Roy (SSBM)

Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Fire Emblem
Availability	Unlockable
Tier	B (20)

“	While Roy's moves are well balanced, he's a little on the slow side, and doesn't excel at midair combat.	”
—Description from Roy's trophy.

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. Like Marth, he is a hidden character.

Roy is currently ranked 20th on the tier list, in the B 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 chain grab 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 sweetspot on his sword being in the centre of his blade limits Roy's ability to reliably KO. Roy, like Marth, also suffers from a poor recovery. However, he has fewer options to extend it than Marth because of his higher falling speed, giving him a much poorer recovery. This results in largely unfavorable matchups, particularly against those higher-tiered than him.

How to Unlock

To unlock Roy, the player must complete either Classic or Adventure Mode as Marth without using a continue, or play 900 VS. matches.

When fought, Roy is fought on the Temple stage, with the track "Fire Emblem" playing.

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. A combination of a fast falling speed and a low traction gives Roy a decently lengthed wavedash.

Among Roy's primary strengths is his overall power in most of his ground based attacks. Roy's forward smash is a fast attack and is his primary KO move. Additionally, Roy has a rather powerful, if laggy down smash, and a up smash with multi-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; its pseudo-semi-spike properties also makes it useful when the opponent's back is to the ledge.

Roy also has a decent approach. Despite his only average wavedash, Roy still has access to a disjointed hitbox with his Sword of Seals, as well as a rather fast dash in general. Additionally, a combination of low-lag, fast aerials and a very high falling speed gives Roy a fantastic SHFFL; Roy's SHFFL is among the best in the game, potentially faster and stronger than Marth's. Roy's down tilt also sends opponents directly upward, with decent hitstun, giving Roy a very good method to start combos. Additionally, while Roy's wavedash is not as long as Marth's, it can still aid his approach, aided by his disjointed hitbox.

Roy's grab game is also surprisingly good. Roy has the second highest grab range among characters who do not have extended grabs (such as Link). His throws can easily chain into each other; their low knockback and high grab range allow Roy to decently tech chase and chain grab. His up throw, unusually, is also the second strongest in the game and can chain grab fast fallers. Roy's grab game comprises a good deal of his edgeguard game. A common tactic is to force opponents off the stage with a down throw or forward throw and immediately intercept their recovery with a forward smash or Flare Blade.

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; while attacks can become incredibly powerful at this close of a range, however, this causes Roy to become 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. Despite their power when sweetspotted, all of Roy's smashes have a considerable amount of end lag. 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; coupled with poor off-the-stage options (due to his aerials that are all of high-risk off the edge), Roy is almost completely dependent on racking up damage, relying on wavesmashing and edgeguarding to garner KOs.

Roy also has poor comboing ability, in stark contrast with Marth; Roy has slightly below average air speed like Marth, but Roy's sweetspot once again hurts him. Roy cannot move fast enough in the air to hit with the centre of his blade, causing primarily tippered attacks, resulting in low hitstun and hitlag attacks, hurting Roy's comboing game. Roy himself, however, is easy to combo; like other fast falling characters, his high falling speed harms him, 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 greater horizontal distance, multi hit properties that can aggravate edgeguarders, and its ability to be controlled to an extent, Roy still has the high ending lag in his Blazer. Additionally, Roy's fast falling speed also impairs his recovery; while he can still use Double Edge Dance to recover horizontally, it's not as effective as Marth's Dancing Blade.

Moveset

For a gallery of Roy's hitboxes, see here.

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- Slash - 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- Raid Chop - 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- Sharp Edge - A slash in front, somewhat slower than his Neutral Attack. Can KO at high percentages or when the blast line is close by. 10% damage.
• Down tilt- Low Stab - 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- Anti-Air Slash - 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- Roy swings his sword in an arc in front of him. An attack very similar to Flare Blade. It's rather fast, and is Roy's primary KO move. Uncharged 20%, 27% fully charged.
• Down smash- Swipes his sword on both his sides. A decent finisher, useful for vertical KOs, though there is rather high ending lag. 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

Roy's 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 has nearly unrecoverable ending lag. The sweetspot is extremely tiny; the hilt is required to be touching (having Roy overlapping the opponent significantly), making the move more difficult to hit with than Jigglypuff's Rest. 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

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Notable players

See also: Category:Roy professionals (SSBM)

•  Masashi
•  NEO
•  Ripple
•  Sethlon

Tier placement and history

The Melee back room has generally disliked Roy as a competitive character, ranking him extremely low on most revisions of the tier list. This is due to being outclassed almost completely by Marth, who has a more favorable hitbox and sweetspot placement in his attacks (especially his down aerial spike), combo ability, and aerial and off-stage games; Roy has very little of these. Instead, he was bestowed with a slightly more powerful set of smash attacks, creating an over-reliance on them to KO. Because of these flaws, many players opted to choose Marth over Roy to do well in tournaments; to this day, the former still performs well at top-level play while Roy struggles to make any impact at all. Early in Melee's metagame, anti-tiers attempted to argue his usefulness during "tier wars" on GameFAQs, but could not argue against his trouble with KOing opponents efficiently, amongst other points made against Roy's viability as a character. Roy has been placed in the low tiers throughout all of Melee's life, currently ranking 20th and, as stated above, has negligible representation in tournaments outside of a rouge game or two where Mew2King sandbags with him.

Comparison to Marth

Marth's and Roy's differences have been the center of controversies on GameFAQs' tier list debates, specifically in 2003/2004 when the competitive scene was picking up. Pro-tiers claimed Marth had overall better attributes, in terms of speed, weight, and recovery capabilities. They also cited tournament results as proof for his superiority, with slews of professional Marth users such as Ken placing extremely high in major tournaments with no similar results from Roy to back up the anti-tiers' arguments. Anti-tiers, however, claimed that Roy's different attributes, such as his larger sweetspot in the center of his blade and general "superiority" in power, were enough to allow him to be as efficient of a character as Marth was; they also argued that professionals needed to learn how to use Roy as a different character from Marth in an attempt to disprove the tournament results.

It is important to know, however, that some of the points brought up about Marth's superiority are now considered inaccurate. For instance, Marth's extra weight is negligible, and may even be interpreted as a disadvantage, considering his extra weight makes him susceptible to Fox's shine combos while Roy, being lighter, is not. More importantly, pro-tiers made a common assumption is that Marth is faster than Roy. While Marth indeed has a faster dashing speed, this claim is questionable, considering that Roy's SHFFL is faster than Marth's due to his falling speed and lower short hop. Similarly, some points brought up about Roy's viability are also now considered inaccurate. For instance, Roy's "superiority" in power has been disproved as many of Marth's attacks, tipped and non-tipped, are stronger and deal more knockback than Roy's respective centered and non-centered strikes. The sweetspot in the hilt of the blade is now considered a disadvantage, as Marth can attack from afar and still deal respectable damage while Roy cannot do so lest his attacks hit with extremely low strength; Roy's sourspot on the entire length of his blade, besides the hilt, is also much weaker than Marth's sourspots on the hilt of the Falchion.

Overall, the prime reason for Roy's named inferiority is precisely the one that anti-tiers tried to refute: Roy has too much trouble trying to KO his opponents. While Marth has far more creative and flexible ways to string together moves, dish out damage, edgeguard, and KO, Roy lacks many of those traits, and instead relies far too much on predictable and repetitive chain grab and down tilt setups, with almost all of his viable combos ending in a forward smash. Therefore, despite being considered a clone of a top tier character, Roy fares poorly competitively; in the latest tier list for Melee, Marth remains top tier in 4th place, while Roy is considered a situational character, placed in the 20th position.

In single-player modes

In Classic Mode

Roy's unused intro image.

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. Despite this, Roy does have an introduction image for the "Now Loading..." screen between matches.

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 was not designated an official home stage. Final Destination has the property of playing the Fire Emblem music track when accessed this way.

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 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 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.

Ending images

• 

  Classic Mode.

• 

  Adventure Mode.

• 

  All-Star Mode.

Japanese Translations

Roy speaks less than fellow Fire Emblem character Marth, only speaking in Results screen.

Roy's three victory lines are:

• "苦しい戦いだった。 (Kurushī tatakai datta。)", which translates to "It was a difficult fight."
• "真の戦いは、これからだ。 (Shin no tatakai wa, korekara da。)", which translates to "The true fight is yet to come."
• "守るべきもののために、負けられない! (Mamoru beki mono no tame ni, makerarenai!)", which translates to "For those whom I must protect, I will not lose!".

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

• 

  Classic

• 

  Adventure

• 

  All-Star

Costumes

Roy's changeable clothing in SSBM

Trivia

Closeup of Roy's sword, showing the text "HAL LABRATORY.INC"

• Roy is the only clone of an unlockable character.
• Roy does not feature a sheath during gameplay and his "Challenger Approaching" screen like Marth does; this is considered unusual, as Roy has a sheath in his victory poses, official art, character select portrait and all three of his trophies, as well as his unused Classic Mode introduction.
• 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 two Event Match appearances, he appears on Hyrule Temple.
• Roy with his Flare Blade, Mr. Game & Watch with his Judgement, and Pichu with most of its electric attacks are the only characters in Melee to have attacks that directly damage themselves. Kirby can also harm himself if he copies either Roy or Pichu.
• Roy, Marth, and Peach are the only characters in Melee with a special move that can counter.
• Roy's appearance in Melee was the first time he appeared in any game, as his game was released after Melee.
  • This technically makes Roy the first ever playable Nintendo character originating from the Super Smash Bros. series.
• Close examination of Roy's sword shows that "HAL LABRATORY.INC" is written there. "Laboratory" actually is misspelled like this.
• With no roles in Classic or Adventure modes and only appearing in two Events, Roy has the fewest appearances in Melee's 1 player modes.