Roy (SSBM)

Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Fire Emblem
Other playable appearance	in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Tier	F (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, Roy) is a secret character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Roy is voiced by Jun Fukuyama. He is a clone of Marth, differentiated primarily by his sweetspots being located at the hilt of his sword rather than the tip.

Roy is currently ranked 20th on the tier list, in the F tier. Roy's upsides include an above average approach due to having one of the best SHFFLs in the game, as well as a good grab game, and among the best reaches in the game due to his sword. However, Roy's flaws are significant, including poor flexibility in his comboing game, attacks that are difficult to properly land, generally possessing significantly laggy attacks, possessing few moves that can KO and only one of which (forward smash) that is an adequate finisher, and among the worst recoveries in the game while 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 numerous matchups hard countering him, especially against those who are 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.

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

Attributes

Overall, Roy does not 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. However, Roy has a relatively below average air speed. A combination of a fast falling speed and a low traction gives Roy a decent 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 powerful but laggy down smash and an 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 ground-based approach. Despite his only average wavedash, Roy still has a disjointed hitbox with his Sword of Seals, as well as a rather fast dash. Additionally, a combination of low-lag, fast aerials and a very high falling speed gives Roy a useful SHFFL. Roy's SHFFL is among the best in the game due to its extreme speed, and it is potentially faster and stronger than even 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 and long grab range. As a result of his approach, Roy's reach is one of the best in Melee, with only Marth having a superior reach.

Roy's grab game is also good. Roy has the second highest grab range among characters who do not have extended grabs (such as Link), behind only Marth in this regard. His throws can easily chain into each other, as their low knockback and Roy's high grab range allow him to decently tech chase and chain grab. His up throw is also the second strongest in the game and can chain grab other 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 or forward throw and immediately intercept their recovery with a forward smash or Flare Blade.

Roy's primary flaw is his disjointed hitboxes. Unlike Marth, who can safely attack opponents from a distance, Roy must go into close proximity with the opponent to deliver strong damage and knockback, as the sweetspot on his sword is closer to the hilt than 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 attacks or grabs, such as Fox, Falco or Mewtwo. While Counter can potentially mitigate against physical attacks, it requires particularly good reads from the player to avoid punishment, and the attack is completely ineffective against grabs. Roy's sourspot is also weak compared to Marth's; while Marth still has some KOing potential in his sourspotted attacks, Roy's sourspotted attacks have very poor knockback and damage in comparison. As a result of this very 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, and even these two 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 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, 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 short combos, culminating in a reliance 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 hilt of his blade, causing primarily sourspotted 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 by making him extremely vulnerable to chain-throws and potentially even the space animal slayer. Even with fast falling speed, Roy's vertical survivability from the upper blast line is average due to either his lighter weight than characters such as Captain Falcon or much slower falling speed than characters like Falco, despite him being slightly lighter than Roy.

Like Marth, Roy also has a non-stellar recovery, though his faster falling speed and higher gravity make it far worse than Marth's and one of the worst in the game; adding to this, his high falling speed makes him extremely vulnerable to edgeguarding, as well as being easy to gimp. While Roy's Blazer is slightly more effective than Marth's Dolphin Slash, 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 high ending lag in his Blazer. Additionally, while Roy can still use Double Edge Dance to recover horizontally, it is not as effective as Marth's Dancing Blade due to his higher falling speed.

Differences from Marth

Roy is overall a considerably less effective character than Marth. All of his sweetspots are placed at the hilt of his blade, making it hard for him to space, and his down aerial's spike is a meteor smash hitbox that is difficult to hit with. Many of his attacks are slightly slower and his KO potential is much worse. Additionally, his wavedash and moonwalk are both shorter than Marth's, resulting in him being less mobile.

However, Roy does have some advantages. His up smash hits multiple times and can spike, making it more reliable than Marth's, and Flare Blade is much stronger than Shield Breaker, being a one hit KO when fully charged. Additionally, unlike Dolphin Slash, Blazer has multi-hit properties and can OHKO most lightweight fighters, like Mewtwo and Jigglypuff.

However, these advantages are not enough to alleviate his significant weaknesses, and it results in him having far less successful tournament results and a much smaller playerbase in comparison to Marth.

Aesthetics

• Some of Roy's attacks have the flame effect.
• Roy's idle animation differs from Marth's.
• Roy's taunt is different.

Attributes

• Roy is shorter than Marth. This shortens his hurtbox, making him less easy to hit, but also reduces the range in his attacks.
• Roy's sweetspot is placed at the hilt of his blade, meaning he fights at close range in order to be most efficient. Roy's sweetspot is larger than Marth's, but Marth can space the tipper sweetspot of his sword for maximum safety and damage.
• Contrary to popular belief, Roy's KO potential is overall weaker than and inferior to Marth's, due to generally having weaker attacks.
• Roy jumps one frame later than Marth. Not only does this mean catching opponents by surprise with aerials is slightly harder for Roy, but it also makes his wavedash slightly worse than that of Marth.
• Overall, Roy's sourspot does far less knockback and damage than Marth's, and his sweetspots do somewhere in between the knockback and damage of Marth's sourspot and sweetspot.
• Roy's dash speed is slower and his dash dance window is smaller.
• Roy jumps lower than Marth.
• Roy's falling speed is significantly higher, causing him to have less vertical knockback than Marth, despite Marth remaining heavier than Roy, and makes his SHFFL faster than Marth's.
• Roy's increased falling speed makes him much easier to combo, worsens his recovery, and is usually unable to go off-stage for edgeguards or gimps, hindering his ability to close out stocks at low percentages.
• Almost all of Roy's moves have hitboxes that come out slower, remain out for less frames, or stay out for the same period as Marth's but with slower animation speed (leading to unfortunate hitbox timing on moves like his dash attack, three of his aerials and Blazer). All of these moves contain far more lag at the end than Marth's.
• Roy is lighter than Marth (NTSC 87 → 85). It hinders his survivability slightly but makes him less susceptible to waveshine followups from Fox as he is knocked down by the shine.

Ground attacks

• Roy's jab does not have a second hit and is slower, making it worse for edgeguarding characters with linear recoveries, such as Fox or Falco.
• Roy's forward tilt and up tilt are significantly weaker than Marth's.
• Instead of having horizontal knockback, Roy's down tilt has vertical knockback, which leads to many combo setups, especially on fast fallers. In exchange, this makes Roy's down tilt much less useful for neutral resets against the rest of the cast.
• Dash attack's animation is much slower with no change in hitbox timings leading the terrible hitbox placement
• Roy's forward smash's sweetspot is much larger.
• Roy's forward smash is slightly slower and all its hitboxes are weaker than Marth's, with the sourspot being significant and the sweetspot being slight.
• Roy's up smash has multi-hit properties and lacks sourspots at the sides, making it easier to hit with. It can also spike with the tip on the 2nd,3rd,and 4th hits.
• Roy's up smash is weaker than Marth's tipped up smash.

Aerial attacks

• All of Roy's aerials are weaker than Marth's in both knockback and damage.
• Roy overall suffers more landing lag (15/7 → 20/10(neutral aerial) 15/7 → 20/10(forward aerial) 15/7 → 18/9(up aerial))
• Neutral aerial has more start-up on both hits and less duration on the second hit (6-7(hit 1) 15-21(hit 2) → 7-8(hit 1) 17-20(hit 2))
• Roy's neutral aerial has a sourspot on the second hit.
• Roy's down aerial is very difficult to sweetspot with, and its sweetspot is a meteor smash instead of a spike, meaning it can be meteor cancelled.
• Up aerial has longer hitbox duration (5-8 → 5-10)
• Back aerial has more startup and less duration (7-11 → 8-10) with no difference in animation leading to unfortunate hitbox placement

Grabs and throws

• Roy's grab range is shorter, but is still one of the farthest reaching grabs in the game.
• Roy's down throw knocks opponents at a slightly higher angle.
• All of Roy's throws deal 1% more damage than Marth's.
• Roy's throws do slightly more knockback. The knockback increase of Roy's throws hinders his ability to tech chase and chain grab.
• Down throw sends foes behind Roy, harming his combo ability.

Special moves

• Flare Blade is much stronger than Marth's Shield Breaker and can charge for a longer period.
• Flare Blade deals 10% recoil damage to Roy when fully charged. It also deals less shield damage unless fully charged.
• While charging Flare Blade, Roy glows white and the screen shakes violently.
• First, second, third (inputted up and down), and fourth hits (inputted up) of the Double-Edge Dance inflict more damage than Dancing Blade, and the fourth hit forwards inflicts more knockback.
• Double-Edge Dance's third hit upwards can meteor smash, similar to Dancing Blade's third hit downwards.
• Double-Edge Dance's third hit inputted forward deals less damage than Dancing Blade's version.
• Double-Edge Dance has sourspots, unlike the Dancing Blade.
• Unusually, despite having higher base knockback, Double-Edge Dance's third hit inputted forwards actually has smaller knockback scaling than that of the Dancing Blade. This overall makes it weaker than the Dancing Blade's version at higher percentages, while also making it more difficult to combo together with the fourth hit at lower percentages.
• Double-Edge Dance has normal priority as opposed to transcendent priority, allowing it to cancel projectiles.
• Blazer has multiple hits, can be angled forwards for better horizontal recovery, and has slightly less landing lag than Dolphin Slash. Blazer's first hit also has very strong set knockback which can kill floaty characters like Jigglypuff and Peach at 0% on certain stages.
• Blazer is significantly weaker (it has Set Knockback), is slightly slower than Dolphin Slash, and covers slightly less vertical distance, due to Roy's shorter height.
• Roy's Counter does 1.5x the damage and knockback of the move countered, as opposed to Marth's dealing a flat 7%, making it a powerful KO move when used against strong attacks (such as Falcon Punch, Warlock Punch, or a charged Smash attack).
• Roy's Counter window comes out slightly slower and lasts much shorter than Marth's.
• Roy's Counter pose is slightly different. A successful counter uses the flame effect.

Moveset

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

Roy's aerial attacks

A demonstration of the spike hitbox of Roy's up smash.

All of Roy's attacks are at their strongest when they hit with the center of the Sword of Seals; if an attack hits with both the sourspot and sweetspot hitboxes, then the sweetspot usually takes priority but sometimes sourspots do occur.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			5% (blade), 3% (tip), 6% (body)	Similar to Marth's, he slashes in front of himself. However, Roy only slashes once, and at a slower rate than Marth; additionally, Roy's version is devoid of buffer, meaning the player has to press the attack button one at a time instead of mashing it.
Forward tilt			10% (blade), 7% (tip), 12% (body)	A fast swipe upwards with the Sword of Seals while leaning forward. Deals more damage if the opponent is closer to Roy. Can KO at high percentages or when the blast line is close by.
Up tilt			Clean: 8% (blade & arm), 6% (tip), 10% (body) Late: 8% (blade & arm), 6% (tip), 10% (body)	Swings his sword in a large arc above his head. Despite generally covering Roy's hurtboxes, it is less powerful and has less combo potential than Marth's.
Down tilt			10% (blade), 6% (tip), 12% (body)	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. Its range and speed makes it a very favorable move to use for neutral game and spacing, as well as edgeguarding.
Dash attack			12% (blade), 6% (tip)	A quick upward sweeping diagonal slash. Like Marth's, can either send opponents in front of him, behind him, or above him. Because this move has a slower animation overall than Marth's, but the hitboxes are active for the same frames, the move starts before he even swings the sword and ends before it reaches halfway through his swing in front of him.
Forward smash			20% (blade), 12% (tip)	Rotates body counter-clockwise with a strong arc-like swing from his head to the ground, similar to the animation of his neutral special. It is rather fast, and is Roy's primary KO move.
Up smash			2% (hits 1-4), 10% (hit 5)	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. All hits can approximately deal up to 16.56% damage due to stale move negation.
Down smash			21%/14% (front), 16%/8% (back)	Sweeps his sword on the ground towards the front, then towards the back. A decent finisher, useful for vertical KOs, though there is rather high ending lag. Deals less damage if the opponent hits the tip of Roy's sword.
Neutral aerial			4% (hit 1), 8% (hit 2 base), 5% (hit 2 tip)	Two swipes around him via an inward slash then a full outward spin, with decent knockback and damage if sweetspotted.
Forward aerial			8% (base), 5% (tip)	Swipes sword in front of him with surprising range and tends to be a primary combo tool due to its speed and recovery.
Back aerial			9% (base), 6% (tip)	Turns around and swipes inward with his sword, similar to his forward aerial in terms of usage and knockback. Like Marth's back aerial, this move turns Roy around.
Up aerial			9% (base), 6% (tip)	Swipes above outward while doing a delayed backflip. Meant to be a juggle tool, but is often subpar due to its low early knockback.
Down aerial			9% (base), 6% (tip)	Swipes below via an outward wide slash. Meteor smash opponents who come in contact with Roy's body, but it's rather weak and has nearly unrecoverable ending lag. The move's sweetspot is extremely tiny; which is located at Roy's right arm and left shoulder (meaning that Roy has to overlap the opponent significantly), making it more difficult to hit with than Jigglypuff's Rest.
Grab			—	Roy grabs his opponent with his free hand. Due to Roy being shorter than Marth, his grab range is slightly shorter, making it the 5th longest grab range overall and the second longest non-tether grab.
Pummel			3%	Knees opponent.
Forward throw			5%	Grabs and pushes forward, tripping with the leg.
Back throw			5%	Pulls and extends leg simultaneously.
Up throw			5%	Thrusts opponent upwards. Can chain-grab the Space Animals at lower percentages. It is the second strongest up throw in the game.
Down throw			6%	Tosses the foe to the ground. Has chain grab potential.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Sweeps his sword on the ground, front to back.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	A quick stab to the left followed by a horizontal slash to the right.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8% (sword), 6% (hilt)	Flips onto ledge with a quick downward diagonal slash downwards. Hitbox only exists on Roy's right arm arm and his sword, meaning that foes close to the ledge Roy is hanging on can avoid the attack.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			8% (sword), 6% (hilt)	Slowly gets up and performs a quick horizontal slice upwards. Just like his quick edge attack, opponents can avoid the attack if they are close to the ledge Roy is currently hanging on.
Neutral special		Flare Blade	6-41%, 50% (fully charged)	Roy holds the Sword of Seals over his head before doing a powerful overhead slash in a similar fashion to his forward smash. When the move is fully charged, Roy slams his sword on the ground, creating a large explosion that can one-hit KO any character in the game, but takes 10% recoil damage as a side effect. This attack has transcendent priority.
Side special		Double Edge Dance	Varies	A sequence of sword maneuvers with several variations based on the direction the control stick is held. All variations have transcendent priority.
Up special		Blazer	5%/3% (hit 1), 2%/1% (hits 2-4), 1% (hits 5-7)	Roy soars upwards with his sword, engulfed in flames. This move can be aimed by quickly pushing the control stick in a direction after the initial jump. It deals more hits on heavier characters such as Bowser. Can deal approximately up to 13.19% damage if all hits connect and not tippered. The first hit of this move deals great base knockback and is capable of sending floaty foes off the top on certain stages if this is the only hit that connects. (Capable of KOing Jigglypuff at 0% on Final Destination). This is most easily done with a reverse Blazer.
Down special		Counter	1.5x the damage of the countered move (min 1%)	Twirls his sword into reverse grip and holds it over his his left forearm, while bending down and performs a defensive stance. He will block incoming attacks by immediately raising his sword up in reverse grip and slash in a downwards arc. Damage and knockback dealt depends on the move that is countered.

Double Edge Dance

Hit	Damage	Description
First Hit (Neutral)	5% (base), 4% (tip)	Does a vertical slash, has little knockback: incapable of KOing.
Second Hit (Up)	6% (base), 4% (tip)	Does an upwards slash.
Second Hit (Neutral)	6% (base), 4% (tip)	Does a stab, has a little more knockback then the first slash, but still not much.
Third Hit (Up)	Clean: 10% (base), 8% (tip) Late: 7% (base), 5% (tip)	Does a downwards vertical slash. Can meteor smash at the beginning of the move.
Third Hit (Neutral)	10% (base), 8% (tip)	Does a fairly powerful horizontal slash.
Third Hit (Down)	3% (hits 1-3), 5% (hit 4)	Stabs his sword at the ground, dealing multiple flame damage.
Fourth Hit (Up)	13% (base), 10% (tip)	Does a jumping slash. Deals flame damage.
Fourth Hit (Neutral)	13% (base), 10% (tip)	Does a powerful vertical slash. Deals flame damage.
Fourth Hit (Down)	3% (hit 1-4), 5% (hit 5)	Does a flurry of lower stabs, each stab dealing flame damage.

Taunt

• Leans back and holds his sword behind him in an attack position, shouting "Hee-ya!"

Idle pose

• Gets in a ready pose.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Roy's-Our-Boy!	Roy! Roy! Roy!
Pitch	Group chant	Male

Victory poses

A rendition of a portion of the main theme of the Fire Emblem series.

• Swipes his sword once over his shoulder, then swipes it down and behind him while facing left, saying "守るべきもののために、負けられない!", which translates to: "For those whom I must protect, I will not lose!".
• Flourishes his sword and poses with it by his side, saying "真の戦いは、これからだ。", which translates to: "The true battle, is soon to begin."
• Spins the Sword of Seals one and a half times and then thrusts it into the ground in front of him, looking to slightly to the left, and says one of the following lines: "苦しい戦いだった。", which translates to: "It was a painful fight." or "僕 は 負けない。", which translates to: "I won't lose."

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Roy has a below-average matchup spread. According to the matchup chart, he has the 21st weighted total (tied with Yoshi). He counters only Pichu, soft counters two characters, and has two even matchups. On the disadvantageous side, he is soft countered by four characters (including a losing matchup to Kirby, despite Kirby being at the very bottom), countered by twelve characters, and is hard countered by four. His poor comboing ability, awful recovery, and vulnerability to combos have resulted in him struggling against most of the cast, with his matchups against those who can exploit his latter two problems (like Sheik and Jigglypuff) being especially terrible. The need to get up close in order to hit with his blade's sweetspot has also been cited as a major problem, as he cannot strike from afar without losing a heavy load of power in his attacks; such a detrimental property gives him trouble against characters with more favorable hitbox placement (like Marth and Falco). Although modern players have shown that his punish game against Fox and Falco is very similar to Marth's, implying that Roy's matchup against them is not as bad as the spread indicates, such punishes are very stage-dependent, and can only come about after Roy wins the neutral game, something that is more difficult to consistently perform as Roy than Marth at top-level play due to his inferior approaches and move safety.

Notable players

See also: Category:Roy professionals (SSBM)

Active

•  LSDX
•  NJzFinest
• Pvt O'Malley
•  Pyro
•  Sethlon

Inactive

•  Masashi
•  NEO
•  Ripple

Tier placement and history

On the current tier list, Roy ranks 20th, in the F tier. Roy as a competitive character has been ranked very low on most revisions of the tier list, with his highest rank being fifteenth on two separate occasions. Despite boasting some decent attacks and a good SHFFL, Roy has ranked low primarily because of his risky, unsafe approach, stemming from the poor sweetspot placement of his sword; Roy's physics also harmed his tier placing, as his high falling speed makes him easy to combo, creating poor synergy with his risky approach that favours close-ranged fighting, and it also causes his recovery to become considerably worse than most other characters. Roy's metagame also did not boast the potential creativity of other characters, especially Marth, owing to his over-reliance on his smash attacks; a lack of Roy mains have also prevented his metagame from potentially evolving, and most of Roy's previous mains have either become inactive in the tournament scene or have elected to use other, higher-tiered characters. Roy himself does not place well in tournaments, even in low tier tournaments, and arguably Roy's only notable representation ever has been NEO, because of his top 8 placings. His only arguable results in the current Melee metagame have been via Mew2King and PewPewU, who occasionally use him in games against lower-leveled players or in smaller-scale tournaments as a weaker substitute for their usual Marth.

The "Tier Wars" and comparison to Marth

Marth's and Roy's differences became the center of controversies on GameFAQs' tier list debates, specifically in 2003 and 2004, when the competitive scene was picking up. Marth players who generally supported the tier list 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 a multitude of professional Marth users such as Ken placing extremely high in major tournaments, while Roy lacked any such representation to back up the anti-tiers' arguments. Roy players who generally opposed the tier list, 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.

Owing to the fact that these debates took place before extensive testing of Melee's engine, the debates were plagued by numerous inaccuracies that have since been disproven. The point about Marth's extra weight, for instance, is now considered moot; his extra weight is decidedly negligible, and can even be interpreted as a disadvantage, considering his extra weight makes him susceptible to Fox's shine combos, while Roy's lighter weight makes him immune to such combos. More importantly, pro-tiers made a common assumption 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 disproven, as many of Marth's attacks, tipped and non-tipped, deal more knockback and damage than Roy's respective centered and non-centered strikes. The sweetspot in the hilt of the blade is now considered a disadvantage and one of the main reasons for Roy's poor tier placing; while Marth can attack from afar and still deal respectable damage, Roy cannot do so, lest his attacks hit with extremely low knockback; Roy's sourspot on the entire length of his blade, besides the hilt, is also much weaker than Marth's sourspot 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. Marth has far more creative and flexible ways to string together moves, deal damage, KO, and edgeguard (especially due to his down aerial spike). Roy, however, lacks the same flexibility in his comboing and KOing games, and is instead heavily reliant on predictable and repetitive chaingrab and down tilt setups, with almost all of his viable combos ending in a forward smash. Roy's edgeguarding game is also considerably worse than Marth's; while Roy's down tilt is more useful for combos, it is not at all useful for intercepting the majority of recoveries (unlike Marth's). Additionally, Roy has a notoriously poor off-stage game due to his falling speed and ineffective aerials, which hinders his ability to perform gimps without SDing. The current metagame for Melee reflects these differences: Marth ranks in the S tier at 3rd place and features numerous dedicated mains, while Roy ranks in the F tier at 20th, and has very few dedicated mains.

Perhaps in spite of his inferiority to Marth, Roy still has a notably large fanbase in the Melee community, partially stemming from his notable roles in some machinima. In an unofficial poll held by NinBuzz, Roy was actually voted the fifth favourite Melee character amongst viewers, gaining 9% of the vote.

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, making him the only fighter who never appears at all; the reason for this is unknown. Despite this, Roy does have an introduction image for the "Now Loading..." screen between matches programmed into the disc.

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 unusual 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 on Temple, 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 Temple 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 Japanese when in the results screen, or using Counter, like fellow Fire Emblem character Marth.

Roy's four victory lines are:

• "苦しい戦いだった。", which translates to "It was a difficult fight."
• "僕 は 負けない。", which translates to "I won't lose!"
• "真の戦いは、これからだ。", 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!", which translates to "For those whom I must protect, I will not lose!".

When using Counter, he either says:

• "今だ!", which translates to "Now!"
• "そこ!", which translates to "There!"

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

Alternate costumes

Roy's alternate costumes in Melee

Trivia

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

• 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 planned.
  • In Melee's All-Star Mode, Roy is fought on Final Destination. In his two Event Match appearances and his unlock battle, he appears on Temple.
• Roy with his Flare Blade, Mr. Game & Watch with his Judgment, 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.
• Along with Marth, Roy was originally going to be a character exclusive to the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Melee, but was kept in all versions on request of an employee at Nintendo of America. Because of their inclusion, American fans became interested in Fire Emblem, which sold in countries where the games in the series had not been released.
• 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 to debut through the Super Smash Bros. series.
• Close examination of textures for the Sword of Seals shows that the text "©HAL LABRATORY.INC" was included in the file. It is not known why the signature is there.
• All of Roy's sourspotted attacks make a punch/kick sound effect instead of a slashing sound effect.