Roy (SSBM)

Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Roy
Universe	Fire Emblem
Availability	Unlockable
Tier	F (19)

Roy (ロイ, Roi) is a secret character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Due to the vast amount of similarities between Roy and fellow Fire Emblem lord, Marth, Roy is considered to be a "clone" of Marth; although, they do also have their differences in their fighting styles. He is a secret character, unlocked either by completing Classic Mode or Adventure Mode with Marth, or by playing 900 VS. mode matches.

Roy is currently ranked 19th on the tier list, in the F tier. Roy's upsides include a good approach due to one of the best SHFFLs in the game, as well as a good grab game, which allows him to chaingrab rather well. Roy's specials are also useful, with a Counter attack that can become extremely powerful, and a decent edgeguard ability from Flare Blade. However, Roy's primary problem is his extremely high falling speed, leading him to be very easily comboed; Roy himself cannot combo well, due to his low hitstun attacks and poor air speed. The fact that the sweetspot on his sword is in the centre also causes Roy to lack an extremely effective kill move. Roy, like Marth, also suffers from a poor recovery. However, he has fewer options to extend it than Marth due to his lower airspeed and higher falling speed, giving him one of the worst recoveries in the game. This results in largely unfavorable matchups, with his worst being an almost unwinnable matchup against Peach.

Attributes

Overall, Roy doesn't fall into any specific archetype of characters; while having a slew of powerful attacks, Roy himself is rather nimble, with a relatively fast dash, a good dash dance and a very high falling speed. Roy, however, has a relatively poor air speed. As a result of high traction and a high falling speed, Roy has a rather short wavedash.

Among Roy's primary strengths is his overall power in most of his ground based attacks. Roy's forward smash, his primary KO move, is fast, and when sweetspotted, is actually more powerful than Marth's when tipped. Additionally, Roy has a rather powerful, if laggy down smash, and a up smash with mutli-hit properties, decent knockback, and, when tipped, spike properties, though the lattermost property is rather situational. Roy's specials are also powerful; his Flare Blade is a deadly edgeguard tactic, almost guaranteeing a OHKO if fully or almost fully charged, his Double-Edge Dance naturally combos into itself and can act as a reliable finisher and his Counter varies in power against other attacks. Against smash attacks, Roy's Counter can quickly become his most powerful move.

Roy also has a decent approach. Despite having a rather short wavedash, Roy still has access to a disjointed hitbox with his Sword of Seals. Additionally, a combination of low-lag, fast aerials and a very high falling speed gives Roy a fantastic SHFFL, potentially even better and faster than Marth's. Roy's down tilt also sends opponents directly upward, with decent hitstun, giving Roy a very good method to start combos.

Roy's grab game is also surprisingly good. His throws can easily chain into each other, especially his down, forward and up throw, and his up throw, unusually, is also the second strongest in the game. Roy also has the second highest grab range among characters who do not have extended grabs (such as Link.

Roy, however, has his primary flaw in his disjointed hitbox. Unlike Marth, who can safely attack opponents from a distance, Roy must go into incredibly close ranges to deliver strong damage and knockback; this close range, however, makes Roy very vulnerable, especially against characters with powerful close range attacks or grabs, such as Falco or Mewtwo. As a result of this close sweetspot, Roy himself lacks a particularly reliable KO move; with the exception of his forward smash and potentially his down smash, Roy has few options to quickly KO others. Additionally, while Roy has two meteor smashes (the third hit of his "up" Double Edge Dance and his down air) and one spike (his tipped up smash), all three are highly situational, forcing Roy to rely on building up damage and edgeguarding to garner KOs.

Roy also has poor comboing ability, in stark contrast with Marth; Roy's low air speed can prevent him from effectively chasing down his opponents in the air, and his low hitstun attacks are easy to escape from. Roy himself, however, is easy to combo; like other fast falling characters, he can be easy to combo, and he has long periods of hitstun, only making him even more vulnerable.

Roy, just like Marth, also has a non-stellar recovery. While his Blazer is slightly more effective, due to its multi hit properties that can aggravate edgeguarders and ability to be controlled to an extent, Roy still has the high ending lag in his Blazer. Additionally, Roy's fast falling speed and poor airspeed also impair his recovery; while he can still use Double Edge Dance to recover horizontally, it's not as effective as Marth's Dancing Blade.

Moveset

Note that Roy's attacks are at their strongest when they hit with the centre of the Sword of Seals.

Ground moves

Normal

• Neutral attack- Similar to Marth's, he slashes in front of him. Roy, however, only slashes once, and at a slower rate than Marth. 5-6%.
• Dash attack- Slashes in front of him for 12%. Like Marth's, can either send opponents in front of him, behind him, or above him.
• Forward tilt- A slash in front, somewhat slower than his Neutral Attack. Can be a killing move at high percentages or when the blast line is close by. 10% damage.
• Down tilt- 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. 10% damage normally. If very close to the foe, it can do 12% damage.
• Up tilt- Upwards slash, similar in appearance to neutral attack. Despite generally covering Roy's hurtboxes, it is less powerful and has less combo potential than Marth's. 9-10% damage.

Smash attacks

• Forward smash- An attack very similar to Flare Blade. It's rather fast, and when sweetspotted, it has more damage output and knockback than Marth's when sweetspotted. Uncharged 20%, 27% fully charged.
• Down smash- Swipes his sword on both his sides. A decent killer, useful for vertical KOs, though there is ratherhigh ending lag. Assuming Roy's facing right, 21% in front of him, 16% behind uncharged; 29% in front and 21% behind fully charged.
• Up smash- A relatively quick sword thrust upwards with fire effects. Can actually spike if enemy is hit on the sword's tip during the start of the attack, though this is highly situational. This attack is a multi-hit attack and the last hit has decent vertical knockback, if enemy is hit at the base. 17% uncharged, 22% fully.

Other attacks

• Ledge attack- Gets up and slashes, 8% damage
• 100% ledge attack- Similar to his normal ledge attack, 8% damage
• Floor attack- Slashes on both sides, 6% damage.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial- Two swipes around him, with decent knockback and damage if sweetspotted. 4% first slash, 7% second.
• Forward aerial- Swipes sword in front of him. Does 8% with surprising range.
• Back aerial- Turns around and swipes his sword, similar to his forward aerial. Like's Marth's back aerial, this move turns Roy around. 9% damage.
• Down aerial- Swipes below him. While it acts as a meteor smash, it's rather weak, and risky, due to its rather high ending lag and Roy's high falling speed. Its sweetspot is also rather small, only meteor smashing at the hilt. 9% at the base, 6% near the tip.
• Up aerial- Swipes above while doing a backflip, does 6% damage. It does 9% at the base.

Grabs & throws

• Pummel- Knees foe, 2-3% damage.
• Forward throw- Knocks opponent forward. Can chain-grab certain heavyweights at low percentages. Inflicts 5% damage.
• Back throw- Tosses foe behind him. Inflicts 5% damage.
• Up throw- Thrusts opponent upwards. Can chain-grab the space animals at lower percentages. It is the second strongest up throw in the game. Inflicts 5% damage.
• Down throw- Tosses the foe to the ground. Chain grab potential. Inflicts 6% damage.

Special moves

Roy's special moves

Neutral special	Flare Blade
Side special	Double-Edge Dance
Up special	Blazer
Down special	Counter

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Comparison to Marth

The comparison of Marth and Roy had a significant impact on the Smash community in 2003 and 2004 during the "tier wars" at GameFAQs, where they were a major flashpoint of the debate over the existence of tiers. The "pro-tiers" who tried to prove the existence of tiers to the "anti-tiers" compared many of Marth and Roy's statistics, from running speed to power, to reach the conclusion that Marth is the better character. They argued that Marth was faster, heavier, stronger, and better at recovering than Roy. The anti-tiers responded by trying to refute the point that Marth was stronger, stating that the size of Roy's sweet spot makes up for Marth's added strength at the tip of his blade.

Eventually, the pro-tiers won the argument and many people agreed that Marth is a superior fighter to Roy. Nowadays, however, it is known that many of these comparisons were either false or insignificant, due to poor analysis; for instance, Marth's extra weight is negligible, and may even be interpreted as a disadvantage, considering Marth (with his extra weight) is susceptible to Fox's shine combos and Roy (being lighter) is not. More importantly, a common assumption is that Marth is faster than Roy. This is questionable, considering that Roy's SHFFL is faster than Marth's due to his falling speed and lower short hop.

Despite lapses in the original analysis, however, players still agree that Marth is an overall better character, for reasons better supported with modern knowledge than those proposed in the past. The principle reason is precisely the one that anti-tiers tried to refute - that Roy has too much trouble trying to kill his opponents, being effectively weaker, and that Marth, with his superior combos and killers, can kill much more easily.

Gameplay

As with all low tiers, Roy's gameplay emphasizes his strengths and attempts to make his weaknesses as unnoticeable as possible. This means a heavy reliance on his DED, grab, down tilt and forward smash.

DED

Roy's side B is one of his most used moves, with good reason. It is fast, can combo with itself, variable, and has decent knockback on the third hit, and good knockback on the fourth.

Generally the DED is used out of a dash dance, and is therefore increased in usefulness by Roy's great dash dance.

Good ideas with DED include only using the first hit to knock people out of the air; since it is disjointed, Roy can (relatively easily) stop approachers.

Against CCers or SG's, >B >B VB puts most characters out of range of the shield grab, and knocks crouch cancellers over.

Roy can combo FFers into the third strong hit at higher percentages (and others at lower %'s) by using >B ΛB >B. This is useful when having trouble landing a forward smash.

>B (>B/ΛB) ΛB will meteor smash the opponent. It can be used in attempt to meteor smash someone off the level, or to set up for a tech chase. Neither work very often.

If the player is committed to using the 4th hit of the DED, which shouldn't be very often, typically ΛB is the way to go. It has as much knockback as the last >B, and will shield poke if the opponent's head is sticking above his shield just a little.

VB and >B as the fourth hits are useful against CCers who want to take all the damage and if a little extra range is neededown respectively.

The >B, >B, ΛB, VB combo will almost always hit the opponent, first by slamming him down with the ΛB then following up with the VB's multiple hits. The whole combo may deal at least 40% of damage with the option and possibility of finishing off with a down smash resulting in more damage.

Throws

Down

• Down throw + side tilt- a basic combo good for spacing at low percentages
• down throw + side special combo- a self-explanatory combo good at mid percentages
• Down throw + side smash- a decent combo where it can sweetspot at low-mid percentages, and cannot be done at higher percentages
• Down throw + turn around + down tilt- can be DI'd, but good for spacing.

Up

Note: The first four of these work usually only at 0%-20%

• Up throw + up smash- at low percentages, fast fallers can hardly escape this combo
• Up throw + up tilt- only works on heavier characters at near 0%s, but safer.
• Up throw + side special (up variation)- self explanatory
• Up throw + up special- self explanatory
• Up throw + up aerial- at mid percentages, may also work with neutral aerial

Forward

• Forward throw + side special- self explanatory
• Forward throw + dash attack- can be escaped at the lower or higher percentages

Back

• Back throw + f-tilt- only reliable at mid to lower percentages
• Back throw + side special- self explanatory
• Back throw + dash attack- self explanatory

In single-player modes

In Classic Mode

Unusually, Roy does not appear at all in the Classic Mode when unlocked, neither as an ally, nor as an opponent; the reason for this is unknown.

In Adventure Mode

The Adventure Mode makes no concessions to Roy when he is unlocked. Like Marth, however, music associated with him can play in the Underground Maze stage.

In All-Star Mode

In All-Star Mode, Roy and his allies are fought on Final Destination, as Roy lacks a home stage. The stage has the property of playing Fire Emblem in this mode.

In Event Matches

Roy appears in two Event Matches:

• Event 46: Fire Emblem Pride: The player battles and must defeat a team of Marth and Roy in an untimed match in the Hyrule Temple stage, 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 the Hyrule: Temple stage 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: Dr. Mario, Falco, Pichu, Young Link and Ganondorf.

While unlocking

When Roy is unlocked, he will initially be fought on Temple. The stage, however, will always play its alternate music of Fire Emblem.

Trophy Descriptions

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:

(Smash Red)

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.

• B: Flare Blade
• Smash B: Double-Edge Dance

(Smash Blue)

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.

• Up & B: Blazer
• Down & B: Counter

Costume gallery

File:Alt-roy.jpg

Roy's changeable clothing in SSBM

Trivia

• Roy is the only clone of an unlockable character.
• Roy does not feature a sheath during gameplay like Marth does. This is odd because the sheath is present in all three of his trophies and victory poses, as well as on the Classic Mode's loading screens.
• Roy is the only low tier character to have a spike; additionally, Roy's up smash is the only up smash in Super Smash Bros. history that can act as a spike.
• Roy and Marth are the only two characters in Melee that speak Japanese, regardless of language settings.
• Roy and Marth are the only playable characters in Melee that don't have a stage representing their universe, though hacked data shows that one was possibly planned.
  • In Melee's All-Star Mode, Roy is fought on Final Destination. In his sole Event Match appearance, he appears on Hyrule Temple.
• Roy, Mr. Game & Watch and Pichu are the only characters in Melee to have attacks that directly damage themselves.
• Roy, Marth, and Peach are the only characters in Melee with a special move that can counter.
• Close examination of Roy's sword reveals the signature of Hal Labratory Inc., as shown here.