Roy (Super Smash Bros. Melee)


 * This article is about Roy's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For other uses, see Roy.  Also, for information about the character of whom Roy is a clone, see Marth (SSBM).

Roy (ロイ, Rōi) 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. He is a secret character, unlocked either by completing Classic Mode or Adventure Mode with Marth, or by playing 900 VS. mode matches. Roy's game, FE6, was not released at the time of SSBM, and was simply in Melee as a promotion.

In the Fire Emblem series
Roy is from the sixth Fire Emblem game in its series titled Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (Fuuin no Tsurugi), and was the last game in the series to be exclusive in Japan. He is the son of Eliwood, one of the three stars in Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem's first game to be released internationally. (subtitled "Rekka no Ken" in Japan which translates to "Blazing Sword"). Roy also makes a cameo in Rekka no Ken in the end cutscene-as a little boy.

In the Fire Emblem series, Roy is considered one of the weaker Lords (the character class for the main characters) due to his late promotion. In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, Roy is a mid tier character, having no particular flaws apart from his late promotion.

Special Moves

 * Neutral B: Flare Blade
 * Smash B: Double-Edge Dance
 * Up B: Blazer
 * Down B: Counter

Roy Professionals

 * Neo(Retired)
 * Reed
 * Shaz
 * Sethlon
 * Joe Moss
 * Pitzer

Pros

 * A fast fall gives speed to his short hop aerials (although still cannot put aerials out as fast as Marth)
 * Fantastic DED
 * Has a fast and long dash-dance
 * Good combo starter (down tilt)
 * Great grab range
 * Has the game's most powerful counter (it multiplies damage and knockback by 1.5).
 * Decent edge-guarding with charged B and forward smash
 * Strong Smash Attack with up to 24% damage
 * Flare Blade has potential to One-Hit KO
 * Somewhat difficult to knock away.
 * A tipped Up Smash is actually a spike.
 * Can chain throw certain characters.
 * Some moves have more knockback when tipped (Flare Blade)
 * Reverse Blazer can KO certain characters on certain stages at 0%
 * Great range
 * An overall strong and fast character

Cons

 * No projectile.
 * Over-reliance on a single killer (forward smash).
 * Recovery can be difficult to time
 * Counter is harder to time than Marth's, and leaves Roy vulnerable if it misses.
 * Easily juggled due to his fast falling speed.
 * Horrible stun times.
 * The best of his damage infliction requires a sweetspot.
 * All spikes are hard to use effectively

Gameplay
Roy is a fast character whose combos are based off his aerials' lack of knockback. Although he appears to beginners as a slow, strong character, Roy is today considered an antithesis of this image, able to run and SHFFL quickly but unable to kill due to the difficulty of landing any kill moves. While his forward smash is considered his main kill move, his down smash has more damage and knockback than the forward smash, when tipped. In addition, when the range is insufficient for a good forward smash, the down smash may be a good replacement because of it's great power, especially when tipped.

Roy's sword, the Sword of Seals, has a sweet spot at the center of it. Hitting with any other part, for most moves, will result in less damage and knockback. One needs to mind this sweet spot to land combos correctly.

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, that Marth is faster than Roy, is up to question 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.

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

Home Run Contest
Roy is considered to have an easier Homerun Contest strategy for beginners.

Beginners Tactic: Don't grab the bat, dash to the Sandbag and Up Smash. While Sandbag's flying charge up Up Smash again and release once he's on top of Roy. Repeat until there are 5 seconds left on the clock then move backwards a little (to be in front of the Sandbag when he comes down) and start charging B. If done correctly, He will finish the Flare Blade, and send the Sandbag really far.

Novice tactic

Grab bat

U-smash until time runs out.

Home-run Sandbag.

Break the Targets
Use A+up to destroy target 1. Then run off the ledge to the right, use Roy's Blazer (B+up) to destroy the target 2. The momentum should bring you up on the box, jump onto the next box, and use sword slashes to rid yourself of targets 3 and 4.

From the second box, use double jump and Blazer to reach the high platform. Go down onto the slightly lower one, and swing at target 5 when it comes up to greet you. Jump onto the left platform, and the jump again and swing at target 6 to destroy it.

Now comes the tricky part. Run off the ledge using B+left moves to hit targets 7 and 8, or sword slashes as necessary. Jump to gain extra height, and try to land on the ledge at the far left. If you get in trouble, try to hit the flippers, they'll send you somewhere fast, hopefully to one of the platforms. If you don't destroy both targets at the first attempt, try to land on the start platform, and go round again. Should you manage to get to the far left platform, use a sword-slash on destroy target 9, and then A+down to destroy target 10.

Glitch
Using Roy's Counter on a smash attack will send an enemy into the air where they will be redirected (bounce)down creating a 90° angle from their start position. This works better when the enemy has higher damage.

DED
Roy's Over 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 percents (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 needed-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.

General 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.

Fox/Falco
Roy can chain grab space animals with up-throw. If the opponent DIs, generally this can be ended with a forward smash. Also Roy's DED is especially effective against these fast fallers. Roy's D-tilt leads to many possibilities against fast fallers, such as D-tilt to F-smash or D-tilt to DED. Roy can easily edgeguard Fox's and Falco's side-B recovers with D-tilt to F-smash, and he can use his counter to edgeguard non-sweetspotted up-Bs.

Final Destination
This stage is generally considered Roy's counterpick, especially against fast fallers.

Hyrule Temple
The Temple is the stage that Roy is first unlocked. The Fire Emblem theme song also plays on the Temple.