respectively.
• Roy's sword was previously called the Sword of Seals in the trophy descriptions of Melee and Smash 4, but Palutena's Guidance now refers to the weapon as the Binding Blade.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Roy’s jumpsquat animation now takes three frames to complete (down from 5).
• Roy dashes much faster (1.95 → 2.145), and as a result of initial dashes being standardized, Roy's initial dash is significantly faster (1.4 → 2.2).
• Roy's hilt sweetspots have been enlarged. This significantly improves his ranged approach, and makes him more consistent overall.
• Roy's air speed has been increased (1.24 → 1.302).
• Roy's double jump covers less distance.

Ground attacks

• Jab's knockback growth has been reduced and its angle has been altered, significantly improving its followups.
• Dash attack has less ending lag (FAF 50 → 46).
• Forward smash has increased vertical range and slightly reduced startup (frame 14 → 13).

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (Neutral: frame 11 → 9, Forward: 13 → 8, Back: 16 → 10, Up: 14 → 8, Down: 23 → 14).
• Forward aerial's autocancel window has been restored, allowing it to autocancel within a short hop.
• Up aerial has increased knockback, making it more potent for juggles and now being able to KO at very high percentages.

Throws/other attacks

• Roy's forward throw is now an elbow strike to the chest, just like Marth's.
  • Forward throw has increased base knockback and ending lag, removing majority of its follow ups.
• Roy's down throw has increased hitstun, allowing it to combo into aerials more consistently.

Special Moves

• Flare Blade has slightly less startup (frame 23 → 21), and like with most non-storeable charge moves, Roy can now reverse the move while charging.
  • Unlike other moves with recoil damage, a fully charged Flare Blade's recoil receives the 1.2x damage multiplier in 1v1 matches. This causes Roy to take 12% damage when using it during said matches, up from 10%.
• As with Marth and Lucina's Dancing Blade, Double-Edge Dance transitions significantly faster into each hit. It can also now be buffered and is much harder to escape from.
  • Double-Edge Dance's last hit has significantly increased knockback, which when combined with the move's other changes, now make it a viable KO option.
  • Double-Edge Dance's first hit has increased startup (frame 6 → 9).
• Blazer travels more distance.
  • Blazer requires a longer travel distance before being able to sweetspot a ledge.
• Blazer deals less knockback (40 base/130 scaling → 75/93), causing it to KO later.
• Counter has more active frames (frames 8-27 → 8-29).
• Critical Hit now causes a flaming background to appear once the main hit is unleashed.
• Roy now removes the Binding Blade from its sheath once he has finished sheathing it in Critical Hit.
  • Critical Hit has significantly lower ending lag due to this animation change.

Classic Mode: A Journey of Swords

Roy's opponents consist of entirely sword-fighters, with the exception of the final round.

Round	Opponent	Stage	Music	Notes
1	Lucina, Chrom, and Ike	Castle Siege	Beyond Distant Skies - Roy's Departure
2	Meta Knight	Halberd	Meta Knight's Revenge
3	Link (Tunic of the Wild)	Skyloft	Ballad of the Goddess
4	Shulk	Gaur Plain	You Will Know Our Names
5	Cloud	Midgar	Fight On!
6	Marth, male and female Corrin	Coliseum	Winning Road - Roy's Hope
Bonus Stage
Final	Master Hand	Final Destination	Master Hand	On intensity 7.0 and higher, Crazy Hand fights alongside Master Hand, and the track Master Hand / Crazy Hand plays during the battle.

Role in World of Light

Although Roy does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (sans Kirby) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Presumably, Roy fell temporarily under Dharkon's control after Galeem was first defeated, the narration of Dharkon's introduction being vague on how many fighters he stole from Galeem.

Roy appears in The Final Battle as one of the last fighters imprisoned by Galeem. He is one of the few obligatory unlocks, defeating him leads to a fight with Master Hand and the subseqent reveal of Palutena's location.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

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  Artwork of all playable Fire Emblem characters and Assist Trophies, as posted on the official Japanese Fire Emblem Heroes Twitter account.

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  Screenshot of all playable Fire Emblem characters on Arena Ferox, as posted on the official Japanese Fire Emblem Twitter account.

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  Roy's fighter card.

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  Roy countering on 3D Land.

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  Using Double-Edge Dance on Skyworld.

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  Attacking Diddy Kong with Counter on The Great Cave Offensive.

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  Attacking Link with his neutral aerial on Skyloft.

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  Taunting with a frozen Wii Fit Trainer on Summit.

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  Performing his down smash on Coliseum.

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  Roy and Meta Knight facing a Fake Smash Ball on Mushroomy Kingdom.

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  Roy and Meta Knight caught in the Fake Smash Ball's blast.

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  Roy being bitten by a Klaptrap on Pokémon Stadium.

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  Performing his jab on Kalos Pokémon League.

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  With all playable Fire Emblem veterans on Coliseum.

Character Showcase Video

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Trivia

• Roy's pose in his official artwork resembles his forward tilt.
• Roy is the first fighter to be introduced as a clone and later have an echo of their own in a later installment.
• 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 old dashing animation from Smash 4.