Roy


 * For the Metal Gear character, see Roy Campbell. For Roy's fighter info, see Roy (SSBM). For the removed data from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, see Roy (SSBB).

Roy (, Roi) is the main playable hero in the sixth installment of the Fire Emblem series of tactical role-playing games. Roy was included in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a playable character for the purpose of "previewing" the sixth game, which was released in Japan after Melee, making him the only character thus far in the Smash series to be included for that purpose. His appearance in Melee along with another Fire Emblem series character, Marth, increased global interest in the general franchise, prompting the series to be released internationally from installment seven onwards.

Character description
While HAL Laboratory obliged to include Marth as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee by popular Japanese demand, the sixth installment of Intelligent Systems' long-running Fire Emblem fantasy tactical-RPG series, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (Fuuin no Tsurugi), was nearing the end of its development. Nintendo decided to include that game's main character, Roy, as a playable character in addition to Marth to serve as a preview of the game for Japanese audiences, making Roy the only character in the Smash series to be featured for that purpose. It was a successful ploy to Japanese audiences for both Melee and The Binding Blade, but since this involved a game franchise never distributed outside of Japan beforehand, Nintendo was wary of keeping the unfamiliar fantasy swordsmen in Melee in its North American and European releases, but decided to keep them in based on the approval of western gamers. Roy and Marth, as new and original anime-inspired characters with rather effective fighting abilities, became popular enough in Melee that the Fire Emblem franchise gained international attention from the gaming community.

Intelligent Systems followed up with the franchise's seventh installment, subtitled Rekka no Ken ("Blazing Sword") but whose North American version is simply titled "Fire Emblem", designed with the international scene in mind rather than Japanese exclusivity. To this end they made it a prequel to The Binding Blade, set in the same Fire Emblem universe and chronology twenty years before Roy's quest and starring Roy's father Eliwood, whose somewhat older resemblance to Roy was meant to appeal to players of Melee. The game's story is laid out with ten introductory chapters starring one of Eliwood's allies Lyn, meant to introduce players to the Fire Emblem style of tactical play, and the other 20+ chapters are the main game itself. Blazing Sword ' s story is also structured so that knowledge of The Binding Blade is not required, and if the sixth game were played after the seventh, it would feel like a direct continuation.

Roy, in the best tradition of Fire Emblem protagonists, is an upstanding and thoughtful fifteen year-old young man in The Binding Blade with a natural proclivity to help and support others, and while he would prefer to avoid blood-shed, he maintains a strong resolve to see peace return to the continent of Elibe, the medieval high-fantasy setting of both games. Unlike most young protagonists, however, he is perceptive and cunning for his age, such as tricking a traitorous vassal in his group into exposing himself, and he often reacts calmly and tactically to disturbing news. Roy is also quite oblivious to the obvious feelings that some of the women in his army develop for him. Also steeped in series tradition is that his in-game unit is the only one belonging to the Lord character class, giving him initially shaky base stats but allowing him to become a high-performance unit by the game's end. He has no particular flaws apart from his late promotion, but his defenses are somewhat low.

Roy is studying in the province of Ostia, away from his home province of Pherae, both of which are in the nation of Lycia, when the militant nation of Bern begins to conquer various other nations on the continent; while his father Eliwood turns ill, Roy is called in to lead Pherae's army alongside the other armies of the League of Lycia against Bern and its ruler, Zephiel, who displays a mysterious thirst for world domination. Zephiel's errant younger sister, princess Guinevere, escapes Bern and comes to Roy in defiance of her brother's motives, hoping to negotiating a treaty with Lycian nobility. Roy quickly agrees to her proposal to search for a peaceful means to end Bern’s aggression, and it is in part this encounter that will eventually lead him on a journey across Elibe to save the continent from what could end up being a war with powerful dragons from a different dimension. He is ultimately successful in his endeavors when he defeats Zephiel. However, if all the legendary weapons of Elibe were gathered by meeting certain conditions ingame, the weapons would start glowing and pointing toward the location of the Dark dragon, Idenn. A few extra chapters take place which results in the defeat of Idenn. Afterward, depending on certain ingame factors, different characters experience slightly different endings, but generally peace returns to Elibe and everyone lives happily ever after, with various rebuilding of respective countries. Roy is notable for having the most potential wife endings, depending on who he supports.

Roy has not appeared in any game or media since Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and Super Smash Bros. Melee (aside from a brief cameo at the end of Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken/Fire Emblem as a child), but he remains a contender in Super Smash Bros. Melee competitive play. It is interesting to note that since Fire Emblem games weren't released abroad when Melee was released, Roy and Marth were not given English voice samples, retaining their Japanese-language taunts and voices in English versions. Some mistakenly believe that Roy and Marth have a storyline connection because of their appearances together in Melee, but there is nothing to suggest that any of the continents depicted in the Fire Emblem games Archanea and Valencia (Shadow Dragon/Monsho no Nazo, Gaiden and Shadow Dragon), Jugdral (Seisen no Keifu, Thracia 776), Elibe (The Binding Blade, Fire Emblem), Magvel (The Sacred Stones), or Tellius (Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn) - exist in the same world, or in the same universe and chronology (other than Archenea and Jugdral which, according to designer notes, exist thousands of years apart).

Roy and Marth were a primary subject of the "tier wars" at GameFAQs that lasted between 2003 and 2004, determining which among these two very similar fighters were the better character, and in the end Marth won out over Roy by a very large margin as demonstrated by the current tier list. Today Roy is considered an inferior clone of Marth in Melee, but he has a loyal fanbase nonetheless.

As a Playable Fighter

 * Main article: Roy (SSBM)

Roy makes his Smash-series debut (and by extent, his altogether north-american debut) as an unlockable character in Melee. He can be battled to be unlocked one of two ways: beating either Classic or Adventure as Marth on any difficulty, or playing 900 Vs. mode matches; clearly the first method is incomparably easier than the second.

Roy fights with his sword, the Sword of Seals, and his B-moves all involve the sword's fiery powers. His B-move, the Flare Blade, is a chargeable sword strike like Marth's Shield Breaker, but it can be charged for up to five full seconds, after which it will unleash an explosive attack so powerful that many opponents would be instantly KO'd, and Roy receives 10% damage as a side effect. His Smash B, the Double-Edge Dance (DED), is a series of up to four sword slashes determined by the number of times B is pressed and which direction the control stick is pressed during each swipe, like Marth's Dancing Blade. Roy's Up & B, Blazer, is a slower, more damaging, fire-based version of Marth's Dolphin Slash, and his down-B, Counter, operates similarly to Marth's Counter, being a bit harder to time while having potentially higher or lower damage and knockback; the retaliatory sword swipe's power and knockback is based on those of the opponent's attack, multiplied by 1.5, making it very quick at KOing a character like Ganondorf using his Warlock Punch.

Roy is a clone of Marth in that they feature pretty much the same movement and attack style, but their specifications are different. Roy seems at first to be a slower and stronger version of Marth, but he is actually almost the opposite; he has a relatively fast dash, a fast and long dash dance, and a fast fall that gives speed to his Small Jump aerials almost as well as Marth, and his DED is very useful in battle, but his moves actually do rather low damage, and it is hard to land his primary killing move, his forward smash. It was determined professionally that Marth can KO better with his swordplay, which has a sweet spot on the tip of the sword, while Roy's sweet spot is more in the middle. Roy's forward Smash and chargeable B are decent at edge-guarding, and Roy has a great grab range like Marth and has a potentially effective move in his Counter, but it is his lack of a projectile, short recovery, and easiness to be juggled and combo'd, added with his low general damage, that ultimately make Marth the better fighter. Roy is mainly popular to use in the single-player modes of Melee.

In Single-player
Roy does not appear specifically in the game's single-player Adventure mode. He is only featured in two of the Event Matches:
 * Event 46: Fire Emblem Pride: Your character 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 of six opponents the player must fight in this series of staged battles. The player's character battles him on the Temple stage. The player has 2 stock 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 life: Dr. Mario, Falco, Pichu, and Young Link beforehand, and Ganondorf afterwards.

Trophies
By tradition, Roy as a playable character is featured on his personal three trophies. His normal trophy is acquired by beating the Classic mode with Roy on any difficulty, and his Smash Red and Smash Blue trophies are acquired the same way by beating the Adventure and All-Star modes, respectively. His classic mode trophy reads as follows:


 * The son of the lord of Pharae Principality, Roy was studying in Ostia when the Kingdom of Bern invaded League of Lycia. His father fell ill at this time, so Roy assumed lordship of Pharae's armies. After his fateful meeting with the Princess Guinevere, his destiny became inextricably linked with the fate of the entire continent.


 * Fire Emblem (Japan Only)

Japanese Translations
Roy's three victory lines are:


 * " (Kurushī tatakai datta. )", which translates to "It was a difficult fight."
 * " (Shin no tatakai wa, korekara da. )", which translates to "The true fight is yet to come."
 * " (Mamoru beki mono no tame ni, makerarenai!)", which translates to "For those whom I must protect, I will not lose!".

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

 * Main article: Roy (SSBB)

Roy's official artwork, pictured above, appears as a sticker. Roy is also referenced in the title of Winning Road - Roy's Hope, an included song from his game that can play during the Castle Siege stage. He seems to be partially programmed, however, as hackers have found data for him inside Brawl's disk.

Trivia

 * Roy is the only character whose Smash Bros. appearance predates his first appearance in a non-Smash Bros. game. (SSBM was released in 2001, his game released in 2002.)
 * As expected, due to a overall lack of significance in the Fire Emblem series as a whole and no upcoming titles to promote, Roy (along with Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, Pichu, and, (to a lesser extent), Young Link, does not return as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Many people consider his spiritual successor to be Ike (also, being his replacement), the main character from the two most recent Fire Emblem titles, and who also uses fire elemental sword attacks.
 * Hacking has revealed leftover data in Brawl for "ROY". Some take this as signs of a planned character, but it is also likely (if not more so) that it was for referential purposes by the programmers, or the result of imported data from Super Smash Bros. Melee.
 * Roy made a cameo appearance as a child at the end of Fire Emblem (the prequel to Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade). Because Fire Emblem (subtitled Rekka no Ken in Japan) was the first in the series to be released outside Japan, the relevance of the boy's appearance is largely missed by most Westerners.